Abstract
This book examines the relationship between Islamic thought and liberal theory, as well as the relationship between a liberal state and its Muslim citizens. Put another way, this book intends to explore the extent to which contemporary political liberalism has more successfully accommodated religious people through softening the secularity of liberalism than traditional comprehensive liberalism. This task is undertaken by critically examining two key theories of liberalism: that of John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) as one of the clearest representative of traditional comprehensive liberalism, which belongs to the “Enlightenment Project,” and that of John Rawls (1921–2002) as a powerful representative of contemporary political liberalism, which belongs to the “Reformation Project.” To illuminate the degree to which the secularity of liberalism has been softened, Shiite Islam is adopted as a test case.
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Notes
John Gray, Liberalisms, Essays in Political Philosophy (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 217.
J. B. Schneewind, “Introduction,” in Mill: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. J. B. Schneewind (New York: Anchor Books Edition, 1968), p. ix; and Bertrand Russell, “John Stuart Mill,” in Schneewind, Mill, p. 21.
Acknowledging the significance of Rawls’s influence on political philosophy in twentieth century, Raphael suggests that no knowledgeable scholar has accepted his theory as a sound theory of justice. See David. D. Raphael, Concepts of Justice, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 196.
Peter Jones, “Two Conceptions of Liberalism, Two Conceptions of Justice,” British Journal of Political Science 25, no. 4 (October 1995): 515.
Cecile Laborde, “The Reception of John Rawls in Europe,” European Journal of Political Theory 1, no. 2 (October 2002): 133–5.
Victoria Davion and Clark Wolf, “Introduction: From Comprehensive Justice to Political Liberalism,” in The Idea of a Political Liberalism, Essays on Rawls, ed. Victoria Davion and Clark Wolf (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), p. 1.
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Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, (New York: Basic Books, 1974), p. 183.
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples, (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 175. Dombrowski rejects the assumption that Rawls is reluctant about the relationship between religion and politics, and argues that the focal point, which Rawls’s political liberalism addresses, suggests a strategy of silence in managing this relationship.
See Daniel A. Dombrowski, Rawls and Religion, The Case for Political Liberalism, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001), p. vii.
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Ibn Al-Manzur, Lisan Al-Arab, ed. Ali Shiri, vol. 4 (Beirut: Dar al-Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi, 1988), p. 460.
Islmail Ibn Hammad al-Jouhari, Al-Sihah Taj al-Lughah wa Sihah al-Arabiyyah, 4th ed., vol. 3 (Beirut: Dar al-Ilm Lilmalayin, 1985), p. 1236.
Muhammad Hussein Tabatabai, Qur’an dar Islam, 2nd ed. (Tehran: Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyyah, 1974), p. 12.
Muhammad Hussein Tabatabai, Al-Mizan fi Tafiir al-Qur’an, vol. 18, 2nd ed. (Beirut: Muassasah al-Aalami lil-Matbuaat, 1982), pp. 29–30.
Muhammad Taqi Misbah, Amuzishi Aqaid, vols. 1–2, 7th ed. (Qum: Markazi Chap wa Nashri Sazmani Tablighati Islami, 1991), pp. 29–31.
Nasir Makarim Shirazi, Iatiqadi Ma, 2nd ed. (Qum: Intisharati Nash Jawan, 1997), pp. 115–16.
Muhammad Hussein Tabatabai, Shia dar Islam, 2nd edition, (Qum: Markazi Matbouaati-yi Dar al-Tablighi Islami, 1969), p. 39.
Nasir Makarim Shirazi, Panjah Darsi Usouli Aqaid barayi Jawanan, 9th ed. (Qum: Madrasah Imam Ali, 1997), pp. 223–4.
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Muhammad Taqi Misbah, Amuzishi Aqaid: Imamshinasi (Qum: Markazi Mudiriyyati Hawzi-yi Ilmiyyi-yi Qum, 1988), pp. 17–27, 121–34, and 439–41.
Imam Khomeini, Chihil Hadith, 13th ed. (Tehran: Institute of Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works, 1997), pp. 456–7, 462–3.
Al-Fazil Al-Miqdad, Sharhi Babi al-Hadi Ashar (Qum: Matbaah al-Islam, 1974), p. 75.
Murtaza Mutahhari, Wahy wa Nubuwwah, (Qum: Intisharati Hikmah, 1979), pp. 36–8.
Imam Khomeini, Wilayati Faqih: Hokoumati Islami, 7th ed. (Tehran: Institute of Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works, 1998), pp. 17, 22–5, 28, 31.
Muhammad Hussein Tabatabai is a prominent philosopher and interpreter of the Qur’an, usually called allama, meaning highly knowledgeable, and mufasiri, meaning the great interpreter of the Qur’an. His masterpiece is his interpretation of the Qur’an, Al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an, in 20 volumes, that has been repeatedly published in Beirut, Tehran, and Qum in the second half of the twentieth century. A well-known Iranian philosopher, Murtaza Mutahhari, describes Tabatabai’s interpretation of the Qur’an as the greatest interpretation that has been ever written in Islamic history. See Abul Qasim Razzaqi, “Ba Allama-yi Tabatabai dar al-Mizan,” in Yadnami-yi Mufassiri Kabir Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai (Qum: Intisharati Shafaq, 1982), p. 212. Misbah, an influential thinker in contemporary Iran, describes Tabatabai as the greatest interpreter and philosopher in the contemporary Shiite world.
See Muhammad Taqi Misbah, “Sukhani Piramouni Shakhsiyyati Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai,” in Yadnami-yi Mufassiri Kabir Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai (Qum: Intisharati Shafaq, 1982), p. 41. Sobhani, a distinguished philosopher and jurist, argues that Tabatabai has delivered an original style of the interpretation of the Qur’an.
See Jaafar Sobhani, “Nazari wa Gozari bar Zindigani-yi Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai,” in Yadnami-yi Mufassiri Kabir Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai (Qum: Intisharati Shafaq, 1982), pp. 70–2. Jawadi Amoli, a prominent Shiite philosopher and interpreter of the Qur’an, argue that in addition to his innovation in the interpretation of the Qur’an, Tabatabai has promoted Islamic philosophy and made a strong attempt to reconcile between the teachings of the Qur’an and Islamic philosophy and mysticism.
See Muhammad Taqi Misbah, “Naqshi Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai dar Nihzati Fikri-yi Hawzi-yi Ilmiyyi-yi Qum’, in Yadnami-yi Mufassiri Kabir Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai (Qum: Intisharati Shafaq, 1982), pp. 141–3;
and Abdullah Jawadi-yi Amoli, “Siri-yi Falsafi-yi Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai,” in Yadnami-yi Mufassiri Kabir Ustad Allama-yi Tabatabai, (Qum: Intisharati Shafaq, 1982), pp. 167–8.
J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner (eds.), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Vol. 8, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 881.
Seymour Martin Lipset, The Encyclopedia of Democracy (London: Routledge, 1995), p. 756;
Patrick Neal and David Paris, “Liberalism and the Communitarian Critique: A Guide for the Perplexed,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 23, no. 3 (September 1990): 431.
John Kekes, Against Liberalism (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1997), p. 2.
Richard Bellamy, Rethinking Liberalism (London: Pinter, 2000), p. 43.
John Gray, Liberalism, 2nd ed. (Berkshire: Open University Press, 1995), pp. xi, 46.
Anthony Arblaster, The Rise and Decline of Western Liberalism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984), p. 56.
Richard Bellamy, Liberalism and Modern Society: An Historical Argument (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992), p. 2.
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Isaiah Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. lvi.
Ibid., pp. lvii, 132, 144.
Andrew Mason, “Imposing Liberal Principles,” in Pluralism and Liberal Neutrality, ed. Richard Bellamy and Martin Hollis (London: Frank Cass, 1999), p. 99.
Chandran Kukathas. “Are There Any Cultural Rights?” Political Theory 20, no. 1 (February 1992): 116, 128.
A. H. Robertson and J. G. Merrills, Human Rights in the World, 4th ed. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), pp. 2–7.
Eric Heinze, The Logic of Liberal Rights: A Study in the Formal Analysis of Legal Discourse (London: Routledge, 2003), p. 13.
Richard Bellamy, “Liberalism,” in Contemporary Political Ideologies, ed. Roger Eatwell and Anthony Wright (London: Pinter, 1993), p. 24.
John Gray, Post-Liberalism, Studies in Political Thought, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 287.
Look for instance at Charles Larmore, The Morals of Modernity, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 127; Bellamy, Liberalism and ModernSociety, p. 7;
William A. Galston, Liberal Purposes, Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 80–1;
John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), p. 196.
Charles Larmore, Patterns of Moral Complexity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 46.
William A. Galston, “Two Concepts of Liberalism,” Ethics 105, no. 3 (April 1995): 525.
Since the concept of toleration implies disagreement and disapproval of what is tolerated, liberal citizens, who are self-restrained towards their disagreeing people, should be appreciated. See Steven Kautz, “Liberalism and the Idea of Toleration,” American Journal of Political Science 37, no. 2 (May 1993): 610. of course, as this book will demonstrate, peaceable religious people are, also, tolerant of those whom they believe to follow false conceptions of the good.
Nick Fotion and Gerard Elfstrom, Toleration (London and Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992), pp. 13, 117, 4.
Mary Warnock, “The Limits of Toleration,” in On Toleration, ed. Susan Mendus and David Edwards (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 126–7.
Preston King, Toleration, 2nd ed. (London: Frank Cass, 1998), pp. xiii, xiv, 21–29.
Richard C. Sinopoli, “Liberalism and Contested Conceptions of the Good: The Limits of Neutrality,” The journal of Politics 55, no. 3 (August 1993): 644.
Ibid., p. 4.
Ibid., pp. xxix, 4.
Iain McLean (ed.), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 445.
Bernard Eugene Meland, The Secularisation of Modern Cultures (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), pp. 4, 15.
Rajeev Bhargava, “Introduction,” in Secularism and Its Critics, ed. Rajeev Bhargava (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 3, 7–8.
Veit Bader, “Religious Diversity and Democratic Institutional Pluralism,” Political Theory 31, no. 2 (April 2003): 269–71.
Karel Dobbelaere, “Secularization: A Multi-Dimensional Concept,” Current Sociology 29, no. 2 (Summer 1981): 8–9.
Steve Bruce, “Introduction,” in Religion and Modernisation, Sociologists and Historians Debate the Secularisation Book, ed. Steve Bruce (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 6.
George Jacob Holyoake, English Secularism, A Confession of Belief (Chicago: Open Court, 1896), pp. 1, 35.
Heiner Bielefeldt, “Western versus Islamic Human Rights Conceptions? A Critique of Cultural Essentialism in the Discussion on Human Rights,” Political Theory 28, no. 1 (February 2000): 112.
D. L. Munby, The Idea of a Secular Society, and Its Significance for Christians (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), p. 12.
Richard Vernon, “J. S. Mill and the Religion of Humanity,” in Religion, Secularisation and Political Thought, Thomas Hobbes to J. S. Mill, ed. James E. Crimmins (London: Routledge, 1990), p. 169.
Ibid., pp. 169–70.
Robert Audi and Nicholas Woltersorff, Religion in the Public Square, the Place of Religious Convictions in Political Debate (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997), pp. 2–14, 38–42, 73.
Following political theorists such as Joseph Raz and William Galston, this book rejects even the feasibility of constructing a neutral state. See Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 110–33; and Galston, Liberal Purposes, Goods, Virtues, and Diversity, pp. 79–97.
William Safran, “Introduction,” in The Secular and the Sacred: Nation, Religion and Politics, ed. William Safran (London: Frank Cass, 2003), pp. 1–2.
George Joffe, “Democracy, Islam and the Culture of Modernism,” Democratization 4, no. 3 (Autumn 1997): 135–8.
P. L. Berger, Modernisation and Religion (Dublin: Brunswick Press, 1981), p. 9.
Jurgen Moltmann, God for a Secular Society, the Public Relevance of Theology trans. Margaret Kohl (London: SCM Press, 1999), p. 211.
As Charles Taylor argues, the solution suggested by Hobbes and Grotius to the problem of religious conflicts rests on the supposition that there is “an independent political ethics.” Whether or not God exists, all human beings understand some ethical codes, which should reign supreme in politics, such as keeping one’s promise. Not only do Hobbes and Grotius propose the availability of a collection of independent political ethics, but to distinguish them from religious ethics they also argue that religion is a private issue. The public sphere, thus, should be exclusively entrusted to independent political ethics. As Taylor expounds, Locke and Pufendrof’s alternative solution to overcome religious conflicts suggests “the common ground strategy” To establish peace among the followers of all sects of Christianity, they searched for some religious, even Christian, principles in which all sects of this religion share.. This solution rests on the idea of Natural Law, which can be discovered by the same reason that brings us to submit to God. See Charles Taylor, “Modes of Secularism,” in Rajeev Bhargava (ed.), Secularism and Its Critics (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 33–5.
Hugh McLeod, “Secular Cities? Berlin, London, and New York in the Later Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” in Religion and Modernisation, Sociologists and Historians Debate the Secularisation Book, ed. Steve Bruce (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 59.
Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular, Religion and Politics Worldwide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 3.
Anthony Gill, “Religion and Comparative Politics,” Annual Review of Political Science 4 (2001): 117.
Leonard Binder, Islamic Liberalism, a Critique of Development of Ideologies, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), pp. 131–5.
Veit Bader, “Religious Pluralism: Secularism or Priority for Democracy?” Political Theory 27, no. 5 (October 1999): 597–8.
Eldon J. Eisenach, Two Worlds of Liberalism: Religion and Politics in Hobbes, Locke, and Mill (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1981), pp. 3–5.
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© 2008 Hamid Hadji Haidar
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Haidar, H.H. (2008). Introduction. In: Liberalism and Islam. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230610545_1
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