The Impacts of the Islamic Revolution Upon the International Relations

Introduction:

 

As a divine movement, the Islamic Revolution of Iran that was inclusive and based on pure human nature was able to bring the importance of software power to the fore and as a revolution in values ​​and norms, it also managed to create a culture in the domestic, regional and international arena. This cultural movement was able to create a discursive atmosphere that embodies sub-discourses within itself and, while conceptualizing and reconstructing thought, it created a new culture in the international relations that was based on the religious democracy, reviving the Islamic thought, the cosmopolitanism of Islamic civilization, the focus of cultural activity, the strengthening of new social movements, the culture of anti-imperialism and seeking independence.

 

By relying on the cultural development on the inside and cultural and civilizational exchange and interaction with the outside world, the Islamic Revolution managed to create a dialogue space with the surrounding world based on reform in the structure and functioning of the international system and regional subsystem. This was in order to create culture and normalization in the rules of behaviour and structure. This was aimed at politicizing and thus supporting a new approach to international relations based on a change in the nature of power, a shift in the rules of the game, and a change in the type of actors. What follows is a focus on the cultural reflection of the Islamic Revolution in international relations, which seeks to recognize the dimensions and aspects of the aforementioned cultural influences.

 

1. Promoting a Culture of Religious Democracy

 

In the course of explaining the compatibility of Islam and democracy, the Islamic Revolution was able to reveal the interaction between the two spheres of religion and politics. Simultaneously, by answering the two Platonic questions (who should rule?) and Machiavelli (how to govern?), it figured out a kind of political system that is based on both the prevailing spiritual and political characteristics and the connection of Islamic values ​​with the structure or method of democracy. Such a government structure, based on the adaptation of Islam to the requirements of the time and religious renaissance by reviving the Islamic view of government and statehood, emphasized both the republican style of government and the role of the people in government decisions, as well as considering Islamism and sustainable Islamic values; that is, justice orientation, God-centreedness and spiritualism as the bases of the political system.

 

The system of the Islamic republic showed the connection between religion and politics, the combination of structure and function delineated that there is a possibility of religiosity along with modernization. Such a political system simultaneously rejected conservative and hypocritic Islam as well as secularism. Additionally, it was able to bring about a system whose legitimacy is based on the sovereignty of God and the legitimacy of religious values ​​and its acceptance based on the will of the people and the right to determine the fate of nations. The introduction of the doctrine of religious democracy to the world by the Islamic Revolution led to the development of an interactive culture based on all governments to the wishes of the Muslim people to create a human society in accordance with human nature.

 

Likewise, by reviving the role of nations, it managed to emphasize the necessity of a strong relationship between the people and the nations and strengthen the tendency towards Islam as the basis of popular government among the nations. On top of that, it encouraged the establishment of governments that were committed to the implementation of the principles of shari’ah and the realization of social justice. Such a system was able to challenge the extremist nationalist ideologies, including Pan-Arabism, the regimes of the East and the West, and to fight concurrently with imperialism and social-imperialism.

 

2. Promoting a Culture of Independence and Anti-Imperialism

 

The independent and anti-imperialist nature of the Islamic Revolution and its efforts in creating an international system free from the colonial and arrogant powers led to the disruption of the balance of the world power blocs and challenged the international system created by the East and the West. By declaring the concept of “Neither East nor West,” the Islamic Revolution managed to bring about a collective super-order based on the equality of states and governments and the realization of the divine and human rights of nations in the international system. Moreover, by reviving the capacities and with the forgotten possibilities of the non-aligned nations and denying passivity and intimidation against imperialism, it sought to cut off the roots of the nations’ dependence on the great international powers.

 

By exposing the hegemonic nature and unilateral policies of the great powers, the Islamic Revolution was able to draw the line at their myth of invincibility and create sparks of hope in the hearts of all the freedom seekers and the oppressed people of the world. By creating a border between the oppressed and the imperialists and raising awareness among the oppressed nations, the Islamic Revolution was able to provide a suitable platform for the independent and liberating movements based on the awareness of the deprived and the oppressed people.

 

The Islamic Revolution concurrently fought on the two fronts of anti-authoritarianism, anti-colonialism and dependence, and this caused the culture of independence and freedom-seeking to penetrate at different levels of people, governments and liberation movements. It confronted the prevailing liberal and socialist paradigm and challenged the secularist, humanist and materialist principles, which diminished the appeal of Marxist and nationalist ideologies as the ideology of the struggling nations. Owing to this fact, by opening a third front in the international system or a third solution in the liberal world, the Islamic Revolution was able to confront the materialist international order and to create a culture of independence and anti-colonialism among the nations of the Third World.

 

3. Strengthening the Culture of Reform in the New Social Movements

 

The Islamic Revolution was able to influence the social and cultural foundations and structures of the Third World countries by reviving the new social middle classes that sought to reconstruct the ideas of Imam Khomeini (ra), Allamah Tabatabai, Dr. Shari’ati and Shahid Motahhari. By paying heed to the peaceful nature of the Islamic Revolution, which attained victory through peaceful and unarmed demonstrations, and in view of the readiness of the intellectual elites of the Islamic world in accepting the Islamist thoughts and ideas, a kind of religious enlightenment was formed that resorted to the means of propagation and enlightenment instead of the armed and guerrilla struggles. This led to the era of continuous and peaceful popular struggles and the conversion of the Muslim elites to reformist ways and movements based on the modernization and reconstruction of religious thought. Inspired by the shari’ah ideas, the religious intellectuals sought to revive Islam through intellectual and cultural activities.

 

Likewise, in line with establishing a doctrine and presenting a coherent discourse of religious modernism, they engaged in cultural activities to realize the model of religious democracy. Such religious reform movements manifested themselves in countries such as Pakistan, Turkey, Bahrain, Algeria and Morocco. In the course of emphasizing the need for continuous rethinking, the institutions of Islamic civil society in the Muslim countries established a new way of thinking and contemplation based on the combination of republic and Islam, which was based on the indigenous patterns and social norms of their societies.

 

This led to a gradual increase in awareness and the placement of hidden, living and active forces in the path of Islamic modernism. The emergence of new Muslim thinkers and intellectuals in the Islamic countries brought a new middle class that proudly sought an Islamic and indigenous identity to awaken Islam in the Muslim societies while emphasizing a peaceful approach to the realization of the Islamic rule based on the religious criteria to rebuild its role in the political activities. To cite an example, we can mention the role of the Saudi religious intellectuals after the September, 11 attacks in 2001 in responding to the letter of the American intellectuals who prescribed the White House belligerence in international politics, as well as their letter of opposition to the change of the Saudi educational system this year.

 

4. Strengthening the Intellectual, Cultural and Academic Activity

 

By emphasizing the software power of culture and thought, as well as the superiority of thinking over instrumentalism, the Islamic Revolution figured out a kind of intellectual and cultural activism that was based on the intellectual and cultural independence of the Muslim nations. Such a revolution, which promoted scientific self-sufficiency and self-reliance without dependence on foreign powers, created a kind of software movement and science production in the Islamic world that used to emphasize the preservation of indigenous culture while using the achievements of technology, especially modern communication technologies. It was due to this that sciences such as Islamic insurance, Islamic stock exchange, Islamic economics and Islamic politics were considered by scientific circles and at the same time made the two scientific centres of the seminary and the university to practice and work together.

 

Thus, along with the increasing tendency of the intellectual to perceive the reality and nature of the Islamic Revolution, the seminaries regained importance in the intellectual developments of the Islamic world and many students interested in learning the religious studies, especially from the African countries were sent to Iran to study in the seminaries. Furthermore, the universities became an important field for the scientific activities and political movements of the Islamic groups, which used to emphasize the need to use the elements of time and speed of action and promote the power of dynamism and adaptation to world developments.

 

In addition, for the sake of strengthening the intellectual independence of the Muslim nations, the Islamic identity, the religious feeling among the scientific and cultural elites and to counter the cultural invasion of the West, efforts were made to Islamize schools and universities. This was to such an extent that in the course of emphasizing intellectual and political awareness, the universities, scientific and religious centres highlighted the importance of the right to education and scientific learning, even for Muslim women. Correspondingly, other than paying attention to the metaphysical foundations of knowledge and standardization in regards to the type of attitude towards human beings and life, the scientific and cultural centres of the Muslim countries sought to strengthen the scientific and logical perspectives in order to turn the Islamic world into an intellectual and civilized pole.

 

In this way, the utilization of Western technologies, attention to religious values ​​and indigenous findings led to a close relationship between religion and science based on the approach of Western studies instead of the anti-Western or pro-Western approach to the universities and seminaries of the Islamic countries. Therefore, an intellectual reconstruction (reconceptualization) based on the combination of tradition and modernity with an emphasis on localism and strengthening the cultural identity of civilization and conscious adaptation of new technologies in the Muslim societies and their scientific centres, was achieved.

 

5. Increasing the Cultural Interaction and Transformation

 

By depicting the capacity of the Islamic civilization as a society and multidimensional civilization in the religious, political, economic, social, cultural and scientific fields and the reconstruction of civilization based on Western studies and localism, the Islamic Revolution managed to become the pioneer of a new interactive and exchangeable discourse in the fields of science, knowledge, technology and thought. In this way, efforts to internalize and enhance the capacity for change in ideas in the religious notion to expand interactions, exchanges and scientific and cultural cooperation based on reviving the role of the cultural and educational institutions and the power of communication and information exchange increased.

 

Paying heed to the increasing cultural interaction and exchange based on the promotion of new communication technologies and its convergence with traditional communication, led to the interaction of perspectives while emphasizing the distinctive identity of the Islamic world with the Western world. In reality, the inception of the Islamic Revolution in the age of the communication revolution, and the growth of the transnational networks led to the intellectual reconstruction of the Islamic civilization, which was based on features such as inclusiveness, multi-centeredness, and persistence and dynamism. Additionally, the emphasis of the Islamic Revolution on increasing the importance and role of the people and interaction between the nations led to the promotion of self-awareness of nations and increased the culture of dialogue and questioning and accountability due to the prevalence of critical ideas and existing institutions.

 

Respect for freedom of thought, along with increasing the political importance of religion in international relations, led to the increased interaction and scientific relations between the seminaries on the one hand, and between the professors and clerics on the other hand. Apart from that, increasing the spirit of revolution in the universities of the Islamic countries and promoting the importance and role of the students and student unions increased the intellectual and cultural interactions of the Muslim scholars. The widespread distribution of religious tapes and speeches of the religious leaders and famous Islamic preachers in the universities of the Muslim countries, as well as the increasing number and propagation role of the mosques as the traditional communication bases for the students and intellectuals, led to the interaction of the mosques and universities.

 

This was in such a way that an Islamic monotheistic worldview and ideology of struggle based on Islamism and rationality were formed in the Islamic movements. By the same token, the efforts of the intellectual, cultural, academic and theological elites to think together in order to confront the material discourse of the West and the East (liberalism and socialism). Similarly, adapting the religious thought to the political dynamics as well as the speed of reaction for information, illustration and image management in order to redefine the identity of the Islamic civilization increased the intellectual and cultural interaction and exchange of the intellectuals and elites of the Islamic world with each other and also with the Western world. This interaction was in a manner that shaped cultural pluralism in a world based on cultural diversity.

 

6. The Revival of Islam in the Areas of Social Life

 

As a revolution based on spiritual and moral values ​​and the demonstration of Islam’s victory over immoral symbols, the Islamic Revolution led to the manifestation of morality and religious norms in the social behaviour in arenas such as: promoting the hijab as an Islamic and native model of dress, the protests of the Muslims against the introduction of the Western pornographic films, the implementation of the principles and penal laws of the shari’ah, the revival of the mourning ceremonies, the formation of a collective spirit with a widespread presence and the active participation of the people in the political and social arenas. This made the traditional Islamic centres and bases such as the mosques as centres of power in the Islamic societies play an effective role in accelerating the process of social and political change.

 

This is because the pervasiveness of the Islamic ideology was considered a religious and political duty at the same time. This led to the popularization of the Islam-centric movements. In this way, the mosques, pulpits, and the Friday and congregational prayers were considered as the communication bases or traditional tools for conveying messages and exchanging modern views based on religious beliefs and social traditions. As a manifestation of social cohesion and the increase of mass movements, the mosques revived the power of the religious leaders, especially promoting the role of the Shi’ah clergies.

 

In the meantime, due to the increasing importance of the family in shaping social behaviours, a kind of interaction between the individual and public spheres was realized in Islamic societies. This led to a return to the Islamic teachings and strengthened the culture of self-analysis based on the Islamic rule in all the family, social and political levels throughout the Islamic world from the Maghreb (northwestern Africa) to Indonesia. The transformation of Islamism into a vibrant and critical force against colonialism led to a new global resurrection and the promotion of the dignity of the Muslims who had been subjected to severer humiliation and oppression based on the manifestation of religion in all the social spheres.

 

The growth of spiritualism, increasing people’s inclination and attachment to spirituality and the development of the religious culture in the Islamic countries along with the spread of the wave of Islamism and the revival and institutionalization of the spiritual and Islamic values, made the Muslim communities ​​attain the moral, spiritual and epistemological identities. This was in such a way that by relying on the movement of (self-analysis), the religious intellectuals sought to humanize the religion and spread the message of the Islamic Revolution by publishing publications and creating radio and television networks. Owing to this reason, the Islamic movements in the social spheres were revived based on monotheism, moralism, spirituality, anthropology and seeking right and justice.

 

7. Promoting the Building of a Culture in Regards to the Civilization of the Islamic World

 

By highlighting the unity of the Sunni and the Shi’ah Muslims, the approximation of religions and the denial of religious sectarianism, the Islamic Revolution sought the unity of the Muslim nations and the realization of the nation-building project. On the one hand, this was based on a positive struggle, that is, relying on the authentic Islamic beliefs as well as the traditional religious rituals and ceremonies, which based the political, economic, social and cultural organization of the Islamic Ummah on the original beliefs of pure Muhammadan Islam, as well as the common Islamic cultures and rituals like the Hajj pilgrimage. On the other hand, the negative struggle against the common enemy such as the acquittal of the polytheists was based on anti-imperialism and cutting off the hands of the world powers from the national wealth of the Islamic countries, which showed the sensitivity of the Muslims to the developments in the Islamic world and the need to promote their collective spirit that depended on fighting against the domination by the foreign powers, fighting Zionism and anti-corruption.

 

In this regard, the revival of the Islamic ummah and civilization based on the Noble Quran, the traditions of the Holy Prophet (s), culture and Islamic theology or based on the Islamic worldview and the formation of a united Islamic society based on the universal Islamic religion and also based on the union of governments and nations and the unity of the intellectual, cultural and political elites on the one hand; and the formation of a united Islamic front against the East and West camps and by strengthening the idea of ​​fighting Zionism and the Zionist regime, rebuilding the Palestinian cause and sensitizing the Muslims to the developments in the Islamic world, on the other hand, led to the convergence of the Islamic world based on the regional economic, political and cultural unions to influence the international decision-making system. Apart from reviving the geopolitics of the Muslim world, it also increased the role of religion as a fundamental principle in managing global developments.

 

Thus, the Islamic civilization was able to achieve a new position in the world order and by raising the level of analysis of the international politics from state actors to civilized actors, it provided an opportunity to spread the message of the Abrahamic religions, which due to its firmness in the pure human nature, is neither limited to a specific place nor time. As a result of this, they can emphasize the role of the element of faith in the development of human values ​​and the development of human beings by highlighting the intertwining of the human destinies with each other in earthly work and by considering essentialism, which means that humanity is a general manifestation of existence. Indeed, the universality of religion as a comprehensive system for human beings and the connection of the culture of religious globalism led to a macro approach to the global human issues, such as the need for security, peace, justice and the development of human education as interrelated issues.

 

Consequently, with a kind of macro-vision and by presenting religion as the only way to human happiness and relying on the totalitarianism and universalism of Islam as a genuine intellectual, political and divine discourse and emphasizing the lack of disconnection between different areas of life the human being, the Islamic Revolution was able to represent the political importance of religion in the international relations. As a result of this, the Islamic Revolution granted the Islamic world a kind of self-awareness and self-belief for the unity of civilization in order to play a new role in the field of international culture and politics.

 

8. Reviving the role of the liberation movements

 

By raising the self-awareness of the oppressed and deprived and reviving self-belief, self-confidence and Islamic awakening among the Muslim nations, the Islamic Revolution of Iran managed to highlight the importance of the liberation movements, including the Islamist and anti-colonial, as new actors in the international system. Thus, it balanced the power in favour of the third front in the international system, emphasizing the ideals of freedom, social justice, and the denial of foreign interference, and the need for dynamic and flexible management of socio-political developments. This matter became especially important in the Islamic liberation movements, as they broke the formal and visual boundaries by organizing the Islamic awakening movement from the foundations and emphasizing the role of the nations and accepting responsibility based on people-centeredness.

 

While expressing the incompatibility of the collective spirit of their nations with the West, they sought to bring Islam into the arena of struggle, and with the firmness of libertarian movements based on religious, Islamic and spiritual ideals, as well as the combination of morality, religion and politics, they made dramatic changes in their political culture of nations. The features of these changes include independence, justice, rightism, spiritualism, moralism, spiritualism, moralism and the interaction of religion and government. These Islamic movements were more manifested in two areas: one in the field of thought, which became known as moderate, peaceful and culturally oriented Islamic movements. And the other one in the field of martyrdom-seeking operations and jihadist movements, such as the Intifada of the Muslim people of Palestine, which, following the example of the Islamic Revolution as a peaceful revolution without using any weapons and utilizing the mosques as bases for communication, launched a pervasive uprising throughout occupied Palestine.

 

Nevertheless, the moderate and radical Islamic movements shared a common ground in that regard which emphasized the Islamic fundamentalism, the scholastic and idealistic identity of the Islamic world, the revival of religious thought, the liberation from materialist ideologies, pivotal spirituality without the use of foreign ideology, political dynamism of Islam, the presence of religion in the public and governmental spheres, the rejection of secularism and materialism, teleology and central values ​​based on theism and creationism.

 

1. The Political-Cultural Discourse

 

The Islamic Revolution was a discourse based on the element of spiritualism and self-analysis, which organized its audience and supporters around a single and comprehensive discourse, and based on the theory (unity at the same time as plurality), that is, unity in beliefs and value structures and plurality in the methods and human functions were able to bring about an umbrella-like discourse that made the creation of sub-discourses within itself impossible. Such a political-cultural discourse managed to establish a connection and homogeneity and internal coherence between seemingly contradictory matters, some of which are mentioned as follows:

 

First: Explaining rationality as a criterion of acceptability and religiosity as a criterion of legitimacy. In other terms, the Islam-oriented value was combined with the republican-centred approach in a way that linked moral rationality and ultimate rationalism to the instrumental rationality of modernity. It was due to this that with a broad interpretation of rationality, the Islamic Revolution made it the guardian of its ideals and thus was able to establish a unity between thought and action. This was because the ideals were placed along with realities, and realistic idealism was able to bridge the gap between the ideals and realities.

 

Second: Resolving the conflict between the right of divine sovereignty with the public opinion and the popular consent, or resolving the conflict between the republic and Islam or between the concept of designation and election.

 

Third: Resolving the relationship between religion and nationality by proposing the concept of a religious ummah that means denying nationalism and extreme nationalism which is limited to the narrow ethnic fences.

 

Fourth: Resolving the problem between religious fundamentalism and pluralism while denying bigotry, tribalism and fanaticism and fundamentalism or in other words, fundamentalism in the explicit (religious matters) and pluralism in the ambiguous (religious matters), which led to the preservation of beliefs while opening the door to the multiplicity of interpretations under the Islamic discourse.

 

Fifth: Presenting a practical ideal model, that means striving for rationality while preserving ideals in order to promote efficiency while preserving values, which is important due to relying on principles such as independent reasoning (ijtihad), precautionary dissimulation (taqiyyah), the culture of Ashura, supporting the oppressed and the philosophy of Mahdism and waiting for the reappearance of the Imam of the Time.

 

Archive of The Thought of the Islamic Revolution