Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07IRANRPODUBAI20
2007-04-05 14:10:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Iran RPO Dubai
Cable title:  

RELIGIOSITY CONTINUES AMONG IRANIANS -- MODERN IRANIANS

Tags:  PGOV IR PHUM SOCI SCUL KISL KIRF 
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VZCZCXRO6102
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK
DE RUEHDIR #0020/01 0951410
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P R 051410Z APR 07
FM IRAN RPO DUBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0087
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHDIR/IRAN RPO DUBAI 0080
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDHP/DIA DHP-1 WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHDE/AMCONSUL DUBAI 0082
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 IRAN RPO DUBAI 000020 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BERLIN FOR PAETZOLD, LONDON FOR GAYLE, BAKU FOR HAUGEN,
PARIS FOR WALLER, BAGHDAD FOR GALBRAITH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/5/2017
TAGS: PGOV IR PHUM SOCI SCUL KISL KIRF
SUBJECT: RELIGIOSITY CONTINUES AMONG IRANIANS -- MODERN IRANIANS
PROGRESSIVE, BUT NOT SECULAR

RPO DUBAI 00000020 001.2 OF 003


CLASSIFIED BY: Jillian Burns, Director, IRPO, DOS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



Religiosity Continues Among Iranians -- Modern Iranians
Progressive, but not Secular
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 IRAN RPO DUBAI 000020

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BERLIN FOR PAETZOLD, LONDON FOR GAYLE, BAKU FOR HAUGEN,
PARIS FOR WALLER, BAGHDAD FOR GALBRAITH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/5/2017
TAGS: PGOV IR PHUM SOCI SCUL KISL KIRF
SUBJECT: RELIGIOSITY CONTINUES AMONG IRANIANS -- MODERN IRANIANS
PROGRESSIVE, BUT NOT SECULAR

RPO DUBAI 00000020 001.2 OF 003


CLASSIFIED BY: Jillian Burns, Director, IRPO, DOS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



Religiosity Continues Among Iranians -- Modern Iranians
Progressive, but not Secular

1.(C) Summary: In an unscientific survey of 10 Iranians
regarding their attitudes toward religion seemed to indicate
that, regardless of individual differences, they are connected
to their religion. However, the degree to which they practice
their religion differs. Several Iranian emigrants to the West
seemed to be more secular than those still living in Iran and
less tied to religious traditions. According to an Iranian
academic, youth in Iran today follow religion more on account of
tradition, but he claimed they are generally not deeply
spiritual. He emphasized that Iranians have a high regard for
education, which gives them a moderate religious identity, and
that more educated people seem to have less trust in mosques.
One Iranian businessman opined that Shiite Islam is more open to
reform, inferring that in his view, Iran has potential for
change and becoming a modern democracy. Contacts frequently
assert that Iran will never become a secular society. Religion
runs deep, despite the disillusion of many with clerical rule,
and the disillusion of some clerics with velayat-e faqih. End
summary.

Modern Tehranis connected to religion
--------------

2.(C) According to informal, separate discussions with some 10
different Iranian residents of Tehran passing through Dubai,
Iranians consider religion important in life and are deep down
religious. This group of relatively affluent professionals from
Tehran included businessmen, a family of wealthy international
jewelers, a UK-educated retired military nurse, a lawyer, a
retired teacher, a publisher, a young lady photojournalist, and
an academic/motivational speaker. While in no way a

scientifically representative sample of the Iranian population,
their views of religiosity in Iran are noteworthy.

3.(C) While some considered themselves Muslim first and others
Iranian first, all of these interlocutors said they are
religious and not secular. The nurse for example, surprised
her accompanying Iranian-American friend when she said that even
today in Iran, many people follow the mullahs, and that back in
the day, the public loved Ayatollah Khomeini. Several noted
that religious practice in Iran is not forced, and that people
follow religious traditions of their own volition. While they
did not want religion to be part of all aspects of their
everyday lives, they said that the majority of Iranians believe
in a protector to save them. They all seemed respectful of
other religions and of their non-Muslim countrymen, considering
them harmless.

Religious participation sporadic
--------------

4.(C) According to the nurse, all Muslims observe important
holidays like Ashura, Iran's most significant Islamic holiday.
Many attend mourning rituals, she said, and cry from the bottoms
of their hearts in commemoration of Imam Hussein's martyrdom 12
centuries ago. They claimed virtually every family observes the
holy month of Moharam. (Note: The ninth and tenth days of
Moharam are national holidays in remembrance of the martyrdom of
Imam Hussein at the battle of Karbala, the grandson of Prophet
Mohammad, son of Ali and his daughter Fatima. Endnote)
Prominent families donate significant amounts of money and food
to their mosques during this month. For example the Iranian
jeweler family, an educated and modern business family with
regular travels to the West, said they normally sponsors a group
of about 2000 Imam Hussein mourners in Tehran. They slaughter
about 100 cows and lambs, hire cooks and run kitchens to feed
lunch and dinner to their devout group of men or "dasteh" for
the first 13 days of Moharam. One Iranian, resident in Dubai,
said her family in Dubai usually slaughters a cow for Moharam
and gives the meat away to the poor. She explained that people
believe disregarding Moharam is a bad omen that could bring
misfortune. On the tenth day, dressed in black, the group
proceeds to the streets of Tehran, and the police block roads
for their processions. According to the Iranian religious
scholar and several others, occasionally even non-Muslim
Iranians like Armenians join the public grieving processions.


RPO DUBAI 00000020 002.2 OF 003


5.(C) On the other hand, the group indicated that not many
Tehranis attend Friday prayer services and that many
obligations, such as fasting or daily prayers, are largely
ignored. They said that people in Tehran are busy.
Furthermore, they said that regular prayers are not really a
part of their culture. Of the two major Islamic holidays, Eid
al-Fitr, the feast ending Ramadan fasting, is basically
celebrated by those who observe fasting, and Eid al-Adha, the
feast of sacrifice after pilgrimage to Mecca, is observed only
by families of pilgrims.

Western emigrants less religious
--------------

6.(C) In contrast to the Tehranis, several Iranians who have
been living in the West considered themselves Iranian before
Muslim. While they may or may not be representative of Iranian
expats in the West as a whole, this group focused more on
overall spirituality than the practice of Islam. They asserted
that Iranians abroad are probably among the least religious
people who have emigrated from an Islamic county. They referred
to the Shia rituals as ancient relics, superstitions, and said
they are proud that Islamic customs are not practiced in their
homes. In their view, their nation of Iran is held hostage by
mullahs. One person from this group was going out drinking with
his friends on the eve of Ashura.

7.(C) IRPO has not specifically examined religiosity among the
Iranians in Dubai, but we think they fall in a broad range. The
Iranian mosque in Dubai, on the eve of Ashura, was overflowing
with young and old Iranians. The Iranian jeweler family, while
held up for their visas in Dubai, catered food for the Iranian
mosque in Dubai on this evening.

Religiosity versus spirituality
--------------

8.(C) An academic/motivational speaker who lives in Tehran
asserted that although Iranians may appear religious in public,
many have a superficial sense of religion. He complained that
Iranians in general do not read much or think analytically. On
the other hand, he said Iranians generally have a high regard
for advanced education and advised the US to converse and
consult with Iranian intellectuals. He claimed that the
importance that Iranians put on education may account for the
public's overall moderate religious identity and openness toward
women's education; today about 60 percent of those entering
college in Iran are women. He said that educated Iranians have
less trust in mosques.

9.(C) The academic claimed that Iran is experiencing a cultural
transition accompanied by greater social openness and a momentum
towards change. People can do and say things they could not ten
or fifteen years ago. Some mistrust the government, some look
at Islam as tyranny, and overall there has been a drift away
from strict Islam. He said there were only a small group of
people left in Iran that maintained the fundamentalist religious
fervor of the early days of the revolution, not counting
government workers who are required to display a degree of
religious devotion. He said that a new kind of religiosity has
emerged in Iran, where people remain deeply religious but are
anti-clerical and deeply suspicious of any privileges associated
with the religious class. Young people are against that kind of
Islam, he said, and some are not interested in the ritualistic
form of Islam supported by the Iranian government. As an
example of his assertion that clerics' involvement in politics
had polluted their standing in society, he said that today
turbaned and non-turbaned candidates have to plead in the same
way for people's votes. According to the academic, mystical
works by eastern and western authors are becoming popular in
Iran.

Shia Islam: capacity to evolve
--------------

10.(C) According to the scholar, Iran's new generation of
clerics is somewhat moderate and open. They often study religion
from anthropological, legal, historical, and other standpoints,
and the scholar opined that this interdisciplinary perspective
may inspire interesting changes in the future. According to
Iranian religious scholars, Shiites believe that divine law is
not absolute, and that scholars with consent of a "faqih" or
expert on Islamic jurisprudence, can always try to reach those
principles which would be the decree of God, through the use of
logic and reason. One of the Tehrani businessmen said he agreed

RPO DUBAI 00000020 003.2 OF 003


Shiite Islam is more open to the concept of "ijtehad" (which
allows Islamic laws to be modified based on the needs of the
times). Because of this, he believes Iran has a better chance
than Sunni countries of becoming a modern democracy and perhaps
a suitable future partner for the US. The steel businessman, a
modern man with children studying in the West, considered
himself a devout Muslim. He viewed Sunni Islam as more rigid,
saying that generally the word of the Koran is accepted as law
with no room for discussion, diversion, or votes on changing
laws. In his view, the "miracle" of Khomeini was that he
brought the seeds of democracy to Iran, allowing Iranian men and
women to vote. He predicted that one day Iran could advance to
a truly modern Islamic democracy. The concept of Islamic
democracy, he said, is a frequent subject of discussion in
Iran's religious seminaries or Hawzehs.

Comment: We frequently hear from contacts that whatever happens
in Iran in the future, the society will remain a deeply
religious one. We also hear that a significant number of
Iranian clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Sanei do not like
clerical involvement in the government and oppose the system of
velayat-e faqih. (Note: Sanei, considered a reformist cleric,
has called both nuclear weapons and suicide bombings un-Islamic.
Endnote) These clerics prefer a model of their role in society
more along the lines of the role that Grand Ayatollah Sistani
plays in Iraq. End comment
BURNS