Medieval Society

Ryan M. Reeves (PhD Cambridge) is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

A Lesson from History for Iranian Ideologues Stuck in the Middle Ages
TIMES ONLINE: Beware the end of the decade in Iran. In 1979 it was the Shah who succumbed to the protests and was driven from power. In 1989 it was Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic revolution, who died after a long illness. In 2009 his successor is fighting to save the regime from its gravest challenge since Saddam Hussein’s tanks crossed the frontier in 1980.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, spent years in the Shah’s prisons, had his right arm paralysed by a bomb and has led Iran through many crises over the past two decades. But tomorrow, when he mounts the steps to the small stage at Tehran University to deliver the sermon at weekly prayers, he faces the toughest test of his almost 70 years.

If it was the “Great Satan”, as America is known, or even the “Little Satan”, as Britain is named, who were behind the challenge, then the regime would know how to protect itself. The Revolutionary Guards would be deployed along the borders, the Basij, a volunteer force, would patrol the streets. Instead, the challenge comes from within and from people that the Supreme Leader barely has contact with, using unfamiliar weapons — tweets, blogs, satellite television and text messages — that undermine him in ways he cannot imagine.

Two thirds of Iranians are under 30, meaning that they have no direct experience of the Revolution and [a] only passing knowledge of the Iran-Iraq war, which did more than anything to shape the modern country. What they have experienced is a life of missed opportunities caused by an aging clerical leadership, massive corruption and a regime that is increasingly dictatorial.

The mullahs once rigidly controlled access to information but their grasp has slipped. One third of Iranians have internet access. There are satellite dishes on every apartment block in Tehran, even though they are banned. Music channels beam in from California to show young Iranians how other young Iranians live half a world away.

The rulers may be living in the Middle Ages but their children and grandchildren are wired to the 21st century. >>> Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor | Thursday, June 18, 2009

Islam Stuck in the Middle Ages, Says Hans Küng
With all due respect Professor Hans Küng, to say that “Islam’s problems with the modern world are because it has never undergone ‘a serious religious reformation’” is to state the glaringly obvious. - ©Mark

TIMESONLINE: Islam's problems with the modern world are because it has never undergone "a serious religious reformation" claims German theologian

Islam is stuck in its own version of the “Middle Ages” which is contributing to a global crisis, one of the leading experts on Islam, Judaism and Christianity argues today.

Professor Hans Kung [sic], a leading Roman Catholic and theologian from Germany, warns in a lecture of a “deadly threat” to all humankind unless new efforts are made to build bridges with Islam. He says in London that Islam has “special problems” with modernity because, unike [sic] Christianity and Judaism, it has never undergone a “serious religious reformation”. He questions whether Islam is even capable of adapting to a post-modern world in the way that Christianity and Judaism have done. But he also outlines why he is hopeful that the present problems around radicalisation within Islam can be resolved, and how the other two Abrahamic faiths are subject to some of the same problems on their extremist edges. Violence has been practicised in the sign of the crescent, but also in the sign of the cross, he warns. In his lecture, seen by The Times, Professor Kung [sic] says: “The options have become clear: either rivalry of the religions, clash of civilizations, war of the nations - or dialogue of civilizations and peace between the nations as a presupposition for peace between the nations. Islam Is Stuck in the Middle Ages, Says Leading Interfaith Expert >>> By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent | June 16, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)