Shia Islamism

Political Islam in the Twelver Shi'a branch of Islam Islamism exists in Twelver Shia Islam -- sometimes called Islamist Shi'ism ( ), although most study and reporting on Islamism or political Islam has been focused on Sunni islamist movements. Islamist Shi'ism is primarily but not exclusively identified with the first and "only true" Islamist revolution (Shi'i or Sunni), with the thought of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who led the revolution (" Khomeinism "), with the Islamic Republic of Iran that he founded, and the religious-political activities and resources of that republic.¹ Twelver Shi'ism Muslims form the majority of the population in the countries of Iran , Iraq , Bahrain , Azerbaijan , and substantial minorities in Afghanistan , India , Kuwait , Lebanon , Pakistan , Qatar , Syria , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates .² In this global community of Shi'ism, Iran is "the de facto leader", by virtue of being the largest Shia-majority state and the only one having a long history of national cohesion and Shi'i rule (since 1501). As the site of the only Islamist revolution , and with the financial resources of a major petroleum exporter, it has spread into a cultural-geographic area of "Irano-Arab Shiism", supporting militias and parties based on Shia beyond its borders, intertwining the assistance to fellow Shi'i with "Iranization" of them, and establishment of Iranian regional power, particularly in Lebanon with Hezbollah .³ Islamism ( ) has been defined as the movement for a return to the original texts and the inspiration of the original believers of Islam ( religious revivalism ), but which also requires Islam to be a "political system".⁴ Shi'i Islamism in Iran has been influenced by Islamists in the Sunni branch, particularly Sayyid Rashid Rida , Hassan al-Banna (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, which also influenced Islamism in Iran), Sayyid Qutb , Abul A'la Maududi . Shi'i Islamism has also been described as "distinct" from Sunni Islamism, "more leftist and more clerical" than the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, and having introduced the "cult of martyrdom" in suicide bombing/attacks first against Saddam's Iraq and even more successfully against Israeli forces in Lebanon by Shia Hezbollah. Some differences between traditional pre-Islamist Shi'i Islam and that developed by Khomeini, include whether acceptance of the current government is better than disorder, because "bad order was better than no order at all" (the traditional belief); or is it instead a sacred duty to oppose any other kind of governance than an Islamic jurist ruler (Khomeini's belief). Whether martyrdom is "a saintly act" of accepting God's will (the traditional belief), or instead "a revolutionary sacrifice to overthrow a despotic political order" (Khomeini's belief). Political Islam in the Age of Democratization . International encyclopedia of human geography . OCLC 496521377 . : CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link ) Tibi, Bassam (2007-03-01). "Commentary on "Islamic State": Thoughts of Islamism" . Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (In Asia) . 7 (3).⁵