"velayet e faqih" -- "Wilayat al-faquih" -- "velayat e faqih"

Thanks to Tony Badran, l'enfant terrible among Levantine bloggers, this string of variant spellings of another Muslim concept (Shiite, I believe), is now more or less in my reading.

Islamic terms are quickly dismissed by American readers due to the absence of any historic need to understand them, but in a post-9/11 world we are learning that there are as many variants among Muslims as there are among Christians. Maybe more. And though we prate about the separation of church and state, the fact is that what we like to call "Western history" cannot be tracked without noting the impact of religion, specifically Christianity, on politics, diplomacy and war itself (politics and diplomacy by "other means").

Velayet e faqih refers to the formal importance (pre-eminence?) of faith in government, formalized in Lebanon by the hybrid consociational form, in Iran by a Supreme Council which must evaluate and approve all that secular politics seeks to inact.

Beyond that general idea I don't want to go. This post is mostly a note to myself for future reference. Here are links that apply.

An Iranian doctrine we can do without by Hussain Abdul-Hussain, Daily Star (June 06)

Google search "velayat e faqih"

Google search "velayet e faqih"

Today's New Word: Ijtihad (My post last year exploring another Islamic term important to grasping nuances among Islamic thinkers.)

Enough Already translates a You Tube video of a Lebanese singer's tribute to a fallen patriot, from the blog Ecce Libano which I am adding to my blogroll. I am impressed that Lisa Goldman, already on my blogroll, left a warm comment at this post.

Serious people are working hard to find peace in the Middle East. Here in America all I hear is saber-rattling and ignorant sound bites. Those of us seeking non-military conflict resolution are marginalized.

Lebanon Video "It's About Time" My embedded 14 minute Google video about Lebanon's Cedar Revolution. It moves my heart every time I watch.