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In Iran, Web-Savvy Clerics Reach Out to Shiite Faithful
[Los Angeles Times] Kim Murphy - In the Iranian city of Qom, the seat of Iran's powerful Shiite Muslim clergy and home to 52 Islamic seminaries, men at the Aalulbayt Global Information Center sit behind rows of computer screens in large rooms padded with deep Oriental carpets, typing out web pages of Koranic analysis and religious edicts translated into 30 languages. From here, via a server in Santa Clara, Calif., emanates www.al-shia.com, the most widely read source of Shiite proselytizing in the world. Also here is the worldwide communications hub for Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, www.sistani.org, and for Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, www.leader.ir. Now, to browse through Iranian websites is to come upon a flood of pages featuring solemn-looking men wearing beards and turbans. Hundreds of Iranian clerics today have blogs of their own. Qom's religious leaders hope to build new links between the mother ship and the world's 150 million Shiite Muslims.