Confronting Islamic Ideologies in Iran

This dissertation argues that there is an ideological antagonism between the Islamic reformists and the Islamic fundamentalists, pertaining to the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The claim of this work is that the same elements of liberalism, the ideas of individualism and liberal rights and the same elements of communitarianism, the ideas of community and the common good are quite generally found within Islamic political discourses. The reformists rejected the fundamentalists religious dogmatism, intolerance and monopolistic policy, and they introduced liberal ideas of self-autonomy, tolerance and pluralism. The fundamentalists arguments built on rejection of what they called Western freedom and American democracy . The Islamic democracy and Islamic freedom of the fundamentalists were constructed by negation of the West , instead stating that God, the divine sources, and justice are the main principles. One of the most important results of this study is the demonstration of the battle between two hegemonic projects: liberal Islam of the reformists and the communitarian Islam by the fundamentalists.

Autorentext

Fariba Parsa is a Post doctoral fellow at Harvard University,Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She received her PhD and a Master Degree in Political Science in Denmark. She has taught on Iranian politics, written articles, and was an analyst in the Danish Media.