The supreme leader's nine-day trip to Qom

October 25, 2010 | 12:08pm

Genieve Abdo

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei made an unprecedented, nine-day trip to Qom last week to try to rehabilitate himself among the clerics. He has reasons to worry. Qom’s lack of subordination is a threat to Khamenei’s rule and to the long-term survival of the Islamic Republic — a system which prides itself with fusing (at least in theory) Islamic values and a republican form of governance.

Since June of 2009, Iranians have called into question Iran’s claim to be either a republic or an Islamic state. And if the religious establishment, which many Iranians still respect, echoes the views of disillusioned Iranians, Khamenei risks becoming a mere figurehead of an Islamic revolution gone awry. Although Khamenei has had a credibility problem since he was appointed supreme leader in 1989, now critics are no longer fearful of publicly condemning his rule.

Read Geneive Abdo's chapter on the new political tools in “The Iran Primer”

Geneive Abdo is the director of the Iran program at The Century Foundation and the editor and creator of www.insideiran.org.

The Islamists Are Coming

The Islamists Are Coming, edited by Robin Wright, surveys the rise of Islamist groups in the wake of the Arab Spring. Often lumped together, the more than 50 Islamist parties with millions of followers now constitute a whole new spectrum—separate from either militants or secular parties. They will shape the new order in the world’s most volatile region more than any other political bloc. Yet they have diverse goals and different constituencies. Sometimes they are even rivals.

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