ABSTRACT
Analysing the social and intellectual factors that shaped the Iran Freedom Movement and particularly Bazargan’s approach to Islam, we come across issues similar to those already considered in the discussion of the Socialist Theists. This is, however, not surprising, because the Iran Freedom Movement was established less than two decades after the Society of Socialist Theists was founded. It is true that the latter was formed and was active in the relatively free circumstances of 1941-53, whereas the former was established in the post-1953 coup era, when a relatively suppressive atmosphere prevailed. However, the views of the founders of both groups were formed in the same era, that is, from the last years of Reza Shah’s reign to the 1953 coup. Moreover, the leaders of both groups, with minor differences to which I refer later, belonged to the same social group, that is, the highly educated and intellectual social class. Thus, it is expected that similar social circumstances and schools of thought influenced their views. Nevertheless, it can be seen that such similar factors had different impacts on the groups’ ways of thinking. In order to avoid repetition, in this chapter, what has already been mentioned with regard to the social circumstances and intellectual factors influencing the views of the Socialist Theists is not restated. However, the intention is to show how these circumstances and factors specifically influenced Bazargan’s thought, and what differences can be detected between the ways in which the founders of the Iran Freedom Movement and those of the Society of Socialist Theists were influenced by identical circumstances. As was done with the Socialist Theists, in this chapter, an attempt is made to look for the formative social and intellectual elements having an impact on Bazargan’s approach through analysing his own writings.
