Modernism Vs Traditionalism In Islam

The twentieth century witnessed the rise of elites and governments in the Islamic world, focused on modernizing and westernizing their respective states and social structures (Webb 2005, p.100). Mustapha Kemal in Turkey, Habibullah and Amanullah in Afghanistan, and Reza Shah in Iran are just a few examples hereof. In general, these leaders shared the common goal of discouraging traditional practices, which they generally viewed as archaic, and instead want to introduce modern institutions that would serve to integrate their countries and economies into the international community and the emerging global economy (Webb 2005, p.100). In Iran, these westernizing elements have constituted one side of a fierce conflict between modernism and traditionalism,

As such, only an Islamic Expert is qualified to rule an Islamic society. Furthermore, Khomeini argued that humans are naturally weak, spiritually (Webb 2005, p.102). Thus, he justified government intervention in virtually all aspects of social life. He believed that proper moral education of the citizens was the solution to most problems of human nature and social corruption, with the government acting as the primary educator of Islamic norms (Webb 2005,

Within Shi´ism, Twelver Shi´ism is the most common form, and is mainly practiced in countries like Iran, Iraq and Lebanon (Blanchard 2009, p.5). In the Middle East, “Iran is the only one in which a true Islamic revolution took place. The Iranian revolution is tightly linked to Shiism conceived of not as a corpus, but as a history” (Roy 1994, p.168).

Based on this, Islam is also the leading discourse of the Iranian cultural environment, and the socio-political particularities of Sh’ism therefore provide an interesting series of important points for Iranian social and individual identity. In that sense, regardless of ideological or religious orientations, no Iranian can live outside of this cultural context, and no political discourse can be absolved from its influence. Thus, to speak of Iran is to speak of Shi’ism, and to speak of Shi’ism is to speak of Iran (Webb 2005,