IRAN – FROM AN ISLAMIC STATE TO AN ISLAMIC DEMOCRACY? A STUDY OF THE THOUGHTS OF ABDOLKARIM SOROUSH ON RELIGION AND STATE. CECILIE HOLTAN Hovedfag religionshistorie completed autumn 2005 at the department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages University of oslo Superviser: Kari Vogt CONTENTS INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................... 3 SOURCES AND METHODS ........................................................................................................................ 5 1.0 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SHI’I ISLAM AND POLITICS............................................................................................................................................... 8 1.1 The Imamate............................................................................................................................ 8 1.2 The occultation of the Twelth Imam................................................. 10 1.3 The Role of the ulama............................................................................................ 12 2.0 THE HISTORY OF IRAN .................................................................................................................. 15 2.1 The Constitutional Revolution of 1906-11.................................... 16 2.2 the Mossaddeq movement .................................................................................. 18 2.3 The Islamic Revolution ........................................................................................ 20 2.4 The making of the Iranian Constitution of 1979 .................. 24 2.5 the ambiguities of the Iranian Constitution and the institutions of the Iranian government............................................. 27 2.5.1 Islamic legalist elements............................................................................ 27 2.5.2 The power of the leader ................................................................................ 29 2.5.3 the power of the clergy................................................................................ 31 2.5.4 Democratic elements.......................................................................................... 32 2.5.5 The suppression of democratic rights....................................... 33 2.5.6 Secular elements..................................................................................................... 37 2.5.7 The deficiencies of the Shari’a as a ruling system in the modern world .............................................................................................................. 38 2.6 The mercantile bourgeoisie.......................................................................... 41 2.7 A growing civil society ....................................................................................... 43 2.8 The election of Khatami ..................................................................................... 46 2.9 Institutionalisation of the reformist’s power ................ 47 2.10 The Reform Movement.......................................................................................... 49 2.11 The dialectics of reform ................................................................................ 50 3.0 THE BACKGROUND OF ABDOLKARIM SOROUSH AND AN OUTLINING OF HIS MAIN THOUGHTS....................................................................................................................................... 52 3.1 A brief summary of Soroush’s life and the most important influences in his life..................................................................... 52 3.2 Soroush’s critique of ideology............................................................... 57 3.3 Soroush on the modern human being ................................................ 59 3.4 The theory of the contraction and expansion of religious knowledge...................................................................................................... 61 3.5 secularism ............................................................................................................................ 64 3.6 Dynamic fiqh....................................................................................................................... 65 3.7 Islamic democracy...................................................................................................... 65 3.8 What is the future role of Soroush?................................................ 66 4.0 FROM AN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC TO AN ISLAMIC DEMOCRACY? ...................................... 69 4.1 The emergence of a civil society in Iran....................................... 69 4.2 The roots of Iran’s civil society............................................................. 71 4.3 Institutions of civil society?..................................................................... 72 4.4 The myth of political emancipation................................................... 74 4.5 Soroush’s critique of the clergy ......................................................... 77 4.6 A conceptual crisis in the Islamic republic? .......................... 80 4.7 Soroush’s conception of secularism................................................. 84 4.8 The necessity of secularism ......................................................................... 84 4.9 The question of the shari’a............................................................................ 89 4.10 Traditional or dynamic fiqh? .................................................................. 90 4.11 The need to move beyond fiqh................................................................... 91 4.12 islamic democracy ................................................................................................... 93 4.13 Criticism of soroush’s thesis and his defence................... 96 4.14 The suppression of fundamental rights ................................. 101 4.15 The suppression of women ........................................................................... 103 4.16 The fight for freedom...................................................................................... 106 5.0 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 111 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................... 116 2 Introduction The Islamic Republic of Iran is often seen as one of the most fundamentalist Muslim countries in the world, and President George W. Bush has labelled Iran as part of an “axis of evil.” The clerical class seized power in the country through the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and took control of the highest positions in the government. However, there is another dimension to Iran, which is increasingly becoming apparent. Several reform thinkers have emerged from the Islamic Republic in the last decade; increasingly these have come to express themselves publicly. Many of them are controversial and are disliked by the clerical regime. One of the most influential, even beyond Iran’s borders, is Abdolkarim Soroush (b.1945). He is a prominent Iranian lay thinker, with a large following among parts of the Iranian public. When visiting Qom, Iran’s second holiest city with its famous Hadrat Fatima al-Masoumeh shrine, in the summer of 2005, I had the opportunity to talk to the leader of the Public Relations Office at the shrine, through a translator. He was a mullah (learned religious man) named Mohammad Nazari, who said he personally knew Soroush. He believed Soroush had been an excellent philosopher until he got the wrong ideas. These ideas cannot be tolerated. The mullah accused Soroush of submitting to the West, while he himself believed Islam possessed all the answers. The mullah believed that when a man with a large following and the wrong ideas, like Soroush, became influential, it was dangerous; one could only take Hitler as example!1 I believe this is illustrative of the views of the regime in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and their fear of thinkers like Soroush, as well as of Soroush’s importance. On the other hand, my chauffeur to Qom, Ali, believed Iran was moving towards a liberal democracy. He said that the mullah in Qom was a bad man, while Soroush was a good man. He personally believed the newly elected conservative president, Mahmojud Ahmadinejad, was the last president to be elected during the present government.2 These experiences serve to illustrate the diversity of opinions in the Islamic Republic. My main research question in this study is (1): Is there a potential for the Islamic Republic of Iran to develop into an “Islamic democracy?” My main concern, however, is not social and political development as such, but my approach is to look at the ideas and arguments in favour of democracy based on the thoughts on religion and state expressed by one of the foremost Iranian reformist thinkers, whom I have already introduced, namely Abdolkarim Soroush. The term “Islamic democracy” is a term used by Soroush, and I will explain the concept at a later point. My 1 Conversation in Qom 29th of June 2005. 2 Conversation on our way to Qom 29th of June 2005. 3 second research question is (2): What are the arguments of Soroush for an “Islamic democracy?” I will present the content of his arguments and ideas for an “Islamic democracy” and discuss these