Islam is not in conflict with modernity

According to the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), a session to introduce and review the book ‘Cultural Problem-Solving Narrated by the Majaddid Movement’ was held on Monday evening, December 15, at the Islamic Culture and Thought Research Institute. During this program, the author of the book and a group of thinkers examined the intellectual and analytical dimensions of the work.

Farshad Mehdipour, the author of the book, referred to the concerns that led to the formation of this work, saying: ‘From the first years of my studies, this question was raised for me: Can we provide a native framework for understanding culture and media in Iran? Examining the cultural currents of the country has always been the focus of my studies, and this book has also been formed on this basis.’

Stating that the book has a policy-oriented approach, he added: ‘In this work, I have tried to analyze an intellectual current that led to the formation of the Islamic Republic. The book focuses on the discursive analysis of cultural developments in Iran from the Constitutional period onwards; a path that requires continuous rethinking and theorizing.’ Mehdipour also emphasized that culture is a multi-layered and diverse phenomenon and cannot be limited to a single intellectual line.

Following this, Hojjatoleslam Ali Zoulm, head of the secretariat of the Second Step of the Revolution statement, criticized the common dichotomy of ‘tradition and modernity,’ saying: ‘This categorization is largely artificial. Our real issue is the confrontation between Islam and secularism, not Islam and modernity. Islam does not have an inherent conflict with the elements of modernity and even has the capacity for interaction and adaptation from them.’

He added: ‘Islam is a school based on innate human nature and is not limited to a specific historical period. The current known as ‘Majaddid’ is also a dynamic and evolving current that has absorbed new concepts along its path.’

In the final part of the session, Hojjatoleslam Hamid Parsania, a member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, described the book as a groundbreaking work, saying: ‘This work is not merely a description of the cultural situation; rather, it is a kind of intellectual action that helps understand the cultural identity and life of society and reminds us of the necessity of historical re-evaluation.’