Conventional secularism and the humanization of Islam: Theory and practice of religious politics in Iran

This article is a critical examination of a post-revolutionary Iranian discourse on secularism. This discourse seeks to offer a new understanding of Islam and reformulate its relationship with politics. Intellectuals who were important figures within the post-revolutionary establishment articulated this discourse. ‘Abdolkarim Soroush has been the leading voice of this discourse. Soroush’s project is an attempt to penetrate the individual Muslim’s self-perception through reinterpretation of the nature and role of religion. This article argues that Soroush’s modernist project is a defense of conventional secularism and does not address the challenge of continuity