9th July 2025
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Islam and Modernism

Why is the experience of Muslims about modernization and modernity different from Western modernization and modernity? Why do we have modernities (plural), not modernity (singular)? How did modernity divide Muslims into conservative or traditionalists, fundamentalists or revolutionaries, quasi-conservatives, reformists, and revisionists? How does each of these five camps introduce Islam? This course tries to respond to such questions, as the key questions of Islam and modernism. We focus on the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries’ main debates, tensions, responses, and adaptations, and cover the major classics of this period.

Religion and Politics In Post-Revolutionary Iran

This course will narrate a fair and balanced critical and historical analysis, and is organized into five thematic sections: a brief overview of the relationship between religion and politics in Iran, an intellectual history of the Islamic Republic, examining the concept of the “sacred as secular” and exploring the dynamics of secularization within a theocratic system, the governance in the name of Islam, focusing on theology and theocratic rule in the Islamic Republic, and the revolt against theocracy: the Mahsa Movement and the feminist uprising against theocracy in Iran.

The Grave Mistake of an American War on Iran

U.S. involvement in Israel’s illegal war against Iran runs counter to the core slogan of “America First” and marks a shift to “Israel First.” President Trump could repeat the mistakes of Presidents Eisenhower and Bush and go down in history as the first American president to launch a military attack on Iran. This would kill civilians and return many coffins to America. The United States, like Israel, would further its legacy in the Middle East as a symbol of injustice, lawlessness, immorality, and the violation of dignity, ethics, and humanity.

Solutions for the Immediate Rescue of Iran

As part of its new Middle East strategy, Israel has launched a war against Iran using the most advanced American weaponry, which violates all principles of international law. In light of the harsh reality of global power coercion and their disregard for legal standards, and considering Iran’s national capabilities, we present the following proposals to the government and our fellow citizens: Call for a Temporary Ceasefire, Direct Negotiations with the United States, Flexibility on Enrichment, Reconciliation Between the Islamic Republic and the People, Holding a Referendum to Amend the Constitution.

Reflections on Israel’s War Against Iran

Israel’s aggression on Iranian soil must be unequivocally condemned from every perspective. Although Israel has pursued its objectives in the Middle East through military means, backed by highly advanced American and European weaponry, it has failed miserably in the realms of law, morality, and humanity. As a result, Israel is arguably the most hated country in the world. There is no doubt that the aggressor’s hold must be broken and the homeland firmly defended, regarding two principles: prioritizing public consent over governmental demands and respecting national capabilities.

The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam

This talk examines the historic invention and spreads reports attributed to the Prophet in support of a criminal penalty for apostasy in Islamic law. The texts are weak, have no known chain of transmitters, and were often isolated. Furthermore, these texts directly contradict the Quran, which condemns but never mentions any criminal punishment for blasphemy, apostasy, or leaving Islam. This talk explores the process of the creation and dissemination of a serious criminal penalty that seems to be based on authentic Islamic texts, but a close review reveals was not.

Iran: The Domination of a Minority Over a Diverse Society

The back-breaking U.S. sanctions impact the lower classes far more than the theocratic regime or the IRGC. The major problem in Iran is the domination of an ideological minority over a diverse society. While the regime pours resources into regional ambitions, domestic discontent grows, poverty, repression, and a generation that rejects the politicization of religion. Most Iranians today overwhelmingly prioritize national interests. Palestinians have the right to their land, their country, and their sovereignty. U.S. military aid to Israel has been used to support acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Shari’a, Fiqh, and the possibility/impossibility of Islamic Law

Shari’a (the Islamic style of life) will continue strongly. Fiqh will continue in worship and rituals, quasi-rituals, the principle of human interactions, and many parts of civil fiqh, including fiqh of the family, with observing gender equality and religious equality. Islamic law may be used in civil law and commercial law by observing four criteria (reasonability, justice, morality, and functionality). Other branches of law are counted as impossible. The cost of Islamizing them is much greater than leaving them to secular law while respecting Islamic ethics in these areas.

Comparative Religious Studies

The main goal of the seminar is a better understanding of the key concepts of Abrahamic traditions through comparative religious studies methodology. The seminar discusses theological subjects in the philosophical realm, descriptive not prescriptive, as a historian or an outsider of these traditions, not as an insider or believer. The discussions are purely neutral, critical analysis, historical, and based on modern scholarship of religious studies. Is the scripture infallible? Are Jews, Christians, and Muslims worshiping the same God? What is the initial capacity for violent interpretation in each tradition?

Philosophy of Religion

Philosophy of religion is a critical examination of metaphysics and rational justification for religious claims, as well as philosophical exploration of faith, religious experience, and the distinctive features of religious discourse. The course explores the nature of God’s attributes; arguments for God’s existence; the problem of evil; religious epistemology; religious language; God, science, and naturalism; faith and revelation; morality and religion; death and afterlife; miracles; and religious diversity. We compare the advantages and disadvantages of four methods of practicing the philosophy of religion: analytic, Wittgensteinian, continental, and feminist.
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Email: kadivar.mohsen59 (at) gmail.com

About

Mohsen Kadivar is a mujtahid, Islamic theologian, philosopher, writer, leading intellectual reformist, and research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University.