A Theoretical Approach to the Islamic Revolution in the face of Western Modernism

Western Modernism has been termed by Emam Khomeini, Ayatollah Khamenei and Ayatollah JavadiAmoli as “civilization in the path of animalism”, “jungle civilization” and “modern ignorance” respectively. Dealing with the “why” question for this viewpoints, the author of this paper thrives to answer the major question of “On what logic is the affront of Islamic Revolution with the Western Modernism based?”The findings of this research indicate that the affront can be studied based on partial conceptual overlap. That is, for Islamic revolution thinkers, ignorance is a general concept with wide implication, expressing itself in every era. Old ignorance was a limited instance for early Islamic era, while modern ignorance is a wide instance in the modern age. Atheist thinking constitutes the basis of western modernism, in which science and technology have become diverted from their main purposes and used as instruments for exerting exploitative policies. On the contrary, technological and artistic advancements are valued in Islam so that science and technology are encouraged for all constructive and beneficial purposes. Islamic Revolution thinkers believe that “human being is innately civilized and naturally animalistic”. Therefore, many preliminary humans lived in civilizations because of their mettle, while many modern ones are experiencing modern animalism using science and technology because of their nature.