Abdolkarim Soroush
Abdolkarim Soroush
Abdolkarim Soroushahb-dohl-kah-REEM soh-ROOSH عبدالكريم سروش), born Hossein Haj Faraj Dabbagh, is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran and Imam Khomeini International University. He is arguably the most influential figure in the religious intellectual movement of Iran. Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. He was also affiliated with other prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, the Leiden-based International Institute as...
NationalityIranian
ProfessionPhilosopher
One of the achievements of the reform movement is that people realize that they can be democrats and remain faithful Muslims. Democracy is now an established idea.
When I have an idea, I'm like a pregnant woman. I just have to deliver.
We no longer claim that a genuinely religious government can be democratic, but that it cannot be otherwise.
People should know what they want, not just what they don't want.
It is up to God to reveal a religion, but up to us to understand and realise it.
Human beings can remain spiritual and religious while enjoying the benefits of rational administration of their affairs.
A realistic view of humanity will stop the proliferation of impossible injunctions.
Islam, or any religion, will become totalitarian if it is made into an ideology, because that is the nature of ideologies.
Arresting development, attacking science, and glorifying poverty is not the answer to the vices that attend prosperity.
There are all sorts of cries that the leaders of the Green Movement should submit themselves to the supreme leader, but that won't take place. Both sides have to be prepared for a serious negotiation.
The clergy earns its living from religion. If your interests are secured through religion, then you will defend your interests first, and religion will become secondary.
That President Mohammad Khatami's policies have been blocked is the bitterest incident in the contemporary Iranian history. This means that the wishes of millions of people who voted for Khatami and called for freedom and justice have been ignored... Why should cultural activities and journalism be so risky in Iran?