secularism

From the theoretical standpoint of political theology rather than political philosophy, this article examines the theological system of some religious intellectuals in justifying and reconstructing their political thought. and It attempts to tries to show that - as a global and international example -due to secular thinking, In political thought or opposition to it, How is their theological organization structured. The research method in this study is a qualitative documentary method, appropriate to the subject. Also, using the discourse analysis method of Laclau and Mouffe, which considers the temporary fixation of meaning in signs as a result of opposition and hostility, and Van Dyck's critical discourse analysis and the understanding and extraction of the invoked signifier and the rejected signifier (highlighted and marginalized), we examine the theological discourse of these religious intellectuals. The research findings show that the type of encounter with the issue of "resurrection and the hereafter" and the type of conceptualization of the relationship between "man and God" support the theological organization of some religious intellectuals (Soroush and the late Bazargan) to justify their political thought; That is, with the secularization of thought, resurrection and the hereafter are included in the context of religious thought and become prominent in their organization of religious knowledge, and the design of religion as an organization regulating collective life in the world is marginalized.Also, with the non-secularization of thought (Shariati), the resurrection and the afterlife become thin and go to the sidelines, and the potential of religion in managing the world is highlighted, and in a sense, a religion that cannot do anything for the world of humans is not useful for the afterlife either. Also, in secular thought, the relationship between man and God is formulated in a specific way. Religious intellectualism, in contrast to other intellectual and epistemological groups, cannot be indifferent to modern life and its epistemological and institutional products, like traditionalists, nor can it abandon its religious origins, like non-religious intellectuals and thinkers. Therefore, in a continuous process over the past century, it has attempted to provide a narrative and interpretation of religion that is compatible with modern thought and its products. If modern empirical science has become a general reference as a product of modern thought and experience and cannot be ignored, then a reading and knowledge of religion must be presented that is compatible with modern science. And if the ability and richness of a thought in the modern era is its practical nature in carrying out social changes (ideology), then there must be a view of religion that has this ability and is introduced as an ideology. If the characteristic and advantage of modern experience and thought is in democratic collective life, a plan of religion must be presented that is democratic. This list can be continued regarding human rights, the issue of women, freedom of speech, and the like. Religious intellectuals seek to modernize religion and religious society, and at the same time, they want to remain within the circle of religious knowledge and religious stance. Therefore, by constantly reviewing the organization of their religious thought, for example, by highlighting and marginalizing some religious components, they try to eliminate or reduce the conflicts between religious thought and modernity, and to combine being religious and being modern. Sometimes this path leads to changes and revisions in the deepest layers of religious knowledge, that is, their theological system, and these changes are so profound that they find a fundamental distance from other religious thinkers and, according to some of them, they are removed from the category of religiosity.

Iraq experienced political stability under the long-standing Ba'athist regime. However, due to the Ba'athists' authoritarian and anti-religious policies, the Iraqi people lacked political and religious freedom. This equation was reversed after the US intervention and the overthrow of the Ba'athist regime. The people seemingly gained political and religious freedom through the establishment of a parliamentary democracy. However, they faced numerous crises in return, including state-building, security, economic, cultural, and social fragmentation crises. These crises stemmed from the US's attempt to impose a Western secular culture on a traditional and religious society to advance its own interests. Considering the history of Islamism in Iraq and its position on the axis of resistance, understanding the role of secular discourses in advancing US objectives is of great importance. This research, based on discourse analysis, seeks to answer the main question of the role of secular discourses in advancing US objectives in Iraq. Based on the research, three main secular discourses can be identified in modern Iraq: right-wing liberal secularism, left-wing social secularism, and nationalist secularism, with right-wing secularism being the dominant one. Each of these discourses serves US interests in different ways, which are explained in the text of the article.Secular discourses have played a significant role in advancing US objectives in Iraq. These discourses have helped to Legitimize the US intervention in Iraq: Secular discourses have been used to justify the US invasion of Iraq as a necessary step to liberate the Iraqi people from a repressive regime and to establish a democratic state. Promote US values: Secular discourses have been used to promote US values such as democracy, human rights, and freedom. Counteract Islamist extremism: Secular discourses have been used to counter the influence of Islamist extremist groups such as ISIS Secular discourses have played a significant role in advancing US objectives in Iraq. These discourses have helped to legitimize the US intervention in Iraq, promote US values, and counteract Islamist extremism. However, the future of secularism in Iraq is uncertain. The country is facing numerous challenges, including sectarian violence, economic instability, and political corruption. These challenges could lead to a resurgence of Islamist extremism and a decline in support for secularism.

During Iraq's lengthy Ba'athist rule, the country experienced political stability; however, the Ba'ath Party's authoritarian and anti-religious policies deprived the population of political and religious freedoms. With the U.S. invasion and the fall of the Ba'ath regime, this situation changed dramatically. On the surface, Iraqis achieved political and religious freedoms under the new parliamentary democracy. Yet, the country faced a series of crises, including governmental structure, security, economic and cultural challenges, and deep social divisions. These crises can be attributed to the United States' efforts to impose a secular Western culture on a traditional and religious society, ultimately to serve its own interests. This study employs discourse analysis to address the question: What role have secular discourses played in advancing U.S. objectives in Iraq? Given Iraq's historical context of Islamist movements and its strategic position within the Resistance Axis, examining the role of secular discourses in furthering U.S. agendas is particularly significant from both security and identity perspectives.

Since the Arab societies' encounter with Western life and thought and related categories, especially " customization" and "secularism", Each of the different intellectual and political currents and discourses has attempted to provide a suitable response to the seemingly insoluble issues of tradition and modernity in a worthy manner. In this regard, the question has been evaluated as to whether, what are the reactions and responses of intellectuals and actors of the later generations of the Arab world (2007 to December 2024) especially in the Mu'tazilite reformist movements and later nationalism towards the conceptual curve of the West and what are the two effective concepts of secularism and secularization? to the curve of (developmental) political and economic achievements of the West, especially with regard to the two influential concepts of secularism and customization? In the analysis, the authors emphasized the assumption that, later Arab intellectuals - especially in the two reformist Mu'tazilite and later nationalist movements - were influenced by numerous changes and new issues, they have provided a variety of responses and reactions, which have ultimately led to the relative consolidation of secularization and secularism compared to previous decades. The research findings indicate that, New Arab activists, by confronting traditional problems, they have been relatively successful in institutionalizing the development-oriented values of Western thought in politics and society, and have channeled customization and secularism through paths such as rethinking tradition and modernity and Arab nationalism

Secularization in Iran, including policies under the shadow of modernity, became a primary concern of Reza Shah and was placed on the agenda of the Pahlavi government. Actions such as reducing the power of clergy, eliminating religious symbols, unveiling compulsory hijab, establishing a modern legal and judicial system, creating new institutions, transforming the educational system, etc., all aimed at eliminating the role of religious institutions in Iranian society. However, the question arises whether these actions were taken with the aim of secularizing Iranian society or consolidating authoritarianism. A secular government does not seek to eliminate religion or favor a particular religion but rather ensures religious freedom by maintaining neutrality. The animosity of Reza Shah towards religious institutions and symbols aimed at eliminating the power of rivals indicates that secularism in this era was a tool in the hands of an absolute government to achieve consolidation of power, despotism, and its desired ideology. Studying Iranian secularism and its formation process, Reza Shah's policies in realizing the secularization project, and the impact and position of Shia thought in Iranian society will be crucial in examining the reasons for the failure of First Pahlavi's dream of secularization in Iran.

The Islamic Revolution of Iran in February 1979, as a major phenomenon like other great revolutions, has had wide-ranging global implications. Its Islamic nature, along with Iran's geopolitical and strategic position in the Middle East and the existence of corridors connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa, compelled the international relations scene to pay attention to this important development and its impact on the international arena. The purpose of this article is to answer the question of how the important theories of international relations have reacted to the actions and reactions of the Islamic Revolution in Iran? The emergence and spread of revolutionary theories and the creation of an ideology independent of dominant ideologies such as liberalism, communism, Arab nationalism, and Zionism led to a change in global beliefs and perspectives on new issues such as equality, human value in society, and divine nature. Therefore, if we consider the theories of international relations, which are mainly based on secularism, as machines with inputs and outputs, these machines were faced with a new undefined input that now needed to either change their definitions or ignore this input. This analogy shows that revolutionary theories have led to the emergence of a new perspective for the creation of complementary theories in order to be able to cover the shortcomings of these theories in combining religion and politics, just as the theory of balance of power covered the weaknesses of realism.

The present paper is aimed at investigating the intellectual – historical roots of institutional secularization of the Turkish government, and fundamental characteristics and contradictions of the Turkish secularism model (known as Laiklik) during its establishment period. Later on, these contradictions caused major challenges in the Turkish politics, keeping the religion – government gap still an active political issue. Despite the officiality of the Laiklik and the official secular rhetoric, the government’s authoritative interventions into religious affairs, nationalization of Islam, and failure to preserve the neutrality of the government in practice (regarding different religions and sects) are among the most important characteristics of the Turkish secularism during its establishment period. These three contradicting characteristics are among the most important distinctions between this particular model of secularism and the western models of secularism.Considering equal dignity for people with different religious and non-religious beliefs and ensuring conscience – religion freedom have been among the most basic objectives of the secularism. The principle of non-interference of the government in religious affairs and the principle of neutrality are basic instruments for realizing such an objective. In the Turkish model, however, from the early stages of establishment of the secularism (Ataturk Administration), the objectives were pretty ambiguous. During this stage, the secular politics was based on political authoritarianism, extreme ethnic nationalism, and authoritative modernization, of which the secularization was only a part. Accordingly, this model of secularism possessed particular features and contradictions that have remained unresolved till today

"Mehdi Bazargan," as one of the most prominent figures of the enlightened religious intellectual movement in Iran, while expressing devotion to religion, made significant efforts in the realms of thought and political action. Nevertheless, one of the questions about him concerns his relationship with "secular thought," as numerous statements suggesting his non-secular interpretation are juxtaposed with ample evidence placing him within the realm of secular scholarship. This article aims to utilize a hermeneutic interpretive approach, particularly drawing on the narrative of "Quentin Skinner," to answer the question of whether Bazargan was secular or not. Based on this, the primary question of this research, focusing on Skinner's specific interpretive model that emphasizes understanding the "author's intention" and the necessity of "understanding the intended speech act" within a linguistic framework, is examined to evaluate the proposition. In the course of this research, while uncovering the subtleties and difficulties of interpreting the ideas of enlightened thinkers like Bazargan, the potential of Skinner's five-stage model emerges for understanding the analytical process, leading to the conclusion that Bazargan's views and actions, especially in his later years, exhibit a high potential and clear implications for a secular interpretation.

Moral realism is a meta-ethical debate and is very influential in the field of ontology of moral judgments and in understanding theories. In order to distinguish between realism and non-realism, theories are distinguished in the field of value. In this article, we classify the contemporary theories regarding religious government in terms of realism and non-realism. The importance of the issue is that, firstly, the confusion of ideas such as jurisprudence and secular ideas is avoided, and secondly, the essentials of each idea are recognized from the other. Few researches have discussed the theories of theocracy from this point of view. The views regarding the government structure can be divided into three categories: realist, unrealistic and dualist. Theories such as pure contractualism are unrealistic, and theories that present a secular interpretation of religious democracy, such as the argument on the distinction between universal beliefs and personal beliefs, or the theory of Islamic democratic government, and other similar theories are dualistic. Shiite jurists, despite the difference in interpretations and differences of views in the field of religious governance, are all realists. Those who believe in absolute velayat or limited velayat, those who believe in hasbiyyah matters or non-hasbiyyah matters, those who believe based on al-faragh region or any other jurisprudential point of view have spoken based on realism. Therefore, according to the jurists' point of view, firstly, democracy has nothing to do with pure contractualism or dualism; Secondly, the rulings of Sharia are subject to real benefits and corruptions; Thirdly, God's commandments are a reliable source for understanding real values and recognizing real advantages and disadvantages; Fourth, people's opinion will be a matter of value in order to have a real effect on real materials; Fifth, the role of the individual will of the rulers or the will of the people is not the source of value, and in a sense, it is unrealism and incorrect individual and social relativism; Sixth, the evaluation criterion of all rulings, including the rulers' vote and the people's will, is a real criterion; Finally, people will be the owners of rights and obligations based on the true criteria of Mukhtar.

In the 19th century, very big events took place in Iran, and the history of Iran underwent very extensive changes from this point on. Perhaps the most important factor in these changes was the Iranians' familiarity with Western ideas in various fields. Iranian intellectuals during that period played a very important role in the introduction of modern ideas into the country. The introduction of new ideas caused changes and influenced various levels and layers of society. One of the most important changes during this period was the secularization of the state in Iran. For this reason, this research aimed to analyze the secularization of the state in modern Iran with a descriptive-analytical approach. The results of the research showed that the secularization of the state was developed with the authoritarian development of Reza Shah and the government acquired a modern identity. The component of the Reza Shahi identity in Iran was the elimination of many aspects of traditional culture in Iran and radical Westernization. Identity formation during the Reza Shah era placed great emphasis on the antiquity of Iran; Therefore, it can be said that the first Pahlavi dynasty sought to form a national identity based on secularism by replacing ancient Iran with traditional Iranian religious and cultural values. In the identity-building process of the first Pahlavi dynasty, antiquity replaced religion in the government and gave the government a national identity. Therefore, ancient nationalism in Iran became the basis for an independent identity in Iranian politics.

The discourse of good governance has been raised by international organizations and institutions and some Western thinkers and theorists since several decades ago. According to the initial design of this topic in the West and based on the previous ideas of thinkers such as: Seyyed Javad Tabatabai based on the decline and decay of philosophy and political thought in Iran after Ibn Sina and Seyyed Ahmad Tabatabai indicating the conflict between international documents and Islamic concepts, this theory has been published, Considering the decline and conflict of philosophy and political thought in Iran, in order to study and research in the field of good governance, Iranian and Islamic sources should be looked at with suspicion and the issue should be addressed by referring to the published western literature. In this research, with the aim of validating the mentioned theories by taking library records and using the descriptive and analytical method, referring to the opinions of the founders of philosophy and political thought in post-Islamic Iran, Farabi and the position of Supreme Leader (Madazleh) in the position of the leader of the revolution. Islamic Iran, we are looking for an answer to this question that Considering the western elements and features, has there been a discussion about good governance in the opinion of Farabi and the Supreme Leader? With the conducted studies, we came to the proposition that the two-dimensional epistemological, ontological and anthropological foundations of philosophy and political thought in Iran are not only western, including the one-dimensional theories of today, but philosophy and political thought in Iran have not gone through the decline curve and are contradictory. It doesn't have either, and it's from the western one-dimensional theories.

While Western thinkers, emphasizing linear theories and Darwin's "evolution of species" theory, believed that the general spirit that governs the world has reached its maximum development and the happy human being of the modern era has reached self-awareness as the manifestation of this spirit. Even Fukuyama considers liberal democracy to be the inevitable fate of human societies, but the challenges facing Western civilization became apparent over time, and even people like Spengler, focusing on the cyclical course of history, predicted the decline and collapse of Western civilization. ! The main question of this research is: What happened to Western civilization that Western thinkers described as an unfinished project and tried to change their intellectual foundations? This article aims to enumerate these bases and examine the challenges facing them. The type of this study is descriptive-analytical and it was done with a library method. The findings of the research show that many of the challenges of Western civilization are rooted in the theoretical foundations of this civilization. Humanism, secularism, rationalism and scientism - which are the foundations of liberal democracy - have caused serious challenges in Western civilization.The main question of the current research is: What happened to a civilization that was once moving towards progress and development with increasing speed, that now it is described as an unfinished project and they tried to change their intellectual foundations.It seems that the emergence of challenges and crises in humanism, secularism, rationalism, scientism as the foundations of liberal-democracy has caused serious challenges in Western civilization. Therefore, the above article tries to enumerate these foundations and components and examine the challenges facing them. The type of this study is descriptive-analytical which was conducted using the library method.

The political system of Islam is based on religious principles and values, and the Muslim community continues to live by it. Religion as a main pillar in various aspects of human life has a fundamental and vital role, in other words, human life is based on religious menus. Contrary to this thinking, the prevailing view is secularism and custom, which believes in the minimal presence of religion in social spheres and in some cases the removal of religion from the social sphere and its presence in the individual dimension of human life. In this article, the authors intend to analyze and analyze the obstacles to the secularization of the political system in Islam using the method of content analysis and influenced by the intellectual and theoretical foundations of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli. The question is what are the obstacles to the secularization of the political system in Islam in the thoughts of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli and how can it be analyzed by the method of content analysis? The findings of the research show that in the belief and thinking of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli, obstacles such as correct and rational interpretation of the Holy Quran and religious principles, avoidance of eclecticism, avoidance of narcissism and narcissism, attention to leadership and implementation of his statements and the like It can protect Islamic societies against secularization.

Investigating the current state of political currents after the Arab revolutions, especially in Tunisia, is one of the multifaceted, complex, and multi-layered issues in political studies, especially in political thought. In this regard, according to the developments of the Ennahda movement in Tunisia between the years 2011-2023 (August), the question has been raised that according to the intellectual tradition of the Ennahda movement, the model and political behavior of this movement, from which rule. Philosophical and political - civil democratic transformation with an Islamic reading or adjustment and deviation from the propositions of Islamic thought? In response, the proposed hypothesis states that the intellectual tradition of the Ennahda movement has moved from classical theology and thought to a new reform with the reading of civil democratic Islam. The findings indicate that this current has been influenced by the intellectual developments in response to the dualism of the West / Islam and the mystery of tradition and modernity, intellectual traditions such as the rationalist school of Al-Zaytouniyeh, and reformist (general) intellectuals. It is oriented from classical theology to reform problematic. From an empirical point of view, the constituent elements of the theoretical and methodical model of the Ennahda movement represent a continuous and relatively uniform approach, and its secular and civil aspects share commonalities with Tunisian non-Islamist movements. With the successful transition of this process from the first stage of challenges (passing Ansar al-Sharia and inevitable - sometimes unstable - consensuses), the second stage began after the dissolution of the parliament and the holding of the second round of the 2019 parliamentary elections, and a new game It was formed from competitions. As a result, the Ennahda movement is trying to push the "extra-legal" and undemocratic dictatorship of the Qais Saeed government towards democratic policies or transfer of power. The conceptual framework is based on a multi-level reading of political thought (ideological evolutions, currents and intellectual systems, and late intellectuals of each discourse) and extraction of influential components and elements to evaluate the issue; the method of collecting materials is library and internet.

Islamism has been seen in various forms and manifestations in different countries. This means it has come along with a full spectrum of reformative, revolutionary, secular, socialistic features mixed with various political beliefs. Tunisia is one of the most important Muslim countries in which analyzing the Islamism could provide explanative points due to different experiences and changes that happened there. On this basis, the present paper aims to examine the causing factors of Tunisian Islamism starting to go in the direction of political secularism while focusing on the Al-Nahda movement. The question is that What are the most important reasons of the transition of the Al-Nahda movement as a representative of Tunisian Islamism into a political secularism? The proposed hypothesis is that existence of the roots of secularism, the revolutionary identity of Al-Nahda movement, dialectic opposition and lack of dialectic dominance by Islamists in Tunisia, as well as the access to a secular democracy as an available model have been amongst the reasons the Tunisian Islamism started to progress in direction of political secularism through the Al-Nahda. The results of this study suggest that the characteristics of Islam culture within the Tunisian society as the bedrock of political and social changes on one hand and the availability of an efficient secular and democratic argument within the society on the other hand caused the Tunisian Islamism to move in direction of forming a political party instead of continuing towards a revolutionary and ideological procedure. The present paper is a descriptive analysis using the documentary and library resources. We have benefitted from Manheim’s sociology of knowledge framework and Laclau-Mouffe dialectic in a blended method.

The problem of this research is to identify and analyze one of the main "soft" threats against the Islamic Republic in Ayatollah Khamenei's security discourse. Security has always been one of the main indicators in his discourse and he has paid attention to it from various aspects. In this research, the main axis is the category of "political security", which faces both "hard" threats and "soft" threats, where "secularism" is considered as the most important "soft threat" of political security. Since the discourse of the Islamic Revolution is structured around the central sign of "Political Islam", its main "other" should be considered "secularism" and this issue is clearly "highlighted" in the political discourse of Ayatollah Khamenei, and attention to the dimension Its security is very important for a more accurate understanding of the "soft" threats of the Islamic Republic. This research, using the discourse analysis method of Lakla Moff, has reached the following findings Ayatollah Khamenei considers "secularism" the main soft threat to the Islamic Republic and "strengthening the spirit of people's belief in Islam", "non-passivity in the face of the phenomenon of Islamophobia", "mixing He considers knowledge and religion, "protecting the Islamic revolution" and "trust in God" as opposites of them, which are the indicators of his political security discourse.

Saudi Arabia can be considered the ruler of the Sunni world. This country with conservative structure was considered an effective model for many countries in the Persian Gulf and the Islamic world, was confronted with the emergence of Muhammad ibn Salman as crown prince faced some profound developments. In verifying this hypothesis, many cases can be implied. Revival of women's rights, 2030 Development Document, the scope of political relations with the West and the use of Western development models and other issues. In this article, the authors try to provide a convincing and reasoned answer to this question: How can analyze the ideological and objective developments in the political system of Saudi Arabia in the Bin Salman period. The authors' hypothesis by using Chalmers Johnson theory and written and virtual sources and interpretive method (research method) shows that the ideological and objective developments in Saudi Arabia in the period of Bin Salman paved the way for the country's transition from one the traditional Wahhabi system has become a secular system. The consequences of this issue can be examined in two major parts, ideological and objective. In the ideological section, we can see the emergence of new value and ideological groups in the Saudi system, the gradual isolation and boycott of Wahhabi scholars and scholars as the most important source of legitimacy for the Saudi government and monarchy, the growing decline of religious and Islamic values ​​in this The country and the gradual cessation of the pattern of Wahhabism were referred to the region and other parts of the Islamic world.

Secularism in the Opinion of Western ThinkersDr. Abdul Rahman AlemReza NasiriAbstract:Although concepts such as secularization, mundane and worldly have similar meaning, there are some differences between them. However, the secularization has three characteristics: 1) decline in the role of religion to give meaning to the social sphere, 2) structural difference: there is a distinction between religious institutions and worldly institution, 3) transition from religious behavior and perception to worldly one. The secularism is inseparable from modernity. Modernity is a culture and religion and not similar to geography and history. Western modernization is so powerful to make everything similar to itself. So, divine religions would be faced with challenges by expansion of modernization. Secularism acknowledges the religion in the society, but it insists on its principles: 1) the religion has to be separable from politics and government 2) the religion has to acknowledge the exclusive authority of natural science, 3) the religion doesn’t have to rule over the people.

Secularism has gradually emerged in Saudi Arabia through the process of socio-economic modernization and modernization. This process started in the 1970s and has continued until today. Although this country has a traditional and religiously conservative society and Wahhabi Islam has a lot of influence in it, secularism through its undercurrents such as liberals and the western-oriented royal family, especially Bin Salman, has somehow managed to gain influence in Saudi Arabia; The main question of the article is what are the indicators of secular identity politics in Saudi Arabia?

The method of this research is document analysis and information collection is in the form of library and interview.

With the presence of Muhammad bin Salman in the core of political power, the process of socio-economic modernization and modernization has gained more momentum in Saudi Arabia. In such a way that secularism is seriously pursued in this country by its supporters. The indicators and components of secular identity politics come out of currents such as liberals and Western-oriented monarchies.

After examining the fields, components, goals, challenges and obstacles of each flow, the findings of the article show that the indicators of secular identity politics are as follows: political indicators; 1. Loyalty to the government of the Saudi family 2. Reducing the authority and isolation of Wahhabism in society; Social indicators: 1. Emphasis on modernism and opposition to traditionalism 2. Supporting women's rights and accepting them as an independent identity 3. Fighting extremism and terrorism 4. Accepting minimal and moderate Islam and using it as a tool; Cultural indicators: 1. Development and spread of Western culture 2. Modern education system centered on peace, tolerance and tolerance; Economic indicators: 1. Transition from oil economy to economic liberalization 2. Development of urbanization, 3. Economic and social freedoms.