Table Of ContentISLAM, DEMOCRACY AND RELIGIOUS MODERNISM
IN IRAN (1953-2000)
SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL
STUDIES OF
THE MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA
(S.E.P.S.M.E.A.)
(Founding editor: C.A.O. van Nieuwenhuijze)
Editor
REINHARD SCHULZE
Advisory Board
Dale Eickelman (Dartmouth College)
Roger Owen (Harvard University)
Judith Tucker (Georgetown University)
Yann Richard (Sorbonne Nouvelle)
VOLUME 77
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY
AND RELIGIOUS MODERNISM
IN IRAN (1953-2000)
From Bazargan to Soroush
BY
FOROUGH JAHANBAKHSH
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON • KOLN
2001
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jahanbakhsh, Forough.
Islam, democracy and religious modernism in Iran, 1953-2000 : from Bazargan
to Soroush / by Forough Jahanbakhsh.
p. cm. — (Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East and
Asia ISSN 1385-3376 ; v. 77).
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004119825 (alk. paper)
1. Islam and state—Iran. 2. Islam and politics—Iran. 3. Democracy—Reli-
gious aspects—Islam. 4. Iran—Intellectual life—20th century. 5.Iran—Politics
and government—1941-1979. 6. Iran—Politics and government—1979-1997.
7. Iran—Politics and government—1997- I. Title. II. Series.
BP173.6.J34 2001
320.955'09'045—dc21 00-060830
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Jahanbakhsh, Forough:
Islam, democracy and religious modernism in Iran (1953 - 2000) : from
Bazargan to Soroush / by Forough Jahanbakhsh. - Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill,
2001
(Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East & Asia
; Vol 77) ISBN 90-04-11982-5
ISSN 1385-3376
ISBN 9004119825
© Copyright 2001 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Chapter One. What is Democracy? 5
Fundamental Principles of Democracy 9
Equality 9
Liberty 13
Majority Rule 15
Chapter Two. Democratic Norms in Islam 20
Freedom 23
Apostasy 30
Equality 31
Religious Minorities 33
Slavery 35
Male-Female Dichotomy 38
Public Participation in Politics 42
Shurd and Bqy'ah 42
Chapter Three. The Emergence of Muslim Intellectualism in
Modern Iran 50
Chapter Four. Religious Modernism and Democracy
in Iran 65
Ayatullah S. Mahmudaliqani 69
Mahdi Bazargan 80
A Biographical Sketch 80
The Freedom Movement of Iran 91
Refutation of Despotism 94
Islamic Ideology 99
'Allamah Muhammad H. Tabataba'i 113
AH Shari'ati 119
Ayatullah M. Mutahharf 126
Ayatullah R. Khomeini 130
Concluding Remarks 136
V1 CONTENTS
Chapter Five. Post-Revolutionary Religious Intellectuals and
Democracy. Abdulkarim Soroush 140
Abdulkarim Soroush 143
A Biographical Sketch 143
The Theory of Contraction and Expansion of
Religious Knowledge 146
The Clergy 149
De-ideologization of Religion 151
Religious Democratic State 153
An Appraisal 162
Epilogue 172
Bibliography '. 186
Index 196
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is a real pleasure to acknowledge all those individuals from whom
I have received support and encouragement during the course of
preparation of this work. I would like to express my sincere thanks
to Professor Hermann Landolt with whom I was privileged to work
at McGill University where this book began as a doctoral dissertation.
He has continuously expressed interest and patience in reading this
work at every stage. His criticism and advice have been invaluable.
I would also like to thank Professor Charles J. Adams with whom
I discussed the initial outline of the work. I am very grateful to him
for having read and commenting on the first two chapters. Thanks
are also due to Professor Uner Turgay for his unfailing encouragement.
In the preparation of this work I have been privileged on several
occasions to discuss with Professor Abdulkarim Soroush many aspects
of his own thought. In these discussions not only did I gain a clearer
grasp of his rather complex thought and language, I also came away
with many rewarding insights which contributed to the improvement
of this study. For all this I am deeply indebted to him. Needless to
say, any inaccuracies in my presentation of his thought are mine
and mine alone.
I am grateful too to the staff of the library of the Institute of
Islamic Studies at McGill University for their diligent responses to
my numerous requests. I would specially like to acknowledge Mr.
Stephen Millier's invaluable assistance in a number of areas. I would
also like to extend my appreciation to the directors of the following
institutions: The Institute for Research and Islamic Studies (IRIS) in
Houston for suggesting and sending me materials related to the
Freedom Movement of Iran and Mahdi Bazargan, and the cultural
institutes of Sirat and Kiyan in Tehran who have generously pro-
vided me with published and unpublished works and audio-cassettes
of Dr. Abdulkarim Soroush's lectures, particularly during my research
visits to Iran in 1995.
My greatest debt is however owed to my parents for their unwa-
vering support and encouragement. My deepest thanks, which can-
not be expressed in words are due to them. To my parents I dedicate
this humble work.
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INTRODUCTION
About fifty years after the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906—
1911, religious forces began once again to become involved in Iranian
politics. From the withdrawal of the constitutionalist culama from pol-
itics until the failure of the National Movement (1953), only two
individual members of the clergy, Ayatullah Sayyid Hasan Mudarris
(d. 1936) and Ayatullah Abulqasim Kashani (d. 1962), as well as the
religiously motivated political organization Fada'iyan-i Islam, became
actively involved in political matters. The reason for the low profile
of religion on the political scene was due partly to the secularist pol-
icy of the Pahlavis, which aimed at separating religion and politics,
and partly to the aloofness and apathy with respect to politics shown
by the high ranking mujtahids of the era, particularly Ayatullah Shaykh
cAbdulkarfm Ha'irf Yazdl (d. 1936) and Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad
Husayn Burujirdi (d. 1961), two important marjac-i taqlids and tower-
ing figures in the Iranian Shicite community.1
The re-emergence of religion in politics was of a rather different
nature this time, and, unlike at the beginning of the century, it was
not initiated by high-ranking religious leaders. It started gradually
and primarily as a religious modernist movement with strong polit-
ical inclinations, its leading figures being lay religious intellectuals.
The clergy's participation in politics up until the 1979 revolution
had only been on an individual basis. However, as had been the
case during the constitutional movement, religion was once again
appealed to in support of democratic institutions and in opposition
to the autocratic nature of the ruling regime.
The present work intends to examine the contribution of this re-
emergence of religion to the problematic of the compatibility of Islam
and democracy within the time period 1953-2000. This will be
accomplished through an examination of the ideas of seven promi-
nent figures who have shaped the religio-political thought and dis-
course of the pre- and post-revolutionary eras in Iran. Three of them,
1 For details of clergy-state relations during this era, see Shahrough Akhavi,
Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran: Clergy-State Relation in the Pahlavi Period (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1980).
