نشریه بحران پژوهی جهان اسلام
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 3، تابستان 1394)

Nationalism and modernism, and the relationship between them have instigated much controversy among different schools of thoughts, and scholars. Indeed nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been dubbed as the era of nationalism, and the development of different forms of extremist nationalism during this era has triggered many debates and controversies around the concepts such as nation, nationalism, and their relationship with modernism. Iran is no exception regarding this controversy, and numerous questions have been raised about the concepts of nation and nationalism and, particularly, the exact time of the formation of these concepts in Iran. This paper attempts to examine the ideas and standings of perennialists, modernists, and Anthony Smith and also nationalists and modernists, and we examine which of these perspectives could provide a framework for investigating nation and nationalism in Iran. The idea of this Article is: “while modernists consider nation and nationalism to be an outcome of the dramatic changes in the modern era, and perennialists consider them to be a product of history, Anthony Smith sees nation as a function of history and nationalism a product of modernism.” Furthermore, his ideas in historical sociology can be summed as an appropriate approach to studying these notions in the context of Iran.”

In spite of Quranic teachings concerning the free nature of human to change his fate and the theoretical possibility of social movements in Islamic teachings, social protest and rebellion against the government was considered as heinous and reprehensible in the political thought of Muslim intellectuals and also in the history of Islamic societies with the exception of Shiite political thought and some Kharijite communions. This prevalent perception in Islamic societies contained similarities to the traditions of various societies, particularly Christian and Jewish communities and it was also affected by Arabic and deep-rooted, oriental and Mesopotamian despotic traditions. In addition to these outside influences and cross-civilizational heritage, debates about allowing or refusing uprisings against the government and its granting or declining permission requires an understanding of the principles of Islamic political knowledge in inter-religious fields and from the perspective of experiences within the Islamic political system. In the process of the formation of Islamic political thought, texts known as Ahkam as-sultaniyyah and also political jurisprudence texts played a major role in reforming the idea of caliphate as the most fundamental texts, and contrary to common perception, they were not interpretations of texts, but a demonstration of the government’s attempt to provide legitimizing theories. In these texts, the concept of prophetic mission as the continuation of its political function, and unlike the tradition formed in the first decades of the first century which recognized the right of criticizing and protesting against the ruler, in this more recent thought, movement and uprising against the ruler was regarded as lacking legal basis and considered a religious crime and rebellion. In this paper, the concept of social movements or revolt against the political ruler in Muslims’ political thought throughout the early and middle centuries of Islam (from the beginning to the end of the Caliphate) is studied and a major question will be discussed as well: In the Islamic political thought particularly in Sunni Islam which flourished in the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, how and through what process did the theoretical possibility of a revolution against the government gradually lead to its refusal? In response to this question, the attitude of the predominant political thought in Sunni Islam regarding the possibility or impossibility of social movements (popular revolutions) against the political establishment is explained, and Shiite and Kharijite opposition ideas are also briefly surveyed alongside the main topic for the sake of comparison.

This article aims to explain the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards the Syrian crisis. In this regard, this research approaches with analytical- descriptive method tries to answer this question: To what extent the Defensive Realism does explain the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Syrian crisis? It should be noted that any serious change in the political landscape in Syria, would have serious consequences and would influence the Resistance Axis led by Iran and they would face new threats in the region. Accordingly, Iran's policy in Syria can be a policy to maintain Syria`s presence and to have an influence in the eastern Mediterranean and end the threats of its borders in the balance of threat assessments framework that can be analyzed. This policy becomes more understandable when competing against Iranian and Saudi axis and their allies be considered as a whole and seen in the area. This article aims to analyze these issues within its sector.

This article concerns the contradiction between holly religious scripts and the Knowledge system of modern world. This contradiction can be studied into two levels: First the contradiction between new scientific theories and the ontological verses in holly scripts; the second one is the contradiction between moral statements based on celestial verses and modern ethical system. This article studies two main Muslim`s approaches which try to justify the contradiction between the holly scripts of Islam and new ethical findings. The first group consider the afflatus a historical process and believe that the recent contradictions were the result of time-place considerations of the prophet (piece be upon him) and his audiences, so religious statements should be considered in their original time and places. The other groups reject historical view in the afflatus and they believe that all these contradictions, scientific or moral, are the result of ornaments and false imaginations found in the second-handed Islamic texts.

Today the progress in information and communication technologies and the growth and spread of mass media such as satellite, internet, email, Facebook and electronic publication have changed the relations between states in a way that instead of applying military leverage and hard power directly to the states, the use  of soft power is replaced  slowly  as a new method and has attracted the media's role in this regard to justify the dishonest policy of  a few brutal countries.  This policy is important in the decision of Americans between the state of war by targeting thinking people and the elite target countries making significant role in the weakening their beliefs, so the new American definition of terrorism and freedom, especially after September eleven they targeted a soft war against the Islamic World and specially Islamic Republic of Iran and launched various strategies for overthrowing the regime, Here we investigate the U.S. soft war strategy against Iran.