Summary: Hayder al-Khoei (<a href="https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei">@Hayder_alKhoei</a>) talks to <a href="https://twitter.com/TheLoopcast">the Loopcast</a> about Shiism in the modern world. Our conversation roughly follows the outline below.<br> <br> Describe Shiism in the modern world: What is the <br> relationship between the state, the clergy, and the followers. Are there <br> Shia Islamists? Islamists being defined here as a "Shia Ikwan" lay people who use <br> religion as a method to access politics. <br> <br> Najaf and Qum are the two most important cities in Shiism. <br> How would you describe the relationship between them? How is politics <br> structured between them? Where do we place Karbala? <br> <br> <br> How would you describe Iran's approach to Shiism, and Iraq's <br> approach to Shiism as far as the individual experience is concerned? Has the differing ideologies of the state have had a <br> different effect on the respective clergy and seminary schools? <br> <br> <br> How would compare the scholarship and students of Iran vs <br> Iraq? The relationship between government, scholarship, and students? <br> <br> <br> In navigating the politics of the faith where do we place <br> young men who have lesser religious credentials but are in the position of <br> leadership like Sadr and Nasrollah? Moreover how important is the idea of marja <br> taqlid to leadership in the faith if Sadr, Nasrollah, and even Khamenei have <br> all used politics to circumvent it? <br> <br> <br> Syria: how do we understand Syria within the context of <br> Shiism. It seems that the Sayyida Zayneb, the protection of it, is playing a <br> large role in defining the conflict in starkly sectarian terms. Furthermore, a <br> great deal of the media being produced by Shia militias have evoked <br> sectarianism ( vs jihadis of the opposition) as reason to fight. Can we <br> consider Syria as a "Shia transnational jihad" in the vein of the <br> role that Afghanistan in the 80s played for Sunni jihadists? <br> <br> <br> <br>
