A review of Islam, Tradition, and Modern State"

“Islam, Tradition, and Modern State”, written by Seyyed Ali Mir-Mousavi, is to deconstruct Shiite Ijtihad through discourse analysis, perform a typological study of Shiite political thought, and discuss the factors of incompatibility between the traditional political thought and the requirements of modern states. The most important criticisms are related to methodologies applied in this book: using inconsistent and incompatible methods, their incorrect application to Muslim scholars such as Al-Jahiz, and finally the inappropriate use of these methods. According the discourse analysis, there can be different readings based on different conditions and not all can be used simultaneously. In addition, discourse analysis is not compatible. Concerning the content of the book, too, classifying the discourses into traditional, reformist, and critical and some of the references in the book need to be considered seriously.