Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi
| Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi | |
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| Born | Karbala, Iraq |
| Other names | السيد محمد تقي المدرسي |
| Website | www.almodarresi.com |
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi (Arabic: محمد تقي المدرسي) (born 1945, in Karbala, Iraq) is a Grand Iraqi jurist marja', and described as the ‘mastermind’ behind the strategy of the Shiraziyyin, a Shia Islamist sect that follows the teachings of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi.
Al-Modarresi is the author of over 400 books on matters of theology, historiography, jurisprudence, philosophy, logic, and well as social science. He is considered to be one of the most senior Shi’a Marja living in Iraq, only slightly junior to Ali al-Sistani.
Al-Modarresi was born into a distinguished Shia religious family in Karbala in Iraq. His uncle and leading influence is Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi, who was one of the most important political ideologues in Shia Islam in the 20th century, whose supporters became known as the "Shiraziyyin". In the 1970s Al-Modarresi along with other members of Al-Shirazi’s entourage were forced to leave Iraq to escape Baathist repression. Al-Modarresi settled first in Kuwait and then, after the Islamic Revolution, in Iran.
Al-Modaressi was the leader of the Iran-based Islamist paramilitary organization, the Islamic Action Organization (also known as Islamic Amal). The Organization was conceived of as a ‘secret revolutionary avant-guard’ to spread Khomeini-inspired revolution throughout the Arab world. Al-Modaressi was chosen to lead the Organization by Ayatollah Khomeini. It was responsible for numerous actions in Iraq in the 1980s including suicide bombings. In 1980, the Islamic Action Organization sought to assassinate Iraq’s deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, which helped precipitate the Iran-Iraq war.
According to Cambridge University’s Toby Matthiesen, Al-Modaressi was ‘very close’ to Iran’s leadership and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. There has been much speculation as to whether Al-Modarresi was in fact the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Office of Revolutions. Al-Modarresi has publicly denied this.
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