This book offers a nuanced and muti-layered approach towards comprehending the possibilities of democratization or likelihood of authoritarian resilience in the Muslim world. The volume highlights the complex diversity within Islamist movements and parties- characterised by internal tensions, struggles and contestations. The very existence of this diversity within and among Islamist movements, and their general willingness to partake in mainstream politics, signals an important transformation in the Muslim world over recent decades. It demonstrates that the Muslim world has gravitated from the simplistic focus on the compatibility or incompatibility of Islam and democracy. Islamist movements and parties embody the multiple manifestations and trajectories within political Islam. The granular case-studies and theological analyses in this volume draw attention to the policy refinements, socio-political reforms and ideological transformations engendered by Muslim intellectuals and Islamist movements and ideologues. The diverse political landscape in the Muslim world is inextricably linked to the socio-political and theological shifts within Islamism-in particular, the yearning for greater social, economic and political justice, a yearning that lies at the core of an inclusive wasatiyyah Islam.

Renewed authoritarianism, national disintegration, sectarian violence, and the increasing radicalization of Jihadi-Salafism since the Arab uprisings have significantly blurred visions for constructive religion-state-society relations in the MENA region. The dissolution of the 'Arab Spring' seems to have revived the questionable notion of Islamic exceptionalism. In sharp contrast, this book seeks to invalidate the supposed incompatibility of Islam and secular democracy. It outlines a complex Islamic political theology that undermines the religious basis of the unification of religion and state, offering religious justification for their separation. Naser Ghobadzadeh coins the seemingly oxymoronic notion 'religious secularity' to encapsulate the Islamic quest to emancipate religion from state. In simultaneous opposition to both the politicisation of Islam and authoritarian secularism, religious secularity employs Islamic sources such as the Quran and Hadiths to articulate a robust religious rationale for state secularism. Whereas mainstream literature frequently presents being secular as 'antithetical to being religious', religious secularity blurs the boundaries between the 'religious' and the 'secular'. This book suggests that the rift between the religious and the secular is no more pronounced than the relationship between the two understood in dualistic terms, as evinced by Islamic history. Thus, religious secularity supports a theoretical shift away from the religious-secular dichotomy.

"Fundamentalism" and "authoritarian secularism" are commonly perceived as the two mutually exclusive paradigms available to Muslim majority countries. Naser Ghobadzadeh highlights the recent political developments that have challenged this perception. He points to mainstream Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Nahda, that have adopted a distinctly secular-democratic approach to the state re-building process. Their success or failure in transitioning to democracy remains to be seen, but the political position these Islamic groups have carved out suggests the viability of a third way. Ghobadzadeh examines the case of Iran, which has a unique history with respect to the relationship of religion and politics. The country has been subject to both authoritarian secularization and authoritarian Islamization over the last nine decades. While politico-religious discourse in Iran is articulated in response to the Islamic state, it also bears the scars of Iran's history of authoritarian secularizationthe legacy of the Pahlavi regime. Ghobadzadeh conceptualizes this politico-religious discourse as religious secularity. He uses this apparent oxymoron to describe the Islamic quest for a democratic secular state. Offering a new reading of Shiite political theology, Ghobadzadeh argues that the Islamic state is detrimental to religion while a secular state can be compatible with it. Going further, he contends that maintaining a secular government is crucial to the cultivation of genuine religious conviction. This path-breaking analysis of Islamic history challenges existing scholarship, and gives voice to a unique, and optimistic Islamist perspective on what the future of Middle Eastern politics could be.

For more than forty years, there has been a religious government in Iran that claims to be rooted in shi'i political theology. In this book, Naser Ghobadzadeh intends to show that this reading of shi'i political theology is a fundamental deviation from orthodox shi'ism. The principle of theocracy is one of the most fundamental principles of the shi'i orthodox belief system, but its realization in practice depends on the return of the Twelfth Imam. Until that day, the institution of government and political leadership falls outside the scope of the authority of religious leaders. Naser Ghobadzadeh shows that governmental-shi'ism is less than half a century old and that its formation was not the product of a transformation in orthodox shi'i political theology. Rather, governmental-shi'ism was born in the political arena and has been able to survive because it profits from government resources. Coining the term 'theocratic secularism', this book argues for the re-instatement of a form of political secularism in Iran.