Islam and Liberalism

1
Islam and Liberalism

• History of Political Thought
• Fall 2007

2
Overview

• Liberalism (recap, again)
• Khomeini and Islamic Republic
• Jihad

3

• Islamic political thought has for the past
  half-century or so been most closely associated
  with political violence

4
The Islamic Republic

• Ruhollah Khomeini (1900 ? - 1989)
• Led the Islamic Revolution in Iran and revived
  the idea of political Islam

5
The Islamic Republic

• Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980)
• Came to power in 1941
• 1953 Anglo-US coup to remove nationalist Iranian
  prime minister fails, Shah goes into exile
• 2 years later, he is reinstated

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The Islamic Republic

• Shah begins to Westernize Iran, alienates both
  the socialist lift and the conservative clerics
• Khomeini emerges as leading critic and is forced
  into exile, first to

Baghdad, then, when Hussein comes to power, to
Paris
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The Islamic Republic

• By mid 1970s, massive rallies from against the
  Shah and his American supporters
• Shah goes into exile (1979), Khomeini returns

8
The Islamic Republic

• After much street fighting, the military opts not
  to intervene
• Shahs government collapses and Khomeini becomes
  leader of newly declared Islamic Republic of Iran

9
The Islamic Republic

• Khomeini was Time magazine Man of the Year (1979)
• Ruled Iran until his death in 1989

10
The Islamic Republic

• A body of laws alone is not sufficient for a
  society to be reformed. In order for law to
  ensure the reform and happiness of man, there
  must be an executive power and an executor.
• -- Khomeini

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The Islamic Republic

• The Quran (Koran) provides a body of law to
  guide all action
• The Glorious Quran and the Sunna contain all
  the laws and ordinances man neds in order to
  attain happiness and the perfection of the his
  state

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The Islamic Republic

• In other words, because we have sharia, we can
  infer that we are meant to have a government.
• For to have laws means we also need the means of
  their enforcement
• That means we need a government

13
The Islamic Republic

• The nature and character of Islamic law and the
  divine ordinances of the sharia furnish
  additional proof of the necessity for
  establishing government, for they indicate that
  the laws were laid down for the purpose of
  creating a state and administering the political,
  economic, and cultural affairs of society.

14
The Islamic Republic

• The laws of sharia embrace a diverse body of
  laws and regulations, which amounts to a complete
  social system. In this system of laws, all the
  needs of man have been met his dealings with
  his neighbors, fellow citizens, and clan, as well
  as children and relatives the concerns of
  private and marital life regulations concerning
  war and peace and intercourse with other nations
  penal and commercial law and regulations
  pertaining to trade and agriculture.

15
The Islamic Republic

• Contrast that with liberalism and the role of
  religion and politics
• No separation of church and state
• Role of the state is to support and advance
  religious institutions of Islam

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The Islamic Republic

• Islam provides laws and instructions for all of
  these matters, aiming, as it does, to produce
  integrated and virtuous human beings who are
  walking embodiments of the law, or to put it
  differently, the laws voluntary and instinctive
  executors.

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The Islamic Republic

• It is obvious, then, how much care Islam
  devotes to government and the political and
  economic relations of society, with the goal of
  creating conditions conducive to the production
  of morally upright and virtuous human beings.

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The Islamic Republic

• Because the laws are given (and received)
  already, the legislature is relatively less
  important than the other branches
• Need executive to enforce and judiciary to
  interpret

19
The Islamic Republic

• If we examine closely the nature and
  character of the provisions of the law, we
  realize that their execution and implementation
  depend upon the formation of a government, and
  that it is impossible to fulfill the duty of
  executing Gods command without there being
  established properly comprehensive administrative
  and executive organs.

20
The Islamic Republic

• Regimes which fail in this duty are not worthy of
  our respect and should be replaced
• Both law and reason require that we not permit
  governments to retain this non-Islamic
  characterIt is also our duty to create a
  favorable social environment for the education of
  believing and virtuous individuals

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The Islamic Republic

• In order to assure the unity of the Islamic
  umma, in order to liberate the Islamic homeland
  from occupation and penetration by the
  imperialists and their puppet governments, it is
  imperative that we establish a government. In
  order to attain the unity and freedom of the
  Muslim people, we must overthrow the oppressive
  governments installed by the imperialists and
  bring into existence an Islamic government of
  justice that will be in the service of the
  people.

22
The Islamic Republic

• Note, the government is not a hereditary monarchy
• Rather it is democracy, but not a mass democracy
  since ultimate power must rest with the trustee
  of the people, one ruler

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The Islamic Republic

• The wisdom of the Creator has decreed that men
  should live in accordance with justice and act
  within the limits set by divine law. This wisdom
  is eternal and immutable, and constitutes one of
  the norms of God Almighty. Today and always,
  therefore, the existence of a holder of
  authority, a ruler who acts as trustee and
  maintains the institutions and laws of Islam, is
  a necessity

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The Islamic Republic

• A ruler who prevents cruelty, oppression, and
  violation of the rights of others who is a
  trustworthy and vigilant guardian of Gods
  creatures who guides men to the teachings,
  doctrines, laws, and institutions of Islam and
  who prevents the undesirable changes that
  atheists and enemies of religion wish to
  introduce in the laws and institutions of Islam

25
The Islamic Republic

• It is a righteous government, of course, that
  is needed, one presided over by a ruler who will
  be a trustworthy and righteous trustee. Those who
  presently govern us are of no use at all for they
  are tyrannical, corrupt, and highly incompetent.

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The Islamic Republic

• It was our lack of a leader, a guardian, and
  our lack of institutions of leadership that made
  all this the degradation of Islam and the
  Islamic nation possible. We need righteous and
  proper organs of government that much is
  self-evident.

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Jihad

• In order to protect and restore the Islamic
  nation two issues need to be addressed
• replace non-Islamic regimes at home
• remove non-Islamic regimes from the region

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Jihad

• Wednesday well figure out how to accomplish that