Critical analysis of the approach of religious intellectuals in the context of political development with emphasis on the ideas of Soroush and Shabestari

Political development can be considered as the most important arena of competition between intellectual-political currents, and the external view of political struggles in the contemporary history of Iran can be seen by examining the history of Iranian expansionism. In the contemporary period, too, currents of thought-politics, by diversifying their view of political development, have created an atmosphere of contradiction and competition on the one hand, and interaction and confrontation on the other. One of the currents that has dealt with the issue of political development in contemporary Iran is the current of religious intellectuals. Soroush and Shabestari's religious intellectual discourse includes elements such as minority religion, religious democratic government, human rights, secularism and pluralism. In Soroush's discourse, the acceptance of epistemological pluralism and its logical consequence in social pluralism leads to the acceptance of political pluralism. In Shabestari discourse, man is considered a righteous being and the righteousness of man is placed in front of duty and metaphysics and the domination of religion over all his life. Shabestari recommends the acceptance of Western human rights by Muslims, the precondition for which is the establishment of a democratic system; In his view, in a democratic system, rights are more easily enforced than in an authoritarian system, and political and religious freedoms are better respected. In this article, with the analytical-critical approach, the theories of Soroush and Mojtahed Shabestari, the lack of philosophical depth and the structural and comprehensive approach to modernity, development and new Western civilization are discussed.