Why might Muslim religious leaders object to reforms in Turkey and Persia?

Answer 1

There were several reasons for Muslim religious leaders' objections to the Tanzimat Reforms and the Young Turk Revolution in Turkey and the Pahlavi Westernization in Iran:

Loss of Political Influence: Many of these political reforms were done to increase the secularization of the Turkish and Iranian States, as a result, the Muslim clergy, which had historically had a large role in governance had their political roles threatened. As a result, they rose to defend their interests in maintaining political power.

Loss of Religious Education: Less self-centered than the previous one, the clergy lamented that the focus of education would now be to learn secular knowledge and sciences as opposed to religious education. These clerics feared that a whole new generation of Muslims would grow up without their religion or with a minimal understanding of it. They saw what modernization had done to religiousity in Europe and wished to prevent this.

Westernization Values: Westernization imparts different social values than the ones that Islamic clerics considered valuable. For example, Westerners value a person more often by his productivity than by his character and humility. The clerics saw the reforms as a slow creep of Western-style thinking, which they considered backwards and pejorative, into Muslim people's minds.

Traditionalists: The Muslim clerics, like most religious leaders have been, were traditionalists and as traditionalists they would oppose change merely because it is change. (This is as opposed to progressivists who actively seek out change and development, usually in a liberal direction.)

Christian Ascendance: The Ottoman Empire had a social structure where Muslims were first-class citizens and non-Muslims were second-class citizens, ensuring Muslims a number of political and social benefits over non-Muslims such as public offices and heading large companies. These reforms made for a more meritocratic playing field. Christians, who were, on average, better educated than Muslims began to pull ahead of their Muslim cohorts, leading to a reversal in society with the Christians being dominant in a majority-Muslim state.

Nationalism over Pan-Islamism: Both Turkish and Iranian Reforms strengthened nationalist ideologies and supported the uniqueness of Turks and Iranians by discussing their particular histories and values. Most clerics were Pan-Islamists, believing that all Muslims should be under a single united Islamic government. Therefore, they stressed the commonality of all Muslims, preferred Arabic as opposed to more local languages for governance and instilling the idea of a unified Islamic world. These two world views clashed quite strongly.