Abstract
Many writers treat as interchangeable the terms ‘political refugee’ ‘asylum seeker’, ‘displaced person’ and even sometimes ‘political offenders’, ‘stateless person’ and ‘immigrants’, and in so doing, add considerably to the confusion. This article examines whether they are traceable in classical Shi'i fiqh, and how they relate to the legal situation of uprooted people in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including some criteria for distinguishing the concept of ‘refugee’ from the above neighbouring notions. It concludes that the modern concept of refugee and the Islamic notions muhajir, and musta'min are totally different concepts, belong to two different discourses, and that the Iranian legal system has given up such classical Islamic notions as muhajir and musta'min which are based on the religious division of people, instead of the territorial. Therefore, Iran hosts millions of uprooted Muslim people, yet under the contemporary titles of refugee, displaced person, migrants workers and the like.
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