Islam, Modernity and Religious Sovereignty in the Islamic Republic of Iran

The ideological and pragmatical disputes between Islam and the West, as two major ideological systems in modern world, always manifest themselves in political system-making and in proposing the theories related to it. These two ideological systems always criticize and have disputes with each other over philosophical, legal, and sociological matters. Today western modernity, especially liberal democracy, seriously criticizes the political system in Islam which is based on the principle of guardianship of religious jurist. Among the main challenges facing Islam are the secular explanation of the political system in Islam, the criticism directed to the structures and conventional explanation of the conduct of the elites and different local populations related to the political system in Islam.