Religious Statecraft

Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar

Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar

Religious Statecraft

The Politics of Islam in Iran

In: Columbia Studies in Middle East Politics

Columbia University Press | 2018

https://doi.org/10.7312/taba18366

Overview
Contents

About this book

Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar traces half a century of shifting Islamist doctrines, demonstrating that religious narratives in Iran can change rapidly, frequently, and dramatically in accordance with elites’ threat perceptions. Religious Statecraft constructs a new picture of Iranian politics in which power drives Islamist ideology.

Author information

Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar is an assistant professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and a fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Reviews

Nathan J. Brown, George Washington University:
The politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been characterized by ideological inconsistency from its beginning. But Tabaar goes beyond describing the way in which leaders change core ideas. He advances a provocative argument that ideology does not guide decision making directly. Instead, leaders mold their principles to meet the political needs of the moment, restrained not by the contents of those ideas but largely by the need to mobilize followers.

Ali Banuazizi, Boston College:
Continually changing narratives—based on individual, factional, or regime interests rather than on any consistent or immutable commitment to Islamic teachings and principles—define the ebbs and flows of Iran’s postrevolutionary politics. As Tabaar puts it, ‘there is no such thing as political Islam. There is, however, a politics of Islam.’ Through meticulous and extensive use of official, semiofficial, independent, and oppositional media, both in Iran and abroad, Religious Statecraft illustrates and persuasively proves this argument.

Jack Snyder, Columbia University:
Tabaar depicts Ayatollah Khomeini's nimble ability to tailor religious and nationalist ideology to outmaneuver the Shah, the Iranian Left, and factional opponents. Though unabashed in arguing that political expediency has determined the regime's selections from its toolkit of revolutionary religious doctrine, Religious Statecraft subtly portrays how factions struggle not so much to "tell people what to think" as "what to think about."

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	vii
Preface Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	ix
Introduction: The Politics of Islam Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
1. The Factional Causes and Religious Consequences of Politics Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	17
2. A Shi’a Theory of the State Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	32
3. The “Islamic” Revolution Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	60
4. Institutionalizing Velayat-e Faqih Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	89
5. The Hostage Crisis: The Untold Account of the Communist Threat Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	111
6. Religion and Elite Competition in the Iran–Iraq War Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	147
7. The Metamorphosis of Islamism After the War Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	186
8. The Factional Battle Over Khomeini’s Velayat-e Faqih Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	205
9. Media, Religion, and the Green Movement Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	227
10. Historical Revisionism and Regional Threats Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	256
11. The Domestic Sources of Nuclear Politics Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	273
Conclusion Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	299
Notes Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	309
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	361

Religious Statecraft

The Politics of Islam in Iran

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