Facebook use among the seminary in Qom

Al Monitor - The new fatwa issued by one of the religious authorities (Marja’s) in Qom regarding Facebook shows their increasing fear of the free flow of information. Iranian officials have been distrustful of Facebook from its outset. Before the events surrounding the 2009 presidential elections, Facebook was constantly filtered and unfiltered by the Iranian government. After the 2009 elections, the site was completely blocked, as Iranians utilized Facebook to transmit information about the demonstrations. Ever since, Iranian officials have repeatedly referred to Facebook, as well as other social networks, as a “means of soft war and anti-governmental activities.”

Iranians were hopeful that with the new moderate administration in charge Facebook might be unfiltered. Certain officials in President Hassan Rouhani’s administration, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, have Facebook pages themselves. Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Ali Jannati said in November, “I have a Facebook account myself. Facebook is a social network, and I do not consider using Facebook to be an illegal activity.” In September, Prosecutor-General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i talked about the possibility of removing Facebook from the filtered list of websites, if it is no longer used for criminal activities. Certain political figures in Iran, too, have official Facebook pages: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Buijan Namdar Zangeneh and Zarif are among the most well-known.

One of the religious authorities in Qom reacted to the suggestion regarding the possibility of unfiltering Facebook. Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi criticized Jannati and considered the idea of unfiltering Facebook to be unnecessary. His comments drew criticism from both inside and outside the hawza. Sadegh Zibakalam, a Reformist professor at the University of Tehran, wrote a letter to Shirazi asking him to explain his religious reasons for considering Facebook forbidden. As part of his explanation for why it is wrong to regard Facebook illegal, he wrote: “If the problem is the fear of Facebook being misused by posting pornography or contents that violate public decency, then cinema and photography should be illegal, too. The prosecutor-general has also cited 'communicating with the enemy' as an additional reason why Facebook should be considered illegal. I am, however, confused as to what kind of information can be transmitted via Facebook that cannot be transmitted by other means!”

Shirazi’s answer to these criticisms was that Facebook is illegal since it extensively promotes corruption and a variety of other sins. He also compared it to heretical writings whose public availability is sinful and forbidden. He claimed that Facebook has no restriction or boundaries and is a place for corruption and immorality. This is while previously, Shirazi and a few other religious authorities had issued fatwas considering Facebook to be a legitimate outlet for publishing Islamic decrees as long as there is nothing corruptive in it. Shirazi himself has an official page on Facebook.

In spite of being filtered and the fatwa regarding its ban, Facebook is becoming more and more popular among the seminary students in the hawza. A large number of seminary students use Facebook and other social networks to express their religious, social and political opinions. Browsing the pages belonging to these students, one encounters a variety of different points of view. Seyed Akbar Mousavi, a graduate of the hawza of Qom, wrote in an editorial regarding the expansion of Facebook: “Expansion of the Internet and the creation of smart phones have made everyone familiar with Facebook. Five or six years ago, the Persian-speaking sphere of Facebook had an intellectual ambiance, but now it reflects the entire society.”

Facebook has achieved to raise the hidden sides of religious seminaries, which were completely invisible in the past, even from inside the seminaries. Students and even middle-class figures are easily publishing criticism against the official understanding of religion, the official political view of the hawza and other sensitive topics that were absolutely forbidden in the past.

Former hawza students who left to continue their studies or work in the West have found a very capable means to communicate with their previous classmates and new hawza generations. Some have thousands of followers from the seminary who follow up new readings of Shiite Islam and the criticisms on the official religious view of the hawza that are published by former intellectual students of the seminary from overseas. Also, some religious students created special pages for religious and political opposition figures — scholars such as Mustafa Malekian, Abdolkarim Soroosh, Mujtahid Shabestari and so on — who have been ejected from the hawza and Iranian universities after publishing their views and thoughts.

Facebook has thus been actively participating in developing new political and religious views inside the Qom religious seminary. Hence, the reason why some Iranian officials and Qom religious figures are worried about removing Facebook filters.

It seems understandable then that the seminary students with Facebook accounts did not pay much attention to the fatwa — and even criticized it — that labels Facebook "corruptive" and is against removing the filter on Facebook because it might cause a shift to a non-Islamic culture. Extending these methods of communication has resulted in alternate sources of information becoming available to them. The diversity has changed to an extent the traditional style of following a religious authority. Some religious authorities no longer enjoy the authority they once had, even inside their own classrooms. Their followers indeed distinguish between their religious fatwas and their social and political views.
by Ali Mamouri