On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti What happens when religious fundamentalists come to power? (Part One)
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Apr 6, 2026 
Alex Vatanka, an Iran specialist who tracks the 1979 revolution’s political fallout, and Bernard Haeckel, a Near Eastern studies scholar of Shia history and theology, discuss how Shia doctrine was mobilized into political power. They trace the revolution’s coalition, Khomeini’s shift to active clerical rule, institutional duality, regional influence through militias, and how ritual and society were reshaped under theocratic rule.
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Shia Split Began Over Succession
- The original Shia–Sunni split was over succession after Prophet Muhammad, not Iran's geography.
- Shia argue leadership should stay in the Prophet's family, producing doctrines like the imamate and belief in a hidden 12th Imam.
Shia Clergy Are Highly Hierarchical
- Shia doctrine emphasizes a hierarchical clergy and sinless imams, shaping distinct legal and leadership roles.
- The top scholars, ayatollahs and grand ayatollahs, exert formal authority through seminaries in Qom and Najaf.
Khomeini Created A New Theocratic Model
- Iran became majority Shia and the only state with Shiism as official ideology after the Safavids and then again after 1979.
- Ayatollah Khomeini created a novel political role tying clerical authority to supreme political power.