PhD Student, Political Sciences, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies
Abstract
In the theory of Imam Khomeini (reh) and Ayatollah Khamenei, religious democracy model is not based on the conceptual separation between democracy and religion. Rather, in this theory, religious democracy is a single and integrated concept which is located within religion and is not separate from it.
Since this concept is located within religion and is a product of the Islamic culture, the nature of religious democracy in this theory is other than its nature in other western or non-western theories.
The western thinkers tried to introduce liberal democracy as the superior ruling model in the contemporary world. If the religious democracy stood as a model of democracy against other models, it would not be able to challenge liberal democracy, since, in this case, it would be a model of democracy and, in the long run, it would not be able to be superior to other models. In the theory of Imam Khomeini (reh) and the Supreme Leader, however, religious democracy is not a model of democracy and for the same reason it has been able to challenge liberal democracy. Challenging a model which was, as claimed by the western thinkers, unrivalled is one of the important causes of the Islamic Awakening.
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