1.   And this fight from within the religious hierarchy only serves to strengthen the hand of the recently elected moderate President Mohammed Khatami.

2.   He was a member of the Sufi order of Muslims, which scorns religious hierarchy and stresses direct human contact with the infinite.

3.   In November, Nouri was sentenced to prison after he enraged the religious hierarchy by questioning their near-absolute power over how Iranians conduct their private lives.

4.   Many people are also dissatisfied with religious hierarchies, he said.

5.   Observers note that this movement poses an unprecedented challenge to the religious hierarchy in Iran.

6.   The disagreement between the student and the rector goes all the way to the top of the religious hierarchy.

7.   There is no pope or no set religious hierarchy within Islam to settle such things.

8.   Though he was raised Jewish and expressed fervently pro-Israel political views to friends, Frankel aggressively courted the Catholic Church and the Vatican religious hierarchy beginning last summer.

9.   They do not have an organised religious hierarchy, each clan or group having its own leader.

10.   Women can not be judges in Iran and are barred from the religious hierarchy, which holds the reins of power.