Investigating the Intellectual Foundations of Secular Enlightenment in Present Day Iran

This article initially investigates the historical grounds of modernity in west and then the bases of secular enlightenment in Iran and proves that this school is a product of colonialism and therefore has executed different strategies such as Islamic Protestantism or reformist Islam. Enlightenment discourse which is the core of this article is not the Islamic enlightenment that is born out of Islamic revolution but a westernist and anti-religious discourse which independently took advantage of "religious enlightenment" title after Islam’s shining in the current age to attract the attention of younger generation who are thirsty for clear Islamic thoughts. The most important discussion in this article is the approach of this discourse facing the Islamic revolution and that it has taken the old policy of reformist Islam to transform original Islamic thoughts.