ISLAMIC REVOLUTION STUDIES
Year:2012 | Volume:9 | Issue:29|Papers Count:10

The method of Imam Khomeini's leadership as a contemporary Islamic leadership can serve as an appropriate introduction to present a leadership model in Islam. This model has various aspects. Within the grasp of this article, one of the most important aspect of these will be studied namely an insightful leader. The most important characteristics of an insightful leader from Imam Khomeini's viewpoint are: prudence, to have an outlook and a plan for future, to know the nature of movements and alertness to confront them, to identify good-doers and evil-doers, to identify the enemy and his conspiracies and finally awareness of situations and dutifulness. Documents for these characteristics are Imam Khomeini's stipulations in his remarks or his behavior quoted by others.

This article claims that according to Imam Khomeini, the political development originates from Islamic and divine principles and foundations and is based on maximum participation of each citizen. Its aim is happiness in this world and in the hereafter and material and spiritual improvement of the individual and the society with an inclination towards closeness to God and His satisfaction. Regarding its implementation it has four models: holy prophet's (S) model, Imam Ali's (A) model, Imam Mahdi's (A) model and Welayate Faqih. In contrast, political development according to western models is generally based on material needs, the improvement of the individual and the society's worldly status and political system. According to Imam Khomeini, politics is divided into three types: satanic, humanistic and divine. Divine politics covers all aspects of human life both in this world and in the hereafter. In Imam Khomeini's opinion political development is divided into two types transcendental and non-transcendental (low level and high level) and his choice is transcendental.

This article tries to demonstrate that Imam Khomeini's leadership does not comply with Max Weber's charismatic leadership theory but it has emanated from another model that has been explained in this article based on Allame Motahhari's opinions. In first section the nature of divine prophets' leadership has been clarified by refuting the theory of charismatic leadership. In second section the nature of Imam Khomeini's leadership has been clarified in the form of identifying why masses were attracted to him. Finally the main reason for Iranian people's attraction to Imam Khomeini has been offered which was his strong compliance and bonds with Islamic-Shiite culture not his personal characteristics.

Martyr Seyyed Muhammad Baqer Sadr is one of the scholars who have offered a relatively comprehensive theory regarding the nature, possibility, necessity and conditions of a revolution with the leadership of Islam and how this type of revolution can be implemented. His theory about revolution is not of post-revolutionary or analytic type but is pre-revolutionary and norm-based or guiding and denotative. Therefore it determines the worldview and ideology of revolution. Along this and emphasizing the theoretical pillars and foundations of history's norms and human's freedom, he explains the feasibility of revolution and its necessity for Islamic societies at this age. Then considering factors such as ideology and school of thought, chronological conditions and preparedness, familiarity with the school of thought and necessities, leadership capability, willingness, facilities and capabilities, he tries to answer how a revolution with Islamic leadership can be implemented.

Regional uprisings mainly revolve around two issues; one is protest against foreign policies and presence of foreigners in the region and the other is dissatisfaction about domestic socio-economic conditions. But an interesting fact is that through the years regional Islamic movements have corrected their mistakes and decreased their weak points in such a way that each generation of Islamic movements enjoys more strength and less weak points than its predecessor. Along this, west has also updated its efforts to tackle public uprisings and has devised new forms for its policies.In Arabic revolutions in the region, Egypt is considered the most important country by experts therefore this article puts special emphasis on different generations of Islamic movements in this country.

Some experts believe that modern communications tools have paved the ground for the rapid globalization and maintain that modern communication technologies have crystalized the idea called "global village" in many parts of the world. In the past few decades, globalization has exerted impact on Iranian society on a large scale. This article tries to answer how this phenomenon has affected Iranian media in post-revolution Iran.To answer this question, the authors have examined globalization phenomenon from the aspect of the development in communication technologies in Iran. Subsequently they have studied the socio-cultural implications of technology growth.

While communism and capitalism were competing to extend to larger geographical regions, Islamic revolution of Iran founded a political system based on an Islamic ideology and a new player with new standards was introduced as a new agency in the international system. Necessities of an Islamic ideology posed challenges for the interaction of this new agency with established international structures. This article tries to answer how the international system interacts with this new agent .The hypothesis of this article is that the confrontation of this structure and the new agency is for ideological reasons. To investigate this relationship and to identify its type we will consider theories such as British School, Constructivism, neo-Realism and the paradigm of the clash with the dominant system.

In this article the author clarifies his epistemological approach to democracy based on its two crucial principles namely autonomy and dialogue. He has demonstrated that distinguished scholars of this approach deny the integration of religion and democracy and believe in the impossibility of religious democracy. Given this theory, the author has criticized humanological and epistemological foundations of this theory and by criticizing its governing principles he has demonstrated that contrary to this theory, it is quite feasible to integrate religion and democracy even with western definitions and viewpoints.

This article studies the trend of transformation of the values in Iranian society in researches conducted from 1979 to 2010. Islamic revolution gained victory supported by spiritual and transcendental values. There is no doubt that the sustenance of Islamic republic of Iran and the achievement of Islamic revolution's global causes will never be possible but through the preservation and reinforcement of these values. Therefore identifying the possible transformation of beliefs and values of Iranian society over these years is of substantial importance. This study is based on meta-analysis of national surveys conducted from 1979 to 2010 and investigates the trend of changes in the values of Iranian society.

Along with the majority of Muslims in Iran, there are non-Muslim minorities with Iranian nationality. This article tries to explain the exclusive rights of religious minorities in Iranian political system; that means although religious minorities tend to be treated as the majority, they would like to preserve and protect their cultural-religious characteristics with the support of the government. Fortunately Iran's laws both constitutional and non-constitutional cover this issue.