Religious Secularity

Naser Ghobadzadeh is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Justice, the Australian Catholic University (ACU). He holds a Ph.D. (University of Sydney, 2012) and an M.A. in Political Science (Shahid Beheshti University, Iran, 2001). Naser has authored two books in the Persian language, including A Study of People's Divergence from the Ruling System (2002) and The Caspian Sea: Legal Regime, Neighboring Countries and US Policies (2005). His articles have been published in top-ranked international journals such as Third World Quarterly, Democratization, Philosophy and Social Criticism, Contemporary Politics, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics and Discourse.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter One: Shiite Discourses on SovereigntyChapter Two: Seeding Secularity The Rise of a Jurisprudential StateChapter Three: Religious Rationale for SeparationChapter Four: Political Construction of ClericalismChapter Five: Clerics against ClericalismChapter Six: Clerical Hegemony Contradictions and ParadoxesConclusionBibliographyNotes

Ghobadzadeh's book is a valuable addition to the current literature on Islam and secularism. His book will be useful to students and scholars interested in Iranian political history and thought and modern Muslim reformist thought more generally. Perhaps his greatest contribution is in writing a highly readable book that shows modern Muslims not as simply passive subjects of tyrannical regimes but as critical thinkers who are pushing the envelope of Islamic political thought into a more promising future.