Geneive Abdo, Columnist

Iran's Facing a Mutiny From Within the Mosque

A growing number of prominent Shiite clerics are questioning whether the supreme leader can claim divine authority.

March 26, 2018 at 4:54 PM UTC

Geneive Abdo is a resident scholar at the Arabia Foundation and the author of four books, most recently "The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and the Rebirth of the Shi’a–Sunni Divide."

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Photographer: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

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It's not surprising that the arrest of a prominent Iranian cleric -- even one that led to protests in Iran and the Arab world -- hasn't made a ripple in the Western news media. After all, the Tehran regime makes arbitrary arrests all the time.

But this is different: The controversy over the detention of Ayatollah Hussein Shirazi this month is reigniting an important debate over whether Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should be able to claim divine sanction for his unlimited powers to rule the state.