Episode 26: How Iran’s regime subverted Shia Islam - with Hussain Abdul-Hussain

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Haviv Rettig Gur

History

4.9 • 640 Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

The Iranian regime has long claimed to be the bearers of Shia Islam's vision of messianic redemption. The Supreme Leader, who ruled under regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini's ideology of "wilayat al-faqih," or Guardianship of the Jurist, created a new model of a revolutionary conquering Shiism that was previously unknown in Shia Islam, at least in its Arab version.

We are joined in this episode by Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a Shia Muslim writer and analyst in Washington DC and research fellow at FDD. Hussain grew up in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War and in Lebanon toward the end of the country's devastating civil war.

Arab Shiism, Hussain argues, is not what the Iranian regime has tried to make of it, and once freed of the financial, political and often violent influence of Khomeinist "revolutionary" ideology, will revert to its traditionally peaceful ways.

This episode was sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas, strong supporters of Israel who recognize Israels' centrality and vitality to the Jewish world. They chose to dedicate this episode to the memory of Igal and Amit Wachs, 53 & 48, American-Israeli brothers who died on October 7, 2023, defending their home of Netiv Ha'asara in the Gaza envelope.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: ⁠ www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything⁠.

If you would like to sponsor an episode, please email us at ⁠[email protected]⁠.

A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody. Welcome to Ask Haviv Anything.
0:08.3	Today is going to be a special episode. I say that a lot, but this is true.
0:13.6	I am going to manage to do both an interview with tremendously relevant news content.
0:18.1	That is also a historical deep dive into something really important that
0:23.2	I think we all need to understand about Islam. Shia Islam today, Sunni Islam today, what actually
0:30.2	is happening in the Muslim world, where it all comes from in the Muslim world of the Middle
0:33.9	East, near Israel. And we're going to understand some of the ideological depth
0:38.3	to the Israeli-Iran war, not just the 12 days, but the 20 months and the four decades.
0:45.4	And we're going to do that with Hussein Abdul-Hussein, a research fellow at the Foundation for
0:50.2	Defense of Democracies in Washington. And I'm really glad he's here. You're going to hear
0:58.0	about Shiism from Shia Muslim, which is a much better way to learn about Shiism than from
1:03.5	a guy named Kaviv. And we are going to also really look at events from that perspective, which I think is very, very valuable.
1:13.5	Before we dive into it, I want to tell you that this episode is sponsored by Bennett and Robin Greenspan of Houston, Texas.
1:21.1	Thank you, Bennett and Robin. Really appreciate the help and also appreciate the remarkable dedication.
1:28.7	Bennett and Robin are strong supporters of Israel who recognize Israel's centrality and vitality
1:33.7	to the Jewish world and asked me to say that they are proud to sponsor this episode
1:38.9	because the insights from this podcast make understanding the Middle East a bit easier.
1:45.5	Their words, not mine, and really fitting for this episode.
1:48.8	In this episode, they chose to dedicate it to the memory of Igal and Amit Vachs,
1:53.3	53 and 48 years old when they died.
1:57.1	Two American Israeli brothers who died defending their home in Nativa Sara in the Gaza envelope on October 7.
2:04.0	Egal went out to fight back against the Hamas terrorists.
	...

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