Intellectual Discourse and the Politics of Modernization: Negotiating Modernity in Iran

In this thought-provoking book, Ali Mirsepassi explores the concept of modernity and exposes the Eurocentric prejudices underlying its development. He provides a new interpretation of Islamic Fundamentalism through a detailed analysis of the ideas of key Islamic intellectuals and argues that the Iranian Revolution was not a simple clash between modernity and tradition but an attempt to accommodate modernity within a sense of authentic Islamic identity and culture. He concludes by assessing the future of secularism and democracy in the Middle East in general, and in Iran in particular.