Revolutionary Ideology and Islamic Militancy ─ The Iranian Revolution and Interpretations of the Quran

The "war on terror" tends to circumscribe crucial developments in the Islamic world within a narrow definition of "Islamic terrorism." This partial and incomplete perspective fails to comprehend the links between today’s scenario and the Iranian revolution of 1979--a revolution fought in the name of God and spearheaded by religious scholars. It is vital to examine the relationship between religious and revolutionary ideologies and the revolutionary potentials of Islamic teachings. In a penetrating new study, Najibullha Lafraie examines how revolutionary ideologies function, and applies these insights to the Quran and its interpreters in the vanguard of the Iranian revolution. By unpacking these discourses, Lafraie develops and refines the concept of a "Quranic" revolutionary ideology. Revolutionary Ideology and Islamic Militancy delineates the different ways in which the Quran was used to mobilize action in 1979, and in so doing provides a context for understanding today’s Islamist movements.

Najibullah Lafraie is a lecturer at the Department of Politics, University of Otago, New Zealand. He has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawaii and served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in Afghanistan, 1992-6.