Everything About the Shirazi Sect Part One

Everything About the Shirazi Sect

Everything About the Shirazi Sect: According to Iran Gate, the Shirazi sect is one of the extremist and fundamentalist Shia movements that, with the extensive financial resources at its disposal, also wields significant media power. Sayed Sadeq Shirazi, who currently leads this sect, has taken extreme and controversial stances on various social issues, one of the most notable being his opposition to the ban on self-flagellation with swords.

Recently, as internal disputes have intensified, the name of the Shirazi sect has once again become a topic of discussion. The Islamic Republic has consistently referred to the radical and fundamentalist views of this sect, directing the regime’s opponents to the controversial statements of the sect’s leaders, claiming that it is moderate in implementing divine laws, and that the extremist factions within the Qom seminary are dissatisfied with this issue.

Iran Gate, despite having extensive criticisms of the Islamic Republic’s policies on hijab, has examined the extreme and fundamentalist stances of the Shirazi sect in a two-part report. The current report introduces this sect and traces its genealogy, which is detailed further below.

From Mirza to the Shirazi Family

The lineage of Sayed Sadeq Shirazi’s family, who is recognized today as a Shia authority and resides in Qom, traces back to Mirza Shirazi in the past. This prominent cleric of the Qajar era issued the edict banning the use of tobacco in 1308 AH and is considered one of the important figures in the history of Iran’s Constitutional Revolution.

Mirza Shirazi was also the paternal uncle of Sayed Sadeq Shirazi’s father and is introduced on his website as the maternal ancestor of the current leader of the Shirazi sect. In fact, Sayed Sadeq Shirazi’s mother was the granddaughter of Mirza Shirazi, who issued the tobacco prohibition edict, and she married Mirza Mahdi Shirazi, the current leader of the Shirazi sect.

Mirza Mahdi, Sadeq Shirazi’s father, was also the nephew of Mirza Shirazi. Mirza Habib, Mirza Shirazi’s brother, was remembered as one of the great Shia authorities in contemporary times, to the extent that after the death of Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi, Mirza Mahdi Shirazi was regarded as the greatest Shia authority in the world. However, he too passed away shortly after Ayatollah Boroujerdi.

Mirza Mahdi had four children, the most prominent and well-known of whom is Sayed Sadeq Shirazi, who is currently teaching at the Qom seminary. Sadeq Shirazi has three brothers named Sayed Mohammad, Sayed Mojtaba, and Sayed Hassan. Hassan and Mohammad have passed away, but Sayed Mojtaba Shirazi, who was born in Iraq, currently resides in Britain. One of the reasons this sect is also labeled as ‘English Shia’ is the continuous connection of the leaders of this movement with England and the establishment of numerous television networks in that country.

From the Tobacco Movement to Defending Self-Flagellation

As mentioned, all members of the Shirazi family and their ancestors up to Mirza Shirazi were well-known authorities in the Qom and Najaf seminaries. Although the positions of this sect have strangely shifted towards radicalism and Shia fundamentalism in the years and decades following the revolution, this family has a history of initiating the Tobacco Movement, which was the beginning of the first modernist movement in the Middle East, leading to the Constitutional Revolution.

Although generally the Shirazi family’s authorities were always categorized among traditional clergy, after the revolution, this traditionalism intensified unprecedentedly, to the extent that some analysts refer to this sect as the ‘Shia ISIS’. This discursive shift towards extremism in Shia religious rituals occurred in the Shirazi family after the deaths of Hassan and Mohammad Shirazi, to the point that despite Sayed Sadeq Shirazi’s temporary and limited support for Ayatollah Khomeini during the 1979 revolution, he changed his stance and became the first opposition movement to the Islamic Republic and the theory of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist in the Qom seminary.

Among the fundamentalist positions and edicts of Sayed Sadeq Shirazi are his opposition to the ban on self-flagellation, permitting chess, dismissing the theory of rapprochement between sects and reconciliation between Shia and Sunni, and also strange strictness regarding hijab. Although the traditional seminary faction has a lot in common with this sect, none of the extremist and controversial positions of the Shirazi sect in the mentioned cases are endorsed.

For example, regarding recent disputes over hijab, the Shirazi sect believes that the Islamic Republic has been lenient with those not wearing hijab and has acted softly. Meanwhile, the traditional Qom seminary faction, which considers itself a follower of Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi, opposes any government interference in personal matters and condemns the observance or non-observance of limits, including hijab.

Money and Media in the Hands of Reaction

As mentioned, the Shirazi sect, due to the financial means that have existed in the Shirazi household since the years before the revolution, currently has very high media maneuverability. However, due to the restrictions in Iran for this movement, the sect’s media activities are directed by Sayed Mojtaba Shirazi from London, in such a way that it is said this sect is responsible for the financial support and management of more than 20 television networks.

Among the famous showmen of the Shirazi sect’s networks is a radical Shia cleric of Afghan descent known in the media as Hojjat al-Islam Allahyari. He owes his fame primarily to his insults and profanity towards historical Sunni figures and the leaders of the Saudi monarchy and other Gulf countries.

In the next part of this report, the prominent figures of the current Shirazi sect are introduced, and the various dimensions of their fundamentalist positions are examined.