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8Multiculturalism and Law: A Critical Debate (edited book)University of Wales Press. 2007.As recent controversies over satirical religious cartoons in Denmark and the wearing of traditional dress in France attest, multiculturalism is an increasingly contentious issue for contemporary democracies. The question of how to achieve a balance between a tolerant and open society and a just nation with a strong identity has become one of the most heated debates in the academic community—and a matter of immediate political urgency for many countries. _Multiculturalism and the Law_ brings toge…Read more
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14The Green's Non‐Violent Ethos: The Roots of Non‐Violence in the Iranian Democratic MovementConstellations 20 (2): 347-360. 2013.
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48Language Policy and Diverse Societies: Constitutional Patriotism and Minority Language RightsConstellations 11 (2): 193-216. 2004.
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38Reading Habermas in Iran: political tolerance and the prospect of non-violent movement in IranJournal of Global Ethics 6 (2): 141-151. 2010.In this paper, I intend to appropriate the explanatory power of some of Habermas' recent ideas (such as complementary learning processes, modernization of faith, tolerance, and non-violence) for the purpose of examining the current political situation in Iran. I would like to argue that the recent history of Iran has offered an occasion for a development away from a dogmatic religious consciousness and toward a more tolerant one. I submit that these opposing modes of thought are, respectively, r…Read more
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33To Be a Courtier in the Islamic Republic of IranPolitical Theory 43 (4): 427-450. 2015.The Islamic Republic of Iran is no doubt an autocratic regime, where the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamanie, has taken it upon himself to micromanage the suppression of the opposition for many years. In this respect and in the eyes of most Iranians, the resignation and submission of the Iranian reformists, including the former president Mohammad Khatami, is puzzling if not downright treacherous. By appropriating the insight of an Italian Renaissance writer, Baldassare Castiglione, in his book, I…Read more
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10Cosmopolitan Justice and Immigration: A Critical Theory PerspectiveEuropean Journal of Social Theory 10 (1): 87-98. 2007.The pressures of globalization have resulted in shrinking distances and increased contact among people, rendering state boundaries and jurisdiction insufficient to deal with claims of justice exclusively. This challenge requires that we move beyond the limits of statism in political theorizing and acquire a cosmopolitan approach. In this article, from a discourse theoretic perspective, I consider what cosmopolitan justice would entail for policy and law-making concerning immigration. It is argue…Read more
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2Taking Religious Voices in Public Sphere SeriouslyProceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 69 369-374. 2018.Over the past decade or so, the liberal principle of legitimacy, which requires the justification of coercive law based on public reason, has come under severe attack from all sides. Some have criticized what they see as the exclusion of religious reason from the public sphere. Still others argue that the liberal proviso assumes a too-narrowly secularist definition of public reason, which, in fact, is more restrictive than what the principle of separation of church and state demands. Critics arg…Read more
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14John Kleinig, Simon Keller, and Igor Primoratz, The Ethics of Patriotism: A Debate (review)Social Theory and Practice 42 (3): 669-676. 2016.
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7Language Policy and Diverse Societies: Constitutional Patriotism and Minority Language RightsConstellations 11 (2): 193-216. 2004.
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2Democracy, Power and Legitimacy: The Critical Theory of Jürgen HabermasUniversity of Toronto Press. 2003.Payrow Shabani situates Habermas's current philosophical orientation by laying out its historical background and theoretical sources in the work of Kant and Hegel, and charting its movement towards an account of communicative rationality.
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22The Green's Non‐Violent Ethos: The Roots of Non‐Violence in the Iranian Democratic MovementConstellations 20 (2): 347-360. 2013.
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22Freedom of Religion, Democracy and the Fact of PluralismProceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 50 729-747. 2008.Given the rise of religious movements during the past decade, some have argued that the basic principles of liberal democracy such as separation of church and state and principle of the public use of reason are too restrictive and ought to be rethought. I would like to argue along a Habermasian line that the principle of secular justification ought not to result in a private/public split in religious citizens’ identity if they recognize and adopt an “institutional translation proviso”. This prov…Read more
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46Constitutional patriotism as a model of postnational political association: The case of the euPhilosophy and Social Criticism 32 (6): 699-718. 2006.Economic globalization has resulted in the transfer of national power to supranational actors and their supranational procedures and institutions. Concomitant with this trend is the ascendancy of the discourses of democracy and human rights that have given rise to the idea of cosmopolitan justice. These trends, in turn, have weakened statehood [ Entstaatlichung ], requiring theoretical envisioning and practical institutionalization of a supranational model of political association. Among the com…Read more
Areas of Specialization
19th Century Philosophy |
20th Century Philosophy |