Search Results (19)

This article explores the Rausyan Fikr Institute as a distinctive intellectual and philosophical movement within Indonesia’s Shia Muslim community, focusing on its role in mobilizing dissent narratives and fostering intellectual activism. Within the broader historical trajectory of Shi’ism in Indonesia—from its early cultural impact and political mobilization during the Iranian Revolution to its institutional development in the Reformasi era —the Rausyan Fikr Institute represents a unique approach to implementing Shia philosophical thought through grassroots mobilization. Using the framework of ideologically structured action (ISA), this article highlights how Rausyan Fikr articulates its identity through the transmission of philosophical frameworks, critical discourse on current social-political issues, and inclusive educational initiatives. It explores three elements: (i) the dissemination of Shia Islam-inspired thought through translation, publishing, and education, (ii) the development of dissent narratives on capitalism, feminism, and dominant political structure, and (iii) the engagement with wider communities and mobilization strategies for its members, which involve students, women, and families alike in establishing space for intellectual development. The article concludes by reflecting on the Rausyan Fikr Institute’s resilience in sustaining philosophical activism under sectarian pressures, its contribution to Indonesia’s broader intellectual and religious discourse, and the challenges it encounters in preserving both ideological identity and relevance in a contested socio-political landscape. Full article

This article examines the activities of the Bahá’í community in Iran after the Islamic Revolution, challenging the misconception that the community has remained disengaged from societal involvement which arises from a misinterpretation of its principle of non-involvement in partisan politics. Contrary to this belief, the Bahá’í community has been actively engaged in social change through a framework rooted in its principles, which emphasize constructive resilience and non-adversarial strategies. Informed by the Bahá’í teachings, the global Bahá’í experience, and contemporary theories of social change, the community has focused on translating its spiritual principles into practical actions, particularly in community building, social action, and participation in the prevalent discourse of society. These efforts, characterized by a commitment to unity and collaboration, differ from conventional adversarial activism and demonstrate the community’s significant yet often overlooked contribution to Iranian society. Despite severe persecution, the Bahá’í community has maintained a principled engagement with social change, challenging the narrative of disengagement and highlighting its ongoing involvement in the life of the nation. Full article

In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini spearheaded the Islamic Revolution, toppling the secular Shah regime, a move that resonated with millions of people. Fast-forward to 2025, there has been a notable rise in secularism in Iran, even among 1979’s religious clerics. Currently, 73% of Iranians support the idea of separating Islam from the state and advocating for a secular government. As a result, there have been widespread anti-Islamist regime and pro-democratic protests during different periods, such as 2009–2010, 2017–2018, 2019–2020, and 2022–2023. The most recent development in 2024 was the victory of reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian in the presidential elections, defeating conservative candidate Saeed Jalili. This study examines the factors driving the rise of secularism, namely globalization, the systemic issues within the Islamic regime, the significant influence of the Iranian diaspora, and the impact of rapid urbanization. Full article

Sufism has played a critical role, particularly in the past millennium, as one of the most significant cultural components in the history of Iran. And approximately all cultural factors, including arts, politics, economics, and the educational and training system, have been directly and indirectly influenced by the Sufi culture. One such factor is music, which has been uninterruptedly intertwined with Sufism for years. The present paper strives to investigate the extent to which and the ways in which Sufism has influenced contemporary Iranian music. The answer to this research inquiry is crucial for understanding the impacts of Sufism in the contemporary era and dissecting Iranian music, most specifically the Persian modal system (dastgāh). Despite the significant factors that contribute to the Persian musical system, the literature on the topic remains scarce. This research uses historical and research analysis, as well as the results of a field study conducted over the past two decades in the educational atmosphere of the Iranian musical system, to answer the research questions. The findings suggest that contemporary Iranian music has derived considerable influence from Sufi subjects, concepts, and teachings, and evolved thereafter, with dramatic impacts in two epochs: (1) throughout the thirties and forties HS; and (2) in the wake of the Islamic revolution. Full article

By focusing on the publications of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) in the Malayalam language, this article argues that the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution (IIR) marked a rupture from the disenchantments of the 1947 partition of British India and Cold War-centered politics for the Islamists of Kerala. This rupture from the colonial past and a Western-inspired intellectual climate had resonances in the discourse on Islam in Kerala. The Iranian revolution not only imported the idea of Islamism or revolution but also a renewed interest in democracy, modernity and the idea of “Islamist political” to the southwest coast of India. In an attempt to write an intellectual history of emotions related to the IIR, this paper argues that in the case of Islamists, there was a strong tendency to break from the intellectual discourse of the nation-state and begin afresh in politics, and the moment of 1979 provided what they sought for long. Full article

Modernity is a global condition of an ongoing socio-cultural, economic, and political transformation of human experience, with tradition or religion having no significant role to play. It is the gradual decline of the role of religion in modernity through the implementation of the principles of secularism which has, according to Islamic revivalists, plunged the world into crisis or jahiliyya (unGodliness). Revivalists and sociologists such as Anthony Giddens (1991) call it the “crisis of modernity”. In response, many Islamic revivalist movements have emerged to address this condition. The Iranian Revolution of 1978–1979 gave a boost to many existing Islamic revivalist movements and inspired many to appear anew. The phenomenon of contemporary Islamic revivalism is a religious transformative response to the crisis of modernity—i.e., the inability of secularism and the process of secularization to fulfill the promise of delivering a model of perfect global order. Contemporary Islamic revivalism is not anti-modernity but against secularism and is thus an attempt to steer modernity out of its crisis through a comprehensive and robust process of Islamization—the widespread introduction of Islamic rituals, practices, socio-cultural and economic processes, and institutional developments to the pattern of modern everyday living—and transforming modernity from dar al-harb (abode of war) to dar al-Islam (abode of peace). The paper argues that contemporary Islamic revivalism is a complex heterogeneous global phenomenon seeking to steer modernity out of its prevailing crisis through finding in Islam the universal blueprint of life. It further argues that Islamic revivalism is not anti-modernity but is a religious based reaction against the negative consequences of modernity, particularly against secularism, and carving out a space for itself in modernity. Full article

After Musa al-Sadr arrived in Lebanon in 1959, the passive Shi’i community became active, and this activism finally ended with Hezbollah gaining control in Lebanon and serving Iran in its confrontation with Israel. The research literature on al-Sadr and his activities in Lebanon shows that al-Sadr was, and still remains, a phenomenon who, by virtue of his deeds and charisma, elevated the Shi’i population in Lebanon from being a feeble and ineffective community to a proud and dominant one. This article shows how Musa al-Sadr’s actions not only inspired the Shi’i revolution in Lebanon but also led to its wider dissemination all over the Middle East, starting with the Iranian Islamic Revolution. It will also describe how both the informal relations and the three different ideologies held by Khomeini, the Shah and al-Sadr finally helped al-Sadr crystallize his own revolutionary formula for political Shi’ism. That is, how al-Sadr’s activism and propagating within the Shi’i community in Lebanon two decades before the Islamic Revolution in Iran prepared the community to accept Khomeini’s message of a revival of Shi’ism. Full article

Operating parameters affect the wear of abrasive tools during the polishing stage in building stone processing plants. This study investigates the effects of essential operating parameters including polishing head pressure, head rotation speed and water flow rate on the wear of the abrasive tools. For this purpose, a building stone abrasivity test was used to determine the weight loss of the abrasive tools during laboratory polishing of fifteen different types of Iranian granitic building stones. The standard operating parameters of the test were a polishing head pressure of 5 bar, a head rotation speed of 300 revolutions per minute (rpm), and a water flow rate of 4 L/min. The values of the operating parameters were changed to values within the range from ±25% and ±50% of the standard conditions in order to investigate the effect of variations in these parameters on the wear of the abrasive tools during the polishing stage. The results of different tests showed that the wear of the abrasive tools was directly proportional to the pressure up until a critical value of around 6.25 bar, after which it gradually decreased. This nonlinear wear behavior does not conform to Archard’s well-known classical wear law. The FESEM images of the worn surfaces showed that due to excessive load, debonded abrasive particles could not be pulled out from the pin surface and led to an interlocking phenomenon between the pin and stone surface. It was also found that the wear of the abrasive tools increased with increasing head rotation speed, while it decreased with the water flow rate. Moreover, the main wear mechanism of tests was abrasive wear and in some cases with a mixture mode of adhesion and delamination. Full article

Religious secularity and Islam have not often been considered in the West as comfortable bedfellows, yet the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 questioned assumptions about the appropriateness of separate spheres for religion and politics. However, within a decade of the revolution, theoretical and intellectual shifts were visible in the Iranian seminaries, and alternative views about the doctrine of velāyat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurists) which twinned religion and politics together, were being discussed. Such shifts transformed the doctrine from one which had a divine mandate to one that in practice emanated from the people. This article focuses upon the ideas of a mid-ranking reformist seminarian, Ahmad Qābel (d. 2012), whose tight adherence to reason resulted in him ultimately rejecting velāyat-e faqih, and calling for a form of religious secularity in which the seminary remained divorced from state structures and institutions. For Qābel, this did not mean the creation of an irreligious society, but the establishment of a more open and pluralist one, in which religious differences could be voiced. Qābel’s short essay on velāyat-e faqih is utilised herein to outline the main arguments of those who have refuted the doctrine. Qābel’s complete rejection of velāyat-e faqih is important because it went much further than the view of his spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Montazeri, who sought reform of the idea. As such, it demonstrates that within the seminary there is much difference of opinion, although there are very few (such as Qābel) who have the courage to articulate their opposition to the “official” view. Qābel’s essay provides a straightforward entry-point into a complex topic, employing the kinds of rationalist argumentation that he learnt within the seminarian environment of Iran. Full article

The outburst of The Iranian Revolution in 1978 generated fear and hope at the same time for several political forces across the West and the East. The emergence of Islam as a political force came as a surprise across all political spectrums in Europe, even though religion was already at the time becoming a determining variable in the field of international relations. The echoes of The Iranian Revolution precipitated even further the making of several organizations of political Islam in the Middle East, forging transnational identities. Through primary and secondary sources drawn from mainly British leftist organizations, this study aims at examining the responses of the British Left towards Islamic revivalism. Thus, this article gives an historical outline of the intellectual production and the strategies of interpretation adopted by the British Left during the period of 1978–2001, by exploring the main historical events that involved (political) Islam, such as The Iranian Revolution, the Lebanese civil war, the Palestinian Intifada and The Algerian Civil War. The main argument postulated is that interpretation trajectories by the British Left were highly dependent on ideological and geostrategic lineages and respective synchronic political alliances, resulting in putting the centre of gravity sometimes on Islamic activism’s regressive nature and sometimes on its anti-imperialist perspectives. Full article

Transport energy conservation research in urban transport systems dates back principally to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) “Arab Oil Embargo” (1973–1974) and the Iranian revolution (1979), when global oil supplies became threatened and costs rose steeply. Two subsequent Gulf Wars (1991 and 2003) highlighted the dangerous geo-political dimensions of Middle-Eastern oil. In latter times, the urgency to reduce global CO₂ output to avoid catastrophic climate change has achieved great prominence. How to reduce passenger transport energy use therefore remains an important goal, which this paper pursues in ten Swedish cities, based on five scenarios: (1) increasing the relatively low public transport (PT) seat occupancy in each Swedish city to average European levels (buses 35%, light rail 48%, metro 60% and suburban rail 35%); (2) doubling existing PT seat occupancy in each Swedish city; (3) increasing existing car occupancy in each Swedish city by 10%; (4) decreasing existing energy use per car vehicle kilometer by 15%; (5) increasing existing modal split for daily trips by non-motorized modes to 50% in each city. A sixth “best-case scenario” is also explored by simultaneously combining scenarios 2 to 5. The data used in the paper come from systematic empirical research on each of the ten Swedish cities. When applied individually, scenario 2 is the most successful for reducing passenger transport energy use, scenarios 1 and 4 are next in magnitude and produce approximately equal energy savings, followed by scenario 5, with scenario 3 being the least successful. The best-case, combined scenario could save 1183 million liters of gasoline equivalent in the ten cities, representing almost a 60% saving over their existing 2015 total private passenger transport energy use and equivalent to the combined 2015 total annual private transport energy use of Stockholm, Malmö and Jönköping. Such findings also have important positive implications for the de-carbonization of cities. The policy implications of these findings and the strategies for increasing public transport, walking and cycling, boosting car occupancy and decreasing vehicular fuel consumption in Swedish cities are discussed. Full article

This paper aims to explore the roots of the nativist discourse among Iranian intellectuals in the 20th century prior to the Islamic Revolution, a discourse based on Eastern authenticity and the felt need for a return to Islamic, Persian, or Asian traditions. This general tendency took various forms among anti- and even pro-regime intellectuals, including severe anti-modernist evaluations of Al-e-Ahmad, Hossein Nasr, Ahmad Fardid, and Ehsan Naraqi. This nativist movement, as some scholars have shown, played a significant role in the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. This paper aims to discuss some philosophical origins of these East-based and anti-West ideologies in the specific interpretation of Henry Corbin of the East/West spiritual split. This paper demonstrates that these ideas, to a considerable extent, stemmed from Corbin’s “Eastern scheme,” based on the authenticity of spiritual illumination. This paper explores how this Oriental philosophy, rooted in ancient Persia and medieval Iranian wisdom, has been used for political purposes through the ideologization of tradition in contemporary Iran. Therefore, it discusses Corbin’s theological scheme’s political and social ramifications to demonstrate the traces of his scheme in the works of a few nativist intellectuals in an ideologized form. Full article

This paper seeks to investigate how commemorative practices, rituals, and holidays are invented, deployed, and recast for political and ideological purposes, to reinforce and sustain a particular narrative of national identity. It argues that the choice of particular moments of a country’s past to be commemorated in calendars as national holidays and the way in which the collective past is preserved and remembered both reflect and articulate a country’s vision of its present essence, of who its people are. Recognizing the link between the collective memory and national identity, the Iranian states before and after the 1979 revolution made a special effort to articulate their narrative of the past by commemorating a particular set of holidays and rituals. Viewing the calendar as a political artifact, this paper compares changes in the Iranian national calendars in the Pahlavi era (1925–1979) and the Islamic Republic (1979–2018). It examines the inclusion of new religious holidays and the removal of national days associated with the monarchy as well as the assignment of new meanings and celebratory practices to the old ones as the signifiers of a political maneuver to articulate a new shared public memory and narrative of identity since the 1979 revolution. It then examines two nationwide celebrations before and after the 1979 revolution, representing two state-sponsored, competing narratives of Iranian identity: firstly, the 2500-year celebration of the Persian Empire in 1953, and, secondly, the Ashura commemoration, a religious gathering dedicated to the remembrance of Shia Imams. These commemorations provided the state a unique political opportunity to present its own appraisal of the past and, in turn, national identity. Full article

This study investigated the quarrel between the pro-and anti-constitutionalist jurists following the establishment of the first National Consultative Assembly (Majlis) in Iran and the drafting of the first constitution in 1906. A group of shi῾ite jurists launched an attack on Majlis, in addition to the ideas of human legislation, freedom, and equality, by considering the Islamic Sharī῾a law to be a set of perfect and impeccable laws. In response to these oppositions, the pro-constitutional jurists argued in favor of the constitutional movement. In this paper, it is argued that the quarrel could be considered as evidence for the perennial tension between the divine and human law in Islam. It appears that examining this conflict may shed light on incidents shaping the history of contemporary Iran. Full article

In the form of a case study and based upon novel material about the reception of Spinoza’s Theological–Political Treatise (TTP) in Iran, this paper studies issues with the interactions among political, theological and philosophical ideas in the reception of Spinoza’s TTP. The paper starts with the first Iranian encounters with Spinoza’s philosophy in the Qajar era in the nineteenth century and then focuses on the reception of the TTP in the period after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The first translation of the TTP was prepared in the 1990s by Muḥsin Jahāngīrī, but he withheld the manuscript from being published. I discuss the arguments that led him to withhold the publication of his translation; in this context, it will be important to consider the tumultuous religious and political debates, and broader questions as to the legitimacy of political power will also prove relevant. The first doctoral dissertation in Persian about the TTP will be described, followed by a description of a digital translation of the twentieth chapter of the TTP, which was published after the 2009 election protests. The article ends with discussing translator Ali Ferdowsi’s motivation to produce the first complete Persian translation of the TTP, published in Tehran in 2017. In conclusion, it will be discussed to which extent the theocratic political context in the country caused interest in the TTP. Full article