Introduction

Abstract

This book examines the relationship between Islamic thought and liberal theory, as well as the relationship between a liberal state and its Muslim citizens. Put another way, this book intends to explore the extent to which contemporary political liberalism has more successfully accommodated religious people through softening the secularity of liberalism than traditional comprehensive liberalism. This task is undertaken by critically examining two key theories of liberalism: that of John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) as one of the clearest representative of traditional comprehensive liberalism, which belongs to the “Enlightenment Project,” and that of John Rawls (1921–2002) as a powerful representative of contemporary political liberalism, which belongs to the “Reformation Project.” To illuminate the degree to which the secularity of liberalism has been softened, Shiite Islam is adopted as a test case.KeywordsPolitical PhilosophyPolitical TheoryLiberal TheoryPolitical LiberalismLiberal StateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.