DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 9 March) – As I expressed my personal expectation in my earlier post, “WHAT COMES AFTER?” (https://ift.tt/v5nraEJ), between the highest Islamic scholarship (marjaʿiyyah) and political credentials, the latter qualification would be given more weight in the selection of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. That is, not necessarily a topmost scholar (Āyatullāh al-ʿUẓmā) with the likes of Nāṣir Makārim Shīrāzī or Jawādi Āmūlī, but rather a cleric (mujtahid).
Sayyid Mujtabā Ḥusaynī Khāmene’ī (born September 8, 1969).
The new Supreme Leader as selected by the Assembly of Experts per Article 111 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution.
He joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1987 and served during the Iran–Iraq War. A teacher at the Qum seminary, he also served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Supreme Leader for Political and Security Affairs. He is reportedly considered to have de facto command over the Basij, the volunteer branch of the IRGC.
And yes, you read it right: he is the second son of Sayyid ʿAlī Khāmene’ī. In less than a week, he lost his parents, wife, son, sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew.
Implications?
Let me mention just three.
First, the Epsteinian US-I$rael decapitation strategy failed. Still intoxicated by the “success” in dealing with Venezuela, the Zionist Islanders imagined that after the martyrdom of Sayyid ʿAlī Khāmene’ī on February 28, the Islamic Republic’s political-military structure would fall apart and the people would take to the streets to pave the way for the return of the Pahlavi monarchy. This, they imagined, would happen within four days.
The shock and awe mission just turned an octogenarian Supreme Leader into someone three decades younger.
Second, being considered to hold far-right views within the principlist camp of the Iranian political spectrum, I would not be surprised if he soon reviews the late Supreme Leader’s religious edict fatwā) against obtaining nuclear weapons “under the current state of existential threat.”
The spirit of revenge is now both national and personal.
Third, after the ongoing war, the new Supreme Leader will face challenges regarding both his religious and political credentials—much in the same way that his late father faced challenges concerning his religious credentials (for not yet being a marjaʿ al-taqlīd) when he assumed leadership in 1989.
The mantle is inherited, but credibility is forged over time.
And the trajectory in the near future will be greatly determined by how the ongoing war is handled and brought to its logical conclusion.
#InternationalRelations #WestAsia #Iran #NewSupremeLeader
[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mansoor L. Limba, PhD in International Relations and Shari‘ah Counselor-at-Law (SCL), is a publisher-writer, university professor, vlogger, chess trainer, and translator (from Persian into English and Filipino) with tens of written and translation works to his credit on such subjects as international politics, history, political philosophy, intra-faith and interfaith relations, cultural heritage, Islamic finance, jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), Qur’anic sciences and exegesis (tafsir), hadith, ethics, and mysticism. He can be reached at mlimba@diplomats.com and http://www.youtube.com/@WayfaringWithMansoor, and his books can be purchased at www.elzistyle.com and https://ift.tt/huwdzUP.]
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