An interesting read this morning in the Boston Globe:

Iran’s ruling clerics have long prided themselves on running the world’s only Shi’ite Muslim state — a state that imposes religion, dictating what imams can preach, what the media can report, and what people can wear.

So some Iranians are intrigued by the more freewheeling experiment in Shi’ite empowerment taking place across the border in Iraq, where — Iraq’s myriad problems aside — imams can say whatever they want in political Friday sermons, newspapers and satellite channels regularly slam the government, and religious observance is respected and encouraged but not required.
…
“Sistani uses the authority of his word,” said Warraqi, 27. “The domain of Sistani is in religion, and he is obeyed by the people. Here they want to rule according to politics. That’s why they have to use the riot police.”

“Any time religion is imposed by the government,” Ghaie added, “there is a bad reaction.”