Zakaria wrongly dismisses Taqiyyah

In his latest piece in Newsweek Farid Zakaria chose to swim against the current on Iran. He argues that "everything you know about Iran is wrong".

Everything you know about Iran is wrong, or at least more complicated than you think. Take the bomb. The regime wants to be a nuclear power but could well be happy with a peaceful civilian program (which could make the challenge it poses more complex).

Among the evidences he provides to support his argument are the Rgiem's declared intentions.
Zakaria's weakest point is taking what could be propganda talk at face value, betting that Islam prohibts lying. He writes:

Now, of course, they could all be lying. But it seems odd for a regime that derives its legitimacy from its fidelity to Islam to declare constantly that these weapons are un-Islamic if it intends to develop them.

Well in Shiite Islam, this duality, could be easily practised under the notion of "taqiyah".

Britanica defines this term as follows:

The practice of concealing one’s belief and foregoing ordinary religious duties when under threat of death or injury. Derived from the Arabic word waqa (“to shield oneself”), taqiyyah defies easy translation. English renderings such as “precautionary dissimulation” or “prudent fear” partly convey the term’s meaning of self-protection in the face of danger to oneself or, by extension and depending upon the circumstances, to one’s fellow Muslims. Thus, taqiyyah may be used for either the protection of an individual or the protection of a community. Taqiyyah has been employed by the Shīʿites, the largest minority sect of Islam, because of their historical persecution and political defeats not only by non-Muslims but also at the hands of the majority Sunni sect.

Zakaria's argument that Iran might not be seeking the bomb is hardly unique though. It even echoes Israeli voices.

OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin says that wethear Iran assembles the bomb or not is rather a question of strategy not of capability. Last March his statement to Jerusalem Post was more than chilling:

Iran is continuing to amass hundreds of kilograms of low-enriched uranium, and it hopes to exploit the dialogue with the West and Washington to advance toward the production of an atomic bomb (...) it is incorporating the goal of producing an atomic bomb into its strategy.