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The Iranian revolution of 1979 overhauled not only the foundations of Iranian society, religion and politics, but also our understanding of the role of religion in modern government. Here Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi takes us on an enlightening journey, showing that the revolution unintentionally opened up the public sphere to competing interpretations of Islam. Far from being the exclusive preserve of high-ranking seminarians as before, in contemporary Iran lay theologians, intellectuals, lawyers and social activists are active and influential interlocutors in debates on the meaning of Islam. A key figure is philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush, a leading force behind Iran’s pro-democracy movement and vocal critic of the state. Through a close reading of Soroush’s writings, and by tracing the links between Muslim intellectual critique and the realpolitik of postrevolutionary power struggles, Ghamari-Tabrizi offers nothing less than a pathbreaking reassessment of the Iranian revolution. With powerful insights, Islam and Dissent is essential for an understanding of the Muslim world today, as of the new relationships between religion, politics and democracy visible across the globe.
"This brilliant analysis of ideological ferment in contemporary Iran is an eye-opening revelation of the issues created by the political role of Islam. It also gives profound insights into situations around the world where religion has become a part of social dissent. This book shows that when religion enters the public sphere it becomes a contested field of interpretation-even by its ardent proponents. Far from a simple 'clash of civilizations,' the politicization of religion creates crises internal to communities of faith and new challenges to understanding the relationship between culture and political power. This book should be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the internal character of today’s global rebellion against the secular state."--Mark Juergensmeyer, Professor of Sociology and Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
"This book will become recognized as one of the best reassessments of the Revolution and of the roles played by the likes of Soroush, Shariati and indeed Khomeini himself. … [drawing on] numerous specific references to Irani sources that are not generally available to readers outside of Iran and who do not read Farsi. … [The chapter on Soroush] presents the best intellectual history of the Revolution I have read."--Richard Martin, Professor of Islamic Studies and History of Religion, Emory University
"Could become a standard reference in courses on Islam and modernity, as well as Iran"-- Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies, UNC & Chair for Study of Islam Section, American Academy of Religion
"Suitable for courses on Islam, politics and modern society, and accessible for upper-level undergraduate as well as graduate students"--Valerie J Hoffman, (specialist in Islam), Associate Professor, Department of Religion, University of Illinois
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is Assistant Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in transnational and global histories in the Middle Eastern postcolonial context, and studies social movements and intellectual articulations of Islamic conceptions of modernity. He has published in varieties of academic journals such as International Sociology, International Review of Social History, Migration Review, Critique, and others.
* INTRODUCTION: IDEOLOGICAL CERTAINTIES, PAST AND PRESENT * Totality, Utopia, and Foundationalism * From Fairytales to Nightmares * The Topic of this Book * THE ISLAMIC ROOTS OF MODERNITY AND THE MODERN ROOTS OF ISLAMISM * British Colonialism in India and the Islamic Modernism of Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897) * Al-Ikhw?n al-Muslimun: The Birth of Political Islam * Abul Ala Maududi (1903-1979): The Islamic State in Pakistan * Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966): The Establishment of the State of Israel * The Arab-Israeli War of 1967 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979 * LEGITIMIZING THE POSTREVOLUTIONARY REGIME AND THE GENESIS OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION * The Genesis of the Constitution and Its Ratification * The Politics of the Assembly of Experts & the Final Draft of the Constitution * Vel?yat-e Faqih and the Right of Self-Determination * Sources of Legitimacy: The Faqih Meets Rousseau and Mao * National Interests and the Interests of the Ummah * Legislating and Ijtihad, the Constitution versus the Shari`ah * The Limits and boundaries of freedom and democracy * The Constitutional Referendum * From Sacralizing the State to Secularizing the Fiqh * ABDOLKARIM SOROUSH, THE INTELLECTUAL VOICE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC * Soroush, Marxists, and the “Eclectics” * Anthropomorphism, Scientism and Historicism * Elitist Totalitarianism * Soroush and the Cultural Revolution * Soroush and the Cultural Revolution Council (CRC)I * Soroush, the Purged President, and the Obliterated Left * FROM THE REIGN OF TERROR TO LET A THOUSAND FLOWERS BLOOM * Factions Within * Things Fall Apart * Maslahat over Feq?hat * Amending the Constitution: The Institutionalization of the Absolute Rule of the Faqih * FROM LIBERATION THEOLOGY TO STATE IDEOLOGY ALI SHARI`ATI AND THE EMERGENCE OF NEW RELIGIOUS INTELLECTUALS * Islam as Ideology * Shari`ati the Iranian Gramsci * Ummah, Imamate, and the Ideological Society * The West and Gharbzadegi * THE SILENCE OF THE SHARI`AH: SOROUSH AND THE THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF POLITICAL REFORM * Soroush and the Critique of Islam as State Ideology * The Return from Ideology to Religion * The Theory of Shari`at-e S?met, The Silent Shari`ah * History, Culture, and Religious Knowledge * Secularism, Democracy, and the Religious State * Conceptions of Science and Technology * On Westoxication (Gharbzadegi) * The Return to “Authentic Self” * Responses: From Prodigy to Pariah * ISLAM, DEMOCRACY AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM * Straight Paths and Religious Pluralism * Reason and Religion * The Eternity of the Qur’an * The Critics: Relativism, Secularism, and Democracy * Soroush Versus Soroush * Whither Soroush? * CONCLUSION: SOCIAL CHANGE AND THE SYMBOLIC UNIVERSE OF RELIGION * Bibliography * Index *
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