For years, protests have shaken the Pseudo-Islamic Republic of Iran. Time and again, voices from within the government claim that the demonstrators are targeting Islam itself. A closer look, however, reveals that this interpretation falls short – and misses the core of the protests.

The film “The Stoning of Soraya M” illustrates that the distortion of Islam through the hadiths stops at nothing: women in both shiism and sunnism are stoned to death without any basis in the Holy Quran. Image: Still from the film by Cyrus Nowrasteh

Protest against coercion, not against faith

The slogans heard on Iran’s streets are directed primarily against coercion, repression, and political patronization. The mandatory hijab has become a symbol of this resistance – not because the Holy Quran preaches hostility toward women, but because the state enforces religious norms through violence.

The Quran itself does not prescribe a headscarf obligation to be imposed by the state under threat of punishment. It appeals to modesty and personal responsibility, not to police, prisons, or morality patrols. Coercion in the name of God contradicts a central Quranic principle: “There is no compulsion in religion” (Al-Baqara/The Cow 2:256). The treatment of non-Muslimas in Iran stands in tension with Quranic logic. The Quran does not mandate the conversion of people. Historically, a tax (Jizya) was part of a protection agreement.

A theological boundary crossed – the invocation of Hussein

From a Scripture-centered perspective, criticism becomes particularly sharp where religious practice is no longer directed exclusively toward God. Critics point out that in parts of shia popular piety, expressions of thanks and supplication during communal meals or rituals are explicitly addressed to Hussein rather than – as consistently required by the Quran – to God alone.

On this issue, the Quran is unequivocal: gratitude, invocation, and supplication belong exclusively to God. Any religious practice that makes another figure – even a Prophet, martyr or a member of the Prophet’s family – the addressee crosses, from this perspective, the line from remembrance into sacred substitution.

For Scripture-centered critics, this is not a marginal detail but a theological tipping point. While political instrumentalization or historical glorification may still be seen as distortions, redirecting acts of devotion away from God is understood as a fundamental rupture with the monotheistic core of Islam.

This critique is directed at a system of religious practice that relativizes the Quran’s absolute focus on God and thus defines Islam no longer through revelation, but through ritual, loyalty, and political identity.

The sunni–shia split: political, not Quranic

At the heart of the debate lies the question of whether Shiism, as practiced by the Iranian state, can genuinely be derived from the Quran. The fact is: the Quran contains no provision regarding the succession of Muhammad. Neither Ali nor any other figure is divinely appointed as heir.

The split between sunnis and shiites emerged upon the Prophet’s death out of political power struggles, not out of revelation. Anyone who derives religious authority from this split does so outside the Quran.

Quranism: the Holy Quran as the sole inheritance of Islam

A growing number of Muslims – in Iran and beyond – maintain a clear position: the inheritance of Muhammad does not lie in his descendants, clerics, hadith collections, or legal schools, but in the Quran alone.

From this perspective of the so-called Quranism movement, both shia and sunni power traditions have overlaid Islam with later rules, legends, and claims to authority. In the sunni sphere in particular, critics argue that contradictory or politically motivated hadiths have effectively overridden Quranic commandments.

The sunnah versus the Holy Quran: the example of the alleged child marriage of Aisha

The conflict between the Quran and later tradition becomes especially apparent in hadiths claiming that the Prophet Muhammad married Aisha while she was still a child or consummated the marriage at that age. These reports are still used by parts of sunni orthodoxy to religiously justify pedophilia.

The Quran itself, however, sets clear ethical and legal prerequisites for marriage. It ties marriage to maturity, consent, and responsibility: marriage is described as a “solemn covenant,” orphans attain legal independence only upon reaching maturity, and partnership is associated with love, compassion, and mutual responsibility. A sexual relationship with minors is incompatible with these principles.

From a Scripture-centered perspective, this constitutes a fundamental theological rupture: if hadiths legitimize practices that contradict Quranic principles, they cannot be binding. Critics argue that such traditions are historically questionable and have been used for centuries to justify patriarchal practices that the Quran sought to overcome. It was not the Quran, but later selections of hadith and legal opinions, that thus effectively undermined Quranic ethics.

The Iran protests as an intra-Islamic revolt

The protests in Iran are therefore less an attack on Islam than an intra-Islamic revolt against its distortion by the state. They raise the question of whether religion may legitimize domination – or whether faith must once again become a matter of conscience.

The real conflict does not run between “Islam” and “the West,” but between revelation and power, between faith and coercion. Anyone who overlooks this misunderstands not only Iran – but the Holy Quran itself.

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By Okay Altinisik | 13-1-2026, 00:14:13 (updated on 7-2-2026, 5:45:29)