Tag: Khomeini

Religion and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran

What is the relationship between religion and politics in general and Islam and politics in particular? What does ‘political Islam’ or ‘Islamism mean’? What was Khomeini’s political thought? What does theocracy do with secularism and democracy? What is the role of election in a quasi-democratic regime? How did regime expediency secularize the administration? What is the relationship between civil law and Islamic law (sharia)? Why did the Islamic Republic of Iran transform from a competitive electoral to a non-competitive electoral authoritarian regime?

Condemning the attack on Rushdie

I strongly condemn today’s bloody attack on Salman Rushdie, the author of Satanic Verses in New York. Based on Islamic and Quranic teachings, this illegitimate attempt is condemned. The way to deal with false thoughts is scientific criticism, not physical elimination. “The bloody fatwas against Kasravi, Taha, Fawda and Taqī, as well as the legal rulings to kill Rushdie and Abū Zayd, must be publicly condemned to prevent their recurrence, for they only weakened and harmed Islam. Issuing such fatwas is a sign of the inability to provide a rebuttal.”

The Era of Cooperation and Assistance

The book is a documentary of the agreeable years of constructive cooperation between Khomeini and Montazeri before and after the 1979 revolution. The Assembly of Experts recognized Montazeri as the next leader of the IRI. This hurried action proved to be detrimental to Montazeri, and did not bear any advantage for him at all. These resolutions were the brainchild of Ali Khamenei which were directed and realized with the assistance of Hashemi Rafsanjani. Compared to Khomeini, Montazeri had a relatively liberal mindset regarding domestic politics, public rights, and civil liberties.

Islamic Political Philosophy after 40 years

Khomeini’s political theory of the absolute appointive guardianship of the jurist council was based on several problematic prerequisites or hypotheses: 1) The teachings of Islam could not be practiced completely unless political power was held by the jurists. 2) The establishment of an Islamic State as the necessary premise of implementing Shari’a. 3) Shari’a as Islamic law as state law. 4) Jurist ruler can make any law or suspend any law including Shari’a rulings for the purpose of public interest or regime protection. It is absolutely wrong theoretically and practically.

Islamic Governance in Theory and Practice

This is a narrative of an ‘insider’ of the revolution of 1979 and in the Islamic Republic of Iran. “What went wrong in Islamic Republic of Iran?” is the major question that I am trying to answer. My response is ‘theocracy’, which entails an ideological understanding of Islam, misunderstanding of the key-concept of law, replacing it with decrees of jurist-ruler, implementing sharia as state law, having the dream of “Islam is the solution”, and ignoring modernity. My presentation is rooted in my personal experience of the revolution and Islamic Republic.

Arbitrary Rule in the Name of Islam

Three senior combatant jurists stood up in the uprising of June 1963 against Shah’s dictatorship: Khomeini, Ḥassan Qummī and Bahā’ ad-Dīn Maḥallātī (d. 1981). The latter two also protested against the Islamic Republic in its early post-revolution phase. Qummī was placed under house arrest illegally by his previous ally Khomeini since 1981. Maḥallātī wrote two letters of protest to Khomeini in 1980, and in January 1981 issued a pronouncement questioning the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic. The book is story of Maḥallātī’s struggle for reforming Islamic Republic.