Re-Stratification in the Name of God

Abstract

Considering the modern sociological enterprises of Emile Durkheim's view of the social origin of religion, Max Weber's categories of actions, and Talcott Parsons' action theory as well as theories of stratification, we have focused on Islamic ummah, differentiating Shi'ite /Sunni Islam and the role which ulama plays as a status group. Re-stratification in the name of God has referential significance to the Iranian revolution and the re-emergence of the Shi'ite Islam grabbing political power. Following Parsonian emphasis on socio-cultural differentiation the Islamic, ummah is neither a total whole nor limited to the ulama but diversified in terms of incorporating certain modern establishments and ideas, from publishing religious journal, spreading ideas among the high schools and university student to pushing for less patriarchal domination, from absorbing components of the western constitutional tradition and governmental division of power to detachment form economic co-optation by the state. Hence we can speak of old and innovative religious class in Islamic societies characterized the former by propensity to keep the status quo, functionally a prerequisite for maintenance of cultural, political and religious dogma, usually called conservative Islam and the latter enthusiasm for working its way towards reinterpretation of dogma, developing propensity for participating in global dialogue for change or re-stratification of society. Finally, demand for an innovative communicative system in order to be touch with the larger world exists in and among the innovative religious groups. In general, politico-religious action, within the domain of action theory, behooves us to revisit Iran as the first birthplace of resurgent Islam, exposing an otherwise hidden process, the rise and fall of a system of stratification that was led by a high-ranking Shi'ite cleric in modern times. The Iranian religious revolution that brought about a different system of stratification, rather than being interactive, was originally molded by reaction to modernity is investigated in this chapter. The diversity of Islams indicates that they can be considered as examples of an open system of stratification. In other words, whatever the cultural disposition or religious orientations of Islamic societies would be, we generalize that they have a propensity to have social mobility dissimilar to the closed caste system. Our sheer learned interest in stratification and social mobility is an acknowledgment of “connections” between economy and religion in Islamic societies that is elaborated in this chapter.