The Iranian reform and its permutations: How fundamentalism gave birth to its opposite By Ahmad Sadri (December 14, 2002) The Iranian Understanding the reform movement in Iran is predicated upon understanding the particular brand of Islamic fundamentalism which it aims to modify. There is a lot that is unique about Iranian fundamentalism but it […]
We, the undersigned are appalled by the human rights abuses against Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government, the continual military occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory by Israeli armed forces and settlers, and the forcible eviction from and demolition of Palestinian homes, towns and cities. We find the recent attacks on Israeli […]
President’s Essay — From the 2001 Annual Report By Vartan Gregorian Although more than a year has passed since the attacks of September 11, 2001, most Americans still have such a sketchy knowledge of Islam that we probably need to keep ourselves focused on President George W. Bush’s repeated reminders that terrorists, not Muslims or […]
Excerpted from draft of Noah Feldman, After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy (forthcoming Farrar, Straus & Giroux Spring ’03). Not for quotation. How, exactly, might Islam and democracy coexist? The sine qua non of democracy is collective self-government through popular elections. If one looks at the medieval classics of […]
Briefly… Democracy building remains an uphill struggle in most Muslim countries. The explanation of why so many Muslim countries are not democratic has more to do with historical, political, cultural, and economic factors than with religious ones. Nevertheless, many Muslim activists, using broad and sometimes crude notions of secularism and sovereignty, consider democracy to be […]
AP – Wednesday, 21 August, 2002 A lecture by an influential Islamic scholar considered the main thinker behind the reformist movement in Iran has been cancelled at short notice. Abdolkarim Soroush was due to speak at Tehran’s Amir Kabir University on Wednesday morning. The official news agency quoted a statement by the university’s Islamic Society […]
TEHRAN – Abdul Karim Soroush, a philosopher-theologian, is a leading thinker of post-Islamist Iran. But it’s impossible to meet him at his office near Tehran University. Soroush has been in jail for five months now, accused of talking and writing against the regime. His private secretary says that any communication has to pass through his […]
Comments by: Donald Cupitt (Catholics for a Changing Church) Dr Abdul Karim Soroush is a Muslim, an Iranian academic lawyer. Through Peter Lumsden and the Internet, a rare lecture of his, on Religious Knowledge, has come to RENEW. The gist of it follows. IN SCIENTIFIC study of nature, we know now that observation does not […]
