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On this episode of the Order From Ashes podcast, Marsin Alshamary explains why, despite some setbacks, Shia clerics in Iraq still wield a great deal of authority.\xa0\n\xa0\nProtest movements have rejected religion in politics, while corrupt politicians have sullied the reputations of religious factions. But clerics and their institutions remain powerful players in Iraqi society even as their roles change.\n\xa0\nThis episode of Order From Ashes is the second in \u201cShia Power,\u201d a four-part series about the transformation of Shia politics in Iraq, and what Iraq\u2019s experience teaches us about the role of religion in politics everywhere.\xa0\n\xa0\nIn episode 1 of \u201cShia Power,\u201d Sajad Jiyad and host Thanassis Cambanis chart the powerful role of religion and the Shia clergy in the creation of a new Iraqi order after Saddam Hussein. In episode 2, Marsin Alshammary draws on her fieldwork in the seminaries of Najaf to argue that clerical authority has not diminished, despite setbacks over the last twenty years. In episode 3, Taif Alkhudary chronicles the revolutionary efforts of the Tishreen protest movement to establish an alternative to religious politics. In episode 4, the final in this series, Ali Al-Mawlawi connects some of today\u2019s sectarian rhetoric to Iraq\u2019s long history of anti-Shia prejudice.\n\xa0\nRead:\nReport: \u201cShia Clerics in Iraq Haven\u2019t Lost Their Authority,\u201d by Marsin Alshamary\n Book: Shia Power Comes of Age\n Project: Shia Politics\n\xa0\nParticipants:\nMarsin Alshamary, assistant professor of political science, Boston College\nThanassis Cambanis, director, Century International