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Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

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9 8<strong>Islam</strong> i n <strong>World</strong> Cult u r e sthis “postmodernist” relativistic read<strong>in</strong>g extends to <strong>in</strong>clude <strong>in</strong> these debates allpeople who can put forth a rational argument.S o r o u s h ’s ideas lessen the importance of the clergy as the legitimate representativesof <strong>Islam</strong> and puts religious <strong>in</strong>terpretation <strong>in</strong>to the hands of laity. Is am u j t a h i d’s legal op<strong>in</strong>ion, based upon years of study<strong>in</strong>g the religious texts, to beconsidered equal to that of a lay person, who may have only a cursory knowledgeof such matters? In Soroush’s system, it might very well be. Hence,Soroush has been called the Mart<strong>in</strong> Luther of <strong>Islam</strong> (Soroush 2000, xv). Just asLuther challenged the legitimacy of the Catholic Church as the only representativeof Christianity, so Soroush’s ideas contest the authority of the clergy byargu<strong>in</strong>g that i j t i h a d is an outdated mode of knowledge, based upon premodernmodes of th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g no longer valid <strong>in</strong> today’s rational world. As one obse rver notes, Soroush’s philosophy, if implemented, would create a profoundlysecular society, <strong>in</strong> which <strong>Islam</strong> would be a personal faith different for all andreligious law would be a relative affair dependent upon democratic vote of diverse<strong>in</strong>dividuals (Dahlen 2002).In the early twenty-first century, proclamations from the United States claimthat Iran is among those nations promot<strong>in</strong>g terrorism, and so is part of an“axis of evil.” These statements surprise many Iranians, especially s<strong>in</strong>ce PresidentKhatami has made great overtures to the United States by open<strong>in</strong>g upl<strong>in</strong>es of communication, foster<strong>in</strong>g progressive developments <strong>in</strong> cultural andacademic fields, and condemn<strong>in</strong>g the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and theform of <strong>Islam</strong> promoted by the Taliban. In its provocative label<strong>in</strong>g of Iran as anabode of evil, the U.S. government appears to have overlooked some of the remarkabledevelopments toward democratization <strong>in</strong> Iran dur<strong>in</strong>g the 1990s.These remarks certa<strong>in</strong>ly ignore the fact that most Iranians have come to rejectboth terrorism and religious extremism. Many consider the <strong>Islam</strong>ic revolutionary regime to have been both a religious and a political failure. The majority ofthe people <strong>in</strong> Iran want to reconcile <strong>Islam</strong> with the contemporary world outsidethe regime’s extremist religious ideology and want to slough off such fanaticismand embrace a future <strong>in</strong> which they have greater freedom, justice,and prosperity than they do now.Summary and ConclusionsThe modern period <strong>in</strong> Iran has brought about an <strong>in</strong>creased politicization ofthe Shi’ite clergy, which culm<strong>in</strong>ated <strong>in</strong> Khome<strong>in</strong>i’s creat<strong>in</strong>g a totalitarian modern<strong>Islam</strong>ic state whose <strong>in</strong>stitutional forms are derived from totalitarian secularnations. Even Iran’s version of <strong>Islam</strong>ic law is a modern form of state-enforcedbehavior that does not adhere to a traditional understand<strong>in</strong>g of the s h a r i ’ a . O na day-to-day basis, Iran has experienced the problem of <strong>Islam</strong> and modernity

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