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A
questioning approach to Islam |
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The
Guardian -
Kathy Evans speaks to a man whose controversial ideas on his faith have won him supporters and made him enemiesABDOLKARIM Sorush probably wouldn't attract a second glance on the underground. He is balding, bearded and bespectacled, and looks an unlikely candidate for the job of visionary. Back home, Dr Sorush is hounded by radical groups, subject
to frequent arrest and banned-from teaching. His views on the need for
Islam to let in the fresh air of debate and to endorse the concept of
human rights have made him the chief ideological thorn in the side of
One of his main arguments is that there are essentials in Islam which cannot be changed - and then there are what he calls "accidentals of history" stemming from the time and society in which the prophet Mohammed was born. It was an accident of history, he believes, that the language of Islam is Arabic and that the prophet was born in the Arab world, and not elsewhere. If Mohammed had been born in
Similarly, Dr Sorush argues, the schism between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam was an accident of history. Also classified as accidentals by the professor are rules hitherto considered fundamental, such as the laws allowing Muslim men to marry four women, and those which give automatic rights of divorce and custody of children to men. "All these are accidentals, which can be subjects of discussion [ijtihad]," he said, referring to the concept of interpretive reasoning in Islam. "I am for a pluralistic society," he said simply. It is also time, he said, for Islam to grapple with the concept of human rights. "ln the Muslim world, we have talked only of duties, not of rights. Having rights is considered a Western concept. In modern civilisations however, believing in God is not a duty, but a right." Such ideological distinctions are anathema to the leadership of the Islamic Republic and the storm troopers they occasionally dispatch to hound the professor and his supporters. Each time he tries to hold a meeting nowadays, the result is a riot, provoked by hardliners of the Ansar-e-Hizbullah. These young radicals, little more than thugs, are thought to be backed by conservative clerics close to the office of Iran s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. In an open letter last week the group called Dr Sorush the Galileo of Islam. "We are not prepared to sell out the ideas of the revolution to secularism, or sell the blood of our martyrs." said the Ansar-e Hizbullah letter. The doctor's words, it said, were not philosophy, but temptation. Western diplomats believe Dr Sorush to be extremely brave in continuing to express his views despite the growing tide of threats. "He doesn't have a bright future," said one. But many Iranians are disappointed that the professor has not translated his ideas into an active political platform. A number point to his involvement with the revolutionary regime in its earlier days, as a member of the Council for Cultural Revolution. He's just one of them, one of [President Ali Akbar] Rafsanjani's group. He's vague, doesn't openly criticise the system," said one critic. Some critics believe that President Rafsanjani may in the end prove to be his greatest protection from the radicals, particularly as the conservative clerics recently gained the upper hand in parliament and may next year take the presidency. Dr Sorush has denied seeking a political future. "I am just a theoretician," he said. "I let others draw their own conclusions from my ideas."
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