RAHBORD
Year:2013 | Volume:21 | Issue:65|Papers Count:19

The present paper focuses on Imam Khomeini’s discourse on the national security and foreign policy. After discussing the theory of discourse and discourse analysis, it briefly reviews the viewpoints of six early and contemporary Muslim thinkers on the national security and foreign policy. Then it provides in-depth insight on the viewpoints of Imam Khomeini in this regard. The general scheme of Imam Khomeini’s concepts or order of discourse has been drawn up and organized on the basis of the discourse analysis theory. The aforesaid order of discourse explains important aspects of the political theory of Imam Khomeini. This paper shows that configuration of the order of Imam Khomeini’s discourse on the aforesaid subject is based on “Islamic awakening” as the central signifier and is connected to two important elements of “deterrence and task-based defense” and “purposive and dignified interaction with the world” through “emphasis on dignity”.

Since judgment is among important topics of the Islamic jurisprudence and law, qualifications of a judge are also of high importance. Ijtihad is one of the important conditions for becoming a judge in Islamic jurisprudence about which different viewpoints have been expressed. Most Muslim jurists, including Imam Khomeini, believe in ijtihad as a necessary condition for judgment. On the opposite, there is a group of mostly contemporary jurists who despite the dominant view, do not believe in the necessity of ijtihad as a qualification for judgment. Apparently, their evidence is stronger than the prevalent viewpoint of jurists and they can prove that ijtihad is unnecessary as a precondition for judgment – of course, if the informed follower of faqih (Muslim jurist) is aware of its principles and is qualified in other respects. Presuming the necessity of ijtihad, judgment by an appointed follower or proxy on behalf of mujtahid would not be authorized. However, presuming that ijtihad is not necessary condition for judgment, it would be authorized to appoint a follower to do judgment. It seems that even if ijtihad is considered necessary as a cautionary measure and due to Islam’s strict recommendation for protecting the life, property and honor of people, in emergency cases and when a mujtahid judge is not at hand, judgment of a follower would be authorized in order to prevent disruption in the judicial system and difficulty for people.

Environment is common heritage of humanity and everybody should protect it both in war and peace. Many conventions and protocols have been so far formulated on an international scale for the protection of the environment. This paper first explores measures taken by the Zionist regime in the 22-day war on Gaza in 2008 before discussing international responsibility of that regime in the aforesaid war. In conclusion, arguments have been provided on mistakes committed by the Zionist regime, while enumerating and explaining violations of international environmental law by that regime. According to the provisions and contents of the existing protocols and conventions, the Zionist regime should accept its responsibility with regard to widespread violations of environmental law in Gaza while taking suitable steps to compensate the damages. The international community should also take necessary measures to make that regime compensate the damages. To prevent such incidents, steps should be also taken to make the Zionist regime accept its international responsibility toward violation of environmental law. Past experiences have shown that international responsibility of the states with regard to the environment should not be limited to arbitrary measures, recommendations or encouragement, but should become mandatory and obligatory for them. Establishment of an organization and a mechanism for the realization of this idea is an undeniable imperative of the modern world.

The Treasury is a source of blood money in Muslim countries. There are many Islamic traditions about the true meaning of the Treasury, but here, it specifically stands for the Treasury in Muslim countries, or Beit-ul-Maal. The Islamic punitive code has specified certain instances in which blood money can be paid through the Treasury. They include cases when murderer has not been identified either through oath-taking ceremony, or when in an oath-taking ceremony, an accused murderer has been acquitted; in cases when the next of kin is not sane; when the murderer has escaped and has no close relatives; when an officer of law or judge has made a mistake; when there are two different confessions and so forth. This study discusses legal and judicial documents and the method used to adapt legal cases with viewpoints of Muslim jurists in every one of the above cases while offering proposals for the completion or correction of the law. There are also cases in which the Islamic jurisprudence considers the Treasury responsible for the payment of blood money, which have not been mentioned in the law. Some of these cases include administration of the Islamic punishment (hadd), when a crime has been committed by People of the Book, and when an aggressor is killed by a person in defense, where the viewpoints of Muslim jurists and evidence in favor of such cases are discussed. Some of these cases are of difference among jurists as they have been poorly documented (for example with regard to death of a person due to administration of the Islamic punishment), some of them can be only proven according to a specific principle, and some are against the viewpoints of most jurists (like killing an insane attacker by a person in self-defense). Obviously, it has been right not to include these cases in the state law. The only case which is strongly documented and is based on the viewpoints of most jurists is when People of the Book commit a crime in which case the author of Jawahir has a clear decree. It is proposed that this case should be included in the law.

Determining the optimal rate of profit on bank facilities and deposits is one of the important issues facing the country right now. In traditional financial system, short-term profit rate determined by the government (which is proportionate to inflation rate) replaces the profit rate for investment without risk. Meanwhile, in the usury-free banking system no interest is paid on deposits and only a profit rate is considered for the investments. Studies show that inflation rate exerts the highest influence on the profit rate of bank facilities and deposits. Also, the real profit rate on facilities granted by banks is very low for people requesting loans and this issue will lead to various economic rents. Therefore, the real profit rate is taken as the basis of discussions on the Islamic banking. This paper reviews reciprocal effects of the profit rate of bank facilities and deposits on the inflation rate in the Iranian economy, while showing that in the studied period (1993-2006) the profit rate of bank facilities has been lower than the real rate of investment return. This deficiency has destructive effects on the ability of banks to absorb liquidity and will lead to cash flow into unofficial markets. From the viewpoint of the Islamic jurisprudence, considering inflation rate when determining profit rate will not amount to usury and will only protect the real value of money in the society.

Article 168 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s constitution has stipulated that hearing political and press charges should be public and attended by a jury at a court of law. The quality of political crime and the reason for differentiating it from other crimes; the main reason behind the emphasis put by the law on open hearing of such crimes in presence of jury and merely at courts of law; the consequences of these provisions and conditions; and most importantly, the approach taken by Islam and the sacred Sharia law to political crime, are major topics which need due attention. Discussing every one of these topics can be considered a step toward implementation of this progressive article of the Iranian constitution. This paper discusses major topics related to the Islamic jurisprudence which can be considered as instances of political crime by scrutinizing this issue from a new standpoint.

The issue of presence or absence of women in social and political activities has been among controversial issues which have been subject to debates since a long time ago. One of such activities is for women to become sources of religious emulation. In Imamiya jurisprudence there are two viewpoints about women becoming sources of emulation: one group considers manhood as a condition for becoming source of emulation while another group maintains that manhood is not a condition and men and women should be treated equal in this regard. This study first give the most important evidence provided by those who oppose women becoming sources of emulation before pointing out drawbacks of that evidence and proving that there is no indisputable evidence to prevent women from becoming sources of emulation. On the other hand, by analyzing the evidence given by those who believe that gender is not a condition for becoming source of emulation, the paper reaches the conclusion that women, like men, can become sources of emulation.

According to Article 50 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution, protection of the environment is a public duty. However, despite that legal stipulation, situation of environment in Iran is very grave. According to Environmental Performance Index report of 2006, Iran’s index was 70 making the country rank 53 among 133 countries. In 2008, Iran’s index went down 10 grades to 60 with the country ranking 78.Such official figures show that major environmental players in Iran, including ordinary people, academics, economic corporations, and most importantly, the government, have been unsuccessful in their effort to protect the environment and prevent its destruction and contamination. One of the most important problems and obstacles on the way of environmental protection in Iran is lack of awareness among all social classes of the Iranian society. According to economic, social and cultural development plan laws, the government has been obligated to bolster necessary mechanisms for the promotion of public and specialistic education on environment. The present research tries to show role and performance of education in protecting the environment and Iran’s approach to institutionalizing such education.

According to customary international law, foreign states are immune to judicial prosecution in domestic courts of other countries. Such immunity was first exercised in the United States in Schooner Exchange vs. McFaddon case on the basis of courtesy, not as a fundamental right. Since that time, decisions made by the US courts with regard to immunity of foreign states have been influenced by decisions of the Department of State. Since early 20th century and after the beginning of extensive intervention by the state in market economy, despite Washington acceded to the limited immunity of foreign states, that immunity was still influenced by decisions of the Department of State. The Congress passed a law in 1976 on the immunity of foreign states in order to increase latitude of the judicial authorities in investigating cases which came under the immunity of foreign states independent to the Executive. Based on that law, foreign states were granted absolute immunity to judicial competence of the US federal and state courts unless a case was considered one of the exceptions which were mentioned by the law of immunity. However, the US courts continued to take orders from the Department of State. This paper uses content analysis method to discuss compliance of judicial and legislative authorities of the United States with the executive power: a system which is more influenced by political pressures than the rule of law.

When discussing financing process as well as various kinds of financial instruments and their development as a method of finance, the conversion of assets into securities comes to the fore as one of the main methods of finance. Securities, as one of the instruments used for this purpose, cannot be used in a system of usury-free banking because they entail fixed interest rate. Therefore, bonds, as a substitute for securities in usury-free banking, are discussed along with their disadvantages, and emphasis is put on the need to define and use a new financial instrument as a suitable substitute for securities. The Islamic securities are then defined and discussed from various viewpoints including conformity to law and sharia, advantages and disadvantages, similarities to and differences with conventional securities, as well as experiences and performance of other countries with regard to publishing bonds. In conclusion, emphasis is put on three characteristics of bonds; that is, legality, acceptability and efficiency, before reaching the conclusion that these bonds are a good and useful substitute for securities. The necessity for the government to take action to define, support and take advantage of this new financial instrument in the Iranian economy is also underlined.

Peaceful use of nuclear technology has been supported and recognized by international law on the basis of fundamental principles which emanate from bilateral, regional and international arrangements. However, there has been a lot of discussion going on among international community on the extent and type of nuclear activities, including about nuclear safety and international safeguards to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons. Therefore, international norms have taken into account all types of useful application of nuclear energy, including uranium enrichment, reprocessing and other sensitive activities related to production of nuclear fuel. This issue can be also discussed on the basis of government’s sovereign right to make peaceful use of nuclear energy. Two viewpoints prevail among legal experts. Some believe that this approach is against international law and ignores the right of poor countries to achieve modern technologies, especially peaceful nuclear technology. On the opposite, some analysts maintain that obtaining this technology is a necessity for the survival in the modern international community. This paper tries to cover various viewpoints related to bilateral, multilateral and international arrangements for the transfer and application of nuclear technology, the latest approaches taken by governments to this issue with the main emphasis on the lawmaking process in the United States, as well as progressive regimes in multilateral diplomacy.

“National security” covers various areas including “food security”. As a result, increasing security index of foodstuff is one of the main goals of political elites in every country. Despite the emphasis put by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s economic development plans on the necessity of achieving self-sufficiency in agriculture and increasing food security index, the actual performance of this sector has been far from the ideal and the situation has become even worse in the past few years. Lack of a comprehensive approach to removing barriers facing food producers and unprecedented rise in government’s foreign exchange revenues which led to increased import of agricultural inputs and products, have been among major factors reducing Iran’s food security index in recent years. Such challenges and incomplete implementation of Subsidies Reallocation Act, have cast doubts on future outlook of food security in the country. This paper explains ways of increasing food security, including the need to revise foodstuff “pricing policies” and “import policies” in order to prove the above hypothesis.

The present paper uses documentary and comparative methods to explain the local management model in the light of Iran’s 20-Year Perspective Plan and in relation to the status of this issue in that instrument. After enumerating criteria resulting from the above study, various stages have been completed to answer the main question of the research which is about duties of municipalities across Iran in an optimal state as the main authorities in charge of local management. In this regard, information obtained through interviewing experts has been analyzed and findings have been presented as a list of “duties of Iranian municipalities in an optimal state”.

Globalization is a phenomenon which has changed the world as a result of the information revolution caused by modern communication technologies since 1970s. This phenomenon first globalized economy before spreading to other areas such as culture and politics. Today, they are talking about globalization of economy, culture and politics. On the other hand, countries have always used foreign policy as a means of meeting their national interests and diplomacy has been the main instrument of their foreign policies in most cases. Traditionally, diplomacy has functioned in political and economic areas, but in the light of globalization, especially globalization of culture, diplomacy has also changed and found a new form. This paper takes an analytical and descriptive approach to answer this question: how globalization of culture has changed the function of diplomacy as an instrument of foreign policy? The main hypothesis of the paper which will give the answer to the main question of the research is based on this proposition: globalization of culture as a result of information revolution and a networked world has caused traditional diplomacy, as a foreign policy instrument which is used to realize national interests of countries, to change into cultural diplomacy.