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Which is great, except in the case of Iran the clerical authority is centralised and this is true in some other countries.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Feb 17th, 2006 at 11:12:43 AM EST
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I'm not sure this is entirely true. There is a central authority, true, but it's not like the Catholic church, it's more like the Anglican synod. In "religious" terms there isn't a full "chain of command."

Discipline has been exercised by force/blackmail/discreditation, but mostly using "political" enforcers (e.g. Police, TV, Secret Services.)

Thus, the Iranian Preznit is likely to be able to go against the heads of religion if he can hold on to popular religious support.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Fri Feb 17th, 2006 at 11:39:50 AM EST
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