Patriotic Ayatollahs

Patriotic Ayatollahs PDF Author: Caroleen Marji Sayej
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501714767
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Patriotic Ayatollahs explores the contributions of senior clerics in state and nation-building after the 2003 Iraq war. Caroleen Sayej suggests that the four so-called Grand Ayatollahs, the highest-ranking clerics of Iraqi Shiism, took on a new and unexpected political role after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Drawing on previously unexamined Arabic-language fatwas, speeches, and communiqués of Iraq’s four grand ayatollahs, this book analyzes how their new pronouncements and narratives shaped public debates after 2003. Sayej argues that, contrary to standard narratives about religious actors, the Grand Ayatollahs were among the most progressive voices in the new Iraqi nation. She traces the transformative position of Ayatollah Sistani as the "guardian of democracy" after 2003. Sistani was, in particular, instrumental in derailing American plans that would have excluded Iraqis from the state-building process—a remarkable story in which an octogenarian cleric takes on the United States over the meaning of democracy. Patriotic Ayatollahs’ counter-conventional argument about the ayatollahs’ vision of a nonsectarian nation is neatly realized. Through her deep knowledge and long-term engagement with Iraqi politics, Sayej advances our understanding of how the post-Saddam Iraqi nation was built.

Patriotic Ayatollahs

Patriotic Ayatollahs PDF Author: Caroleen Marji Sayej
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501714767
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
Patriotic Ayatollahs explores the contributions of senior clerics in state and nation-building after the 2003 Iraq war. Caroleen Sayej suggests that the four so-called Grand Ayatollahs, the highest-ranking clerics of Iraqi Shiism, took on a new and unexpected political role after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Drawing on previously unexamined Arabic-language fatwas, speeches, and communiqués of Iraq’s four grand ayatollahs, this book analyzes how their new pronouncements and narratives shaped public debates after 2003. Sayej argues that, contrary to standard narratives about religious actors, the Grand Ayatollahs were among the most progressive voices in the new Iraqi nation. She traces the transformative position of Ayatollah Sistani as the "guardian of democracy" after 2003. Sistani was, in particular, instrumental in derailing American plans that would have excluded Iraqis from the state-building process—a remarkable story in which an octogenarian cleric takes on the United States over the meaning of democracy. Patriotic Ayatollahs’ counter-conventional argument about the ayatollahs’ vision of a nonsectarian nation is neatly realized. Through her deep knowledge and long-term engagement with Iraqi politics, Sayej advances our understanding of how the post-Saddam Iraqi nation was built.

Guardians of the Revolution

Guardians of the Revolution PDF Author: Ray Takeyh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199754101
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
For over a quarter century, Iran has been one of America's chief nemeses. Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah in 1979, the relationship between the two nations has been antagonistic: revolutionary guards chanting against the Great Satan, Bush fulminating against the Axis of Evil, Iranian support for Hezbollah, and President Ahmadinejad blaming the U.S. for the world's ills. The unending war of words suggests an intractable divide between Iran and the West, one that may very well lead to a shooting war in the near future. But as Ray Takeyh shows in this accessible and authoritative history of Iran's relations with the world since the revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans is a nation that is far more pragmatic--and complex--than many in the West have been led to believe. Takeyh explodes many of our simplistic myths of Iran as an intransigently Islamist foe of the West. Tracing the course of Iranian policy since the 1979 revolution, Takeyh identifies four distinct periods: the revolutionary era of the 1980s, the tempered gradualism following the death of Khomeini and the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1989, the "reformist" period from 1997-2005 under President Khatami, and the shift toward confrontation and radicalism since the election of President Ahmadinejad in 2005. Takeyh shows that three powerful forces--Islamism, pragmatism, and great power pretensions--have competed in each of these periods, and that Iran's often paradoxical policies are in reality a series of compromises between the hardliners and the moderates, often with wild oscillations between pragmatism and ideological dogmatism. The U.S.'s task, Takeyh argues, is to find strategies that address Iran's objectionable behavior without demonizing this key player in an increasingly vital and volatile region. With its clear-sighted grasp of both nuance and historical sweep, Guardians of the Revolution will stand as the standard work on this controversial--and central--actor in world politics for years to come.

The Final Word!

The Final Word! PDF Author: James Lee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description


The Ayatollahs' Democracy

The Ayatollahs' Democracy PDF Author: Hooman Majd
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393340635
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Hooman Majd offers a dramatic perspective on a country with global ambitions, an elaborate political culture, and enormous implications for world peace. Drawing on privileged access to the Iranian power elite, Majd argues that despite the violence of the disputed 2009 elections, a group of influential ayatollahs--including a liberal, almost-secular opposition--still believes in the Iranian republic; for them, "green" represents not a revolution but a civil rights movement, pushing the country inexorably toward democracy, albeit a particular brand of "Islamic democracy." With witty, candid, and intelligent reporting, Majd, himself the grandson of an esteemed ayatollah, introduces top-level politicians and clerics as well as ordinary people (even Jewish community leaders), all expressing pride for their ancient heritage and fierce independence from the West.--From publisher description

Flight of the Patriot

Flight of the Patriot PDF Author: Yadollah Sharifirad
Publisher: Dundurn.com
ISBN: 0887628184
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This is a gripping, page-turning memoir of a US-trained Iranian fighter pilot who flew in the Shah of Iran’s and the Ayatollah Khomeini’s air force. Sharifirad was shot down in the Iraqi-Iranian war in the early 1990s. Saved by a group of local Kurds, he returned to Iran where he became a national hero. A movie, called Eagles, based on his rescue, was made in Iran in 1984. Sharifirad’s story was also published in Iran in a book called Crash on the Fortieth Mission. Shortly after his return to Iran, the Ayatollah sent him to Pakistan as military attaché. When he returned toTeheran, he was accused of being a CIA spy and was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. Sharifirad served a prison term and upon his release, despite constant surveillance, managed to smuggle his family out of the country. Eventually, he too managed a harrowing escape from Iran via Turkey to Canada, where he now lives with his family in Vancouver. The book also provides an absorbing historical and cultural backdrop to Iran.

Reign Of Ayatollahs

Reign Of Ayatollahs PDF Author: Shaul Bakhash
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 9780465068883
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description


Tell the American People

Tell the American People PDF Author: David H. Albert
Publisher: Mizan Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description


The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay

The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay PDF Author: Hooman Majd
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 030794669X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
In February 2011, Hooman Majd disembarked at the Tehran airport, a place he had passed through many times to visit family or accompany a news crew. But this time he had his wife, Karri; his infant son, Khash; and an oversize stroller in tow—and plans to stay for a year. Few American journalists gain entry to Iran; for Majd, the son of a diplomat under the shah and the grandson of an ayatollah, it would be the first time he had lived in his homeland since childhood. In The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay, he recounts both his family’s domestic adventures and a tumultuous year in Iranian politics. The result is an unforgettable portrait of an elusive country whose government, in the more than thirty years since its Islamic revolution, has been the United States’ most intractable nemesis.

Iran Under the Ayatollahs

Iran Under the Ayatollahs PDF Author: Dilip Hiro
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780710211231
Category : Iran
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description


The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran

The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran PDF Author: Alex Vatanka
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1838601554
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Preliminary Chapter Outline: Background and the earliest intra-regime debate about the Islamic Republic's international identity: to remain a nation state with a narrow and well-defined national priorities or to become a global revolutionary cause è -- 1980-1988: The debate on how to break Iran's international isolation during the Iran-Iraq War (what was out of necessity and what was due to genuine policy differences) è -- 1989-1997: President Rafsanjani's first attempt to return to the global mainstream (how much of a consensus was behind this policy shift?) è -- 1997-2005: President Khatami and a second attempt to reintegrate into the global mainstream (The intensification of the link between factional legitimacy, power play and foreign policy) è -- 2005-2013: Ahmadinejad's populist and erratic foreign policy approach: from revolutionary zeal to challenging Ayatollah Khamenei's conventional wisdom è -- 2013-present: Ayatollah Khamenei's balancing act to maintain an equilibrium between President Rouhani's "moderates" and the "hardliners" of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. -- Each of these chapters will be further divided into sub-chapters based on specific turn of events. For example, what was the Iranian debate during the Iran-Contra affair or the debate on how to respond to the Taliban's killing of Iranian diplomats in 1998? These are some examples of pivotal moments in Iranian foreign policy where American analysts, policy-makers and general audience will benefit from being exposed to Iranian accounts.