Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment

Format: Hardcover Language: English ISBN: 0521768829 ISBN13: 9780521768825 Release Date: December 2010 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Length: 240 Pages Weight: 0.97 lbs. Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 9.0" Ali Mirsepassi's book presents a powerful challenge to the dominant media and scholarly construction of radical Islamist politics, and their anti-Western ideology, as a purely Islamic phenomenon derived from insular, traditional, and monolithic religious "foundations." It argues that the discourse of political Islam has strong connections to important and disturbing currents in Western philosophy and modern Western intellectual trends. The work demonstrates this by establishing links between important contemporary Iranian intellectuals and the central influence of Martin Heidegger's philosophy. We are also introduced to new democratic narratives of modernity linked to diverse intellectual trends in the West and in non-Western societies, notably in India, where