English Wikipedia @ Freddythechick

Religious-Nationalists

A political faction in Iran that embraces both Iranian nationalism and Islam
(Redirected from National-Religious)
This article is about a political faction in Iran. For the relationship between nationalism and religious beliefs, see Religious nationalism.

The Religious–Nationalists[1][2][3][4] (plural form in Persian: ملّی‌مذهبی‌ها, romanized: Melli–Mazhabi ha, lit. 'The Nationalist–Religious Ones')[2] or the National–Religious[5][6] (Persian: ملّی‌مذهبی, romanized: Melli–Mazhabi as an adjective) are terms referring to a political faction in Iran[7][8] that consists of individuals and groups embracing Iranian nationalism and Islam, as an integral part of their manifesto. They self-identify as political followers of Mohammad Mosaddegh and their modernist religious outlook makes them advocates of coexistence of Islam and democracy, an idea distinguishable from those of ideologies such as Pan-Islamism or Islamism.

The political lineage of this faction is traced back to the 1940s while its adherents have been off power with the exception of a brief period after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, during which the Interim Government of Iran was led by Mehdi Bazargan. Having opposed the rule of both Pahlavi dynasty and the current Islamic Republic system, they have for long sought democracy in Iran through reformism –rather than revolutionary means– albeit their aspirations of being accepted as the loyal opposition by the establishment have been fruitless. As a result, the groups within this faction have been outlawed and prosecuted throughout much of their history.

History

Pre-revolutionary era (1940–1979)

The political lineage of the faction is traced back to the 1940s.[9] The first political organization of Muslim intellectuals in Iran was the Movement of God-Worshipping Socialists (MGWS), which was founded in 1943 and influenced a series of other socialist groupings in the next years to come.[9] The MGWS was merged into the nationalist Iran Party, but later split from the party to form the Society for the Liberation of the People of Iran and became affiliated with the original National Front, an alliance of different groups on a wide range of political spectrum founded in 1949 by Mohammad Mosaddegh.[9] Other Muslim intelligentsia who worked with the Front to help nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, were not socialists in the traditional sense of the term but instead were instead proponents of liberalism.[10]

After the British-American coup d'état in 1953 up until 1961, they were active members of the National Resistance Movement and then the National Front (II), and gained a large following among religious masses by publishing books on Islam with a modernist view.[11]

In 1961, religious elements of the Front founded the Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) with the blessings of Mosaddegh who was under house arrest.[11] After the 1963 demonstrations in Iran, the leading FMI members were arrested and imprisoned. During the trials, FMI leader Mehdi Bazargan precisely predicted that they are "the last legal opposition" to the establishment.[12] Bulk of the FMI members were exiled and became politically active abroad against the government, with younger generations founding the People's Mujahedin of Iran. After FMI members were gradually released from prison, they resumed mostly intellectual activities until the Iranian Revolution in 1979.[12] In the meantime, other groups such as JAMA and the Movement of Militant Muslims were formed as successors to the left-wing MGWS.[13]

Post-revolutionary era (since 1979)

Historian Ervand Abrahamian identifies six distinguishable political factions that emerged in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, including "lay-religious liberals" represented by Bazargan. Allied with "secular liberals", the faction wanted to replace the old government with a pluralistic and secular democratic republic, but both were sidelined by Khomeinist "clerical populists" who seized the power.[14] According to him:

Fearful of replacing the monarchy with either anarchy or theocracy, they hoped to demolish the old order 'step by step’ and erect a republic that would keep intact the main state institutions, especially the army and the bureaucracy, and would be Islamic in form but secular and democratic in content. Inspired by nationalism as well as Shiism, they used patriotic symbols as much as religious ones, dreamed not of exporting the revolution but of modernizing the country, and feared not so much alien cultural influences as predatory neighbours, in particular Iraq. Thus they were reluctant to break off all political, technical and military links with the United States. And apprehensive of all forms of autocracy, these liberals hoped to set up a state that would not weigh too heavily on society, especially in economic matters, and would tolerate political diversity. It was not clear, however, whether they were willing to extend this toleration to include radicals advocating the establishment of a new social order.[14]

After the Khomeinists consolidated power in the early 1980s, they politically marginalized and suppressed the Nationalist-Religious tendency. Despite prosecutions, the faction continued to exist and was tolerated by Khomeini's government.[15] During the 1980s, Bazargan and his associates were constantly harassed but they issued several proclamations criticizing Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist and government policies on Iran–Iraq war.[16] After 1997 Iranian presidential election, they joined the reformists in supporting President Mohammad Khatami and started to gain more public following.[15] According to Hamid Dabashi, they became the "dominant discourse of the most successful material constitution of political uprising against the conservatives in Iran".[17]

Associated groups and individuals

See also: Category:Iranian religious-nationalists

The camp consists of political organizations such as the Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI), the Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists and the Women's Society of Islamic Revolution, as well as individuals who are either independent or are considered remnants of groups like the Movement of Militant Muslims, the People's Mojahedin Movement of Iran and the JAMA.[2]

Political groups that were not parties in traditional sense, and whose membership included people with this orientation in whole or partially include:

<timeline> DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:15 PlotArea = left:20 right:40 bottom:60 top:15 Legend = columns:1 position:bottom top:25 columnwidth:100

Colors = 

 id:line         value:gray(0.8)
 id:C            value:green            legend:Cultural_organizations
 id:ST           value:red              legend:Student_organizations
 id:P            value:blue             legend:Political_organizations
 id:SI           value:orange           legend:Single-issue_political_organizations

Period = from:01/01/1940 till:01/01/2021 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1940 gridcolor:line ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1940

AlignBars = justify

BarData= 

 bar:FoI
 bar:IAS   
 bar:MGWS
 bar:CFPIT
 bar:IAE   
 bar:FMI
 bar:MSA
 bar:JAMA  
 bar:HE
 bar:ICDFHR
 bar:MMM
 bar:BDSI  
 bar:WSIR
 bar:EG
 bar:ADFSIN
 bar:SCRB 
 bar:OSU
 bar:SCF   
 bar:CNRA
 bar:FDHR

PlotData= 

 width: 10px align:right textcolor:black shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

 bar:FoI   color:green  from:01/01/1941 till:01/01/1949 text:"Focality of Islam" anchor:till align:left fontsize:8
 bar:CFPIT color:green  from:01/07/1946 till:27/08/1963 text:"Center for the Propagation of Islamic Truths" anchor:till align:left fontsize:8
 bar:IAE   color:green  from:01/01/1957 till:01/01/1975 text:"Islamic Association of Engineers" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
           color:green  from:22/02/1979 till:end 
 bar:HE    color:green  from:17/12/1966 till:05/11/1972 text:"Hosseiniyeh Ershad" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
           color:green  from:22/02/1979 till:end 
 bar:BDSI  color:green  from:22/02/1979 till:01/01/1989 text:"Bureau for the Diffusion of Shariati's Ideas" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4)
 bar:SCRB  color:green  from:01/01/1996 till:17/03/2001 text:"Shariati Cultural Researches Bureau" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4)
 bar:SCF   color:green  from:01/01/1998 till:end text:"Shariati Cultural Foundation" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4)  
 bar:MGWS  color:blue   from:17/05/1944 till:01/01/1950 text:"Movement of God-Worshipping Socialists" anchor:till align:left fontsize:8 shift:(2,-4) 
 bar:FMI   color:blue   from:17/05/1961 till:end text:"Freedom Movement of Iran" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
 bar:JAMA  color:blue   from:20/07/1964 till:end text:"JAMA" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
 bar:MMM   color:blue   from:17/12/1977 till:end text:"Movement of Militant Muslims" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
 bar:WSIR  color:blue   from:19/07/1979 till:end text:"Women's Society of Islamic Revolution" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
 bar:CNRA  color:blue   from:01/01/1999 till:end text:"Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4)
 bar:ICDFHR color:orange from:14/08/1977 till:27/08/1979 text:"Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
 bar:EG    color:orange from:02/02/1980 till:09/05/1980 text:"Eponym Group" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4)  
 bar:ADFSIN color:orange from:01/03/1986 till:14/06/1990 text:"Association for Defense of Freedom and the Sovereignty of the Iranian Nation" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
 bar:FDHR  color:orange from:01/04/2005 till:01/07/2005 text:"Front for Democracy and Human Rights" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
 bar:IAS   color:red    from:01/01/1942 till:20/04/1980 text:"Islamic Associations of Students" anchor:till align:left fontsize:8 shift:(2,-4) 
 bar:MSA   color:red    from:01/01/1963 till:01/12/1978 text:"Muslim Students' Association (North America)" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4) 
 bar:OSU   color:red    from:01/06/1997 till:01/06/2003 text:"Enlightenment Fraction, Office for Strengthening Unity" anchor:from align:right fontsize:8 shift:(0,-4)

</timeline>

Non-political organizations

The forerunner of non-political organizations whose membership had National-Religious thoughts was the Focality of Islam, founded in 1941 by Mahmoud Taleghani.[18] Based in Tehran, it was dedicated to study and teach Quran in a nontraditional fashion.[18] A similar organization was founded in 1946 by Mohammad-Taghi Shariai in Mashhad, named the Center for the Propagation of Islamic Truths.[18] Young members of these two organizations who entered university, made up the nucleus that established the Islamic Association of Students (IAS) at the University of Tehran in 1941, and at the University of Mashhad in 1949.[18] The main patron of the former was Mehdi Bazargan, whose activities at the time were focused on anti-communist agenda.[18] Similar organizations were founded at the Shiraz University and the University of Tabriz and soon they expanded all over the country, leading to formation of an umbrella organization which held its second national congress in 1962.[18] After these students were graduated, they established a series of similar professional associations for teachers, doctors and engineers.[18]

According to Hamid Algar, "the intellectual impact of all this activity was considerable; it can be said that the associations laid the foundations of the modern Islamic movement in Iran".[18]

In 1959, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh founded the first of such student-run Islamic organization abroad in Washington, D.C. In 1963, students who sympathized with the FMI and studied in the North America, founded the Islamic Students' Association of America and Canada, a student-run organization which was incorporated into the Muslim Students' Association (MSA). While the former was officially a subordinate of the latter, it maintained autonomy and called itself the 'Persian-speaking group' of MSA. In 1978, the organization left the MSA but retained the name 'Muslim Students' Association (Persian-Speaking Group)'.[18]

During the late 1990s and the early 2000s, one of the three internal factions within the Office for Strengthening Unity named ferāksīun-e rowšangarī (lit. 'enlightened faction'), were regarded sympathetic towards this political camp.[19]

After 1979, a number of organizations dedicated to spread the thoughts and works of Ali Shariati were established. Bureau for the Diffusion of Shariati's Ideas (daftar-e našr-e aqāyed-e šarīatī) which was coordinated by Mohammad-Taghi Shariai, was closed down by the authorities in the late 1980s.[20] Another organization named Dr. Ali Shariati Cultural Researches Bureau (daftar-e pažuḥeš-hāye farḥangī-ye doktor alī-ye šarīatī), was founded by Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari in 1996 and started working the next year but was forcibly shut down in 2001.[21] Shariati Cultural Foundation (bonyad-e farhangī-ye šarīatī) is run by Shariati family and remains active.

Media

Prominent print media that have been published legally and belong to the faction include:

Ideology

See also: Shariatism, Religious intellectualism in Iran, and Post-Islamism
Further information: Freedom Movement of Iran § Ideology, and Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists of Iran § Platform

The National-Religious discourse is based on two pillars: īrānīyyat (lit. 'Iranian-ness') and eslāmīyyat (lit. 'Islamic-ness').[1] Through this platform, Islamic and nationalist values reconcile and it is argued that religion and modernism can coexist.[6] A broad spectrum of thoughts are gathered under this umbrella term and subsequently they disagree among themselves about various issues. While some lean towards left-wing politics and are described as social democrat or Islamic socialist, some others are proponents of economic liberalism and market economy and are considered Islamic liberals.[23][26][27] A common ground among the camp is that they are strictly non-violent and favor gradual sociopolitical changes instead of revolutionary objectives.[28]

Matthijs van den Bos observed that by 2002, university students associated with National-Religious orientation were disillusioned with state religion but had a quest for what he calls "political mysticism", as they used the slogan āzādī, barābarī, ʾerfān (lit. 'Liberty, Equality, Gnosis').[29]

has been enjoying "high intellectual status" among Iranian public opinion.[30]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ 1.0 1.1 Elling 2012, p. 82.
  2. ^ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Sadri 2008b, p. 462.
  3. ^ Sadeghi-Boroujerdi 2019, p. 192.
  4. ^ Sharifi 2013, p. 150.
  5. ^ Mir-Hosseini 2002, p. 42.
  6. ^ 6.0 6.1 Abdolmohammadi 2021, p. 90.
  7. ^ Abdolmohammadi & Cama 2020, p. 74.
  8. ^ Magri & Perteghella 2017, p. 20.
  9. ^ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Sadri 2008b, pp. 456–458.
  10. ^ Sadri 2008a, pp. 302.
  11. ^ 11.0 11.1 Sadri 2008a, p. 303.
  12. ^ 12.0 12.1 Sadri 2008a, p. 304.
  13. ^ Sadri 2008b, pp. 459–461.
  14. ^ 14.0 14.1 Abrahamian 1987, pp. 45–47.
  15. ^ 15.0 15.1 Mir-Hosseini 2002, pp. 42–43.
  16. ^ Behrooz 1991, p. 559.
  17. ^ Dabashi 2008, p. 160.
  18. ^ 18.00 18.01 18.02 18.03 18.04 18.05 18.06 18.07 18.08 18.09 18.10 Algar 1985.
  19. ^ Rivetti 2019, p. 153.
  20. ^ Bayat 1990, p. 39.
  21. ^ Mir-Hosseini & Tapper 2006, p. 49.
  22. ^ Khiabany 2009, pp. 99–100.
  23. ^ 23.0 23.1 Buchta 2000, p. 83.
  24. ^ Khiabany 2009, p. 196.
  25. ^ Khabbazi-Oskouei 2016.
  26. ^ Sadri 2008b, p. 460.
  27. ^ Sadri 2008a, p. 306.
  28. ^ Buchta 2000, p. 79.
  29. ^ van den Bos 2002, pp. 364, 374.
  30. ^ Rivetti 2019, p. 55.

Sources

  • Abdolmohammadi, Pejman; Cama, Giampiero (2020). Contemporary Domestic and Foreign Policies of Iran. Springer Nature. ISBN 9783030453367.
  • Abdolmohammadi, Pejman (2021). "The Shiite Islamic Political Theology The Debate between Ruhollah Khomeini (d. 1989) and Mehdi Bazargan (d. 1995)". In Massimo Campanini; Marco Di Donato (eds.). Islamic Political Theology. Lexington Books. pp. 83–96. ISBN 9781498590594.
  • Abrahamian, Ervand (1987). Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin. I.B. Tauris, Yale University Press. ISBN 9781850430773.
  • Algar, Hamid (5 August 2011) [15 December 1985]. "ii. Religious (anǰoman-e maḏhabī)". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). ANJOMAN (Organization). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. II/1. pp. 77–83.
  • Bayat, Asef (1990). "Shariati and Marx : A Critique of an "Islamic" Critique of Marxism". Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics. 10 (19). doi:10.2307/521715. JSTOR 521715.
  • Behrooz, Maziar (1991). "Factionalism in Iran under Khomeini". Middle Eastern Studies. 27 (4): 597–614. doi:10.1080/00263209108700879. JSTOR 4283464.
  • Buchta, Wilfried (2000). "The Lay Leaders of the Nonviolent, Religious 'Semi-Opposition'". Who Rules Iran?: The Structure of Power in the Islamic Republic. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. ISBN 9780944029398.
  • Dabashi, Hamid (2008). Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the empire. Routledge. ISBN 9780415771542.
  • Elling, Rasmus Christian (2012). "Matters of Authenticity: Nationalism, Islam, and Ethnic Diversity in Iran". In Nabavi, Negin (ed.). Iran: From Theocracy to the Green Movement. Springer. doi:10.1057/9781137112163. ISBN 978-1-137-11216-3.
  • Khabbazi-Oskouei, Leila (2016). "Orality in Persian Argumentative Discourse: A Case Study of Editorials". Iranian Studies. 49 (4): 677–691. doi:10.1080/00210862.2015.1026250. S2CID 162311824.
  • Khiabany, Gholam (2009). Iranian Media: The Paradox of Modernity. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-87641-1.
  • Magri, Paolo; Perteghella, Annalisa (2017). Post-Vote Iran: Giving engagement a chance. Ledizioni. ISBN 9788867056538.
  • Mir-Hosseini, Ziba; Tapper, Richard (2006). Islam and Democracy in Iran: Eshkevari and the Quest for Reform. London and New York: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-133-5.
  • Mir-Hosseini, Ziba (2002). "The Conservative: Reformist Conflict over Women's Rights in Iran". International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 16 (1): 37–53. doi:10.1023/A:1016530427616. JSTOR 20020147. S2CID 141066788.
  • Rivetti, Paola (2019). Political Participation in Iran from Khatami to the Green Movement. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 9783030322014.
  • Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, Eskandar (2019). Revolution and its Discontents: Political Thought and Reform in Iran. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108426343.
  • Sadri, Mahmoud (2008a). "Liberalism, Islamic". In Kamrava, Mehran; Dorraj, Manochehr (eds.). Iran Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Islamic Republic. Vol. 2. Greenwood Press. pp. 300–307. ISBN 978-0313341632.
  • Sadri, Mahmoud (2008b). "Socialism, Islamic". In Kamrava, Mehran; Dorraj, Manochehr (eds.). Iran Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Islamic Republic. Vol. 2. Greenwood Press. pp. 456–463. ISBN 978-0313341632.
  • Sharifi, Majid (2013). Imagining Iran: The Tragedy of Subaltern Nationalism. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739179451.
  • van den Bos, Matthijs (2002). "Sufi Authority in Khatami's Iran: Some Fieldwork Notes". Oriente Moderno. 82 (2): 351–378. doi:10.1163/22138617-08202006. ISSN 2213-8617.
Retrieved from "https://enwiki.freddythechick.net/index.php?title=Religious-Nationalists&oldid=2418185"