Rory Stewart

They actually made the clergy stronger within the regime.

Shia Muslim.

My family have been Christians for generations.

I think for those of us who are not Muslims, who are Western Europeans, there's always something very attractive about Shia Islam because it's tended to have much more relationship to a Sufism

to mystical traditions, towards intellectualism.

It's got more clerical authority.

Traditionally, it was actually less radical, and it was always slightly on the back foot.

But one of the problems that we're dealing with here is that at the heart of it, going back to its foundation story, is the idea of martyrdom because the break was when the son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Muhammad

was killed at Karbala, the Sunni tradition takes over.

And the Shia tradition is from this martyr tradition, which is why you see all these great images of Imam Ali, Imam Hussein dressed in martyrs' robes, and which is why you now have this situation where for the 10-20% who support the regime, Mujtaba Khamenei has now become something called a Shahid Zenday.

So he's a living Shahid, he's a living martyr.

because of the loss of his father, his mother, his wife, his child.

Yeah, yeah, it's the same.

It's the same.

Yeah, very good.

Why I Became a Shia Muslim.

Well, the final thing for listeners who really want, Roy Mutahadeh has written the great book.

Also, a bit shout out to Vali Nasser.

He's just written a great piece today in the New York Times looking at nationalism in Iran and why he thinks the regime has actually grown stronger, not weaker, thanks to the attacks.

And a shout out again to my friend, Gerard Russell, who's very kind.