Iranian Political Science Association Research Letter of Political Science 1735790X 10 2 2015 05 22 Mahalati's Response to Colonialism Problem: a solution to the realization of national independent life in the age of multicultural politics Mahalati's Response to Colonialism Problem: a solution to the realization of national independent life in the age of multicultural politics 145 176 262 FA Mohammad Abedi Ardekani Mahmood Alipour Journal Article 2013 12 16 In the Islamic political thought, one of the basic problems that have attracted thinkers' attention, particularly from the Constitution Era on, is the confrontation between Islamic-Iranian tradition and Western modernity and its achievements. This confrontation in the Constitution era Iranian society has witnessed three kinds of treatments: first, negation of the Constitutionalism achievements; second, inclination towards melting in the Western discourse and constitutionalism; and the third way tries to combine constitution achievements and local values. Mohammad Esmaiil Mahalati is one of the thinkers going in the third way and by Islamic reinterpretation of Constitution movement tries to combat the Western colonialism and exploitation. By using the approach of internal logic and Skinner's text-author method, this article tries to explain Mahalati's responses to colonialism problem. For emancipating from colonialism, Mahalati provides two responses: The first response is that one could combat colonialism through making state apparatuses coherent and removing authoritarianism from political system. The second response is that Iran could preserve its religious values meanwhile learn lessons from the Western culture positive achievements, and it can depict its freedom and civilization comparing to other cultures. We should note that this article does not seek to attribute cultural pluralism to Mahalti's thought but it aims to show that Mahalti's approach towards combating colonialism manifests a pattern in multicultural approaches that regards national independent life simultaneously globally and locally. In the Islamic political thought, one of the basic problems that have attracted thinkers' attention, particularly from the Constitution Era on, is the confrontation between Islamic-Iranian tradition and Western modernity and its achievements. This confrontation in the Constitution era Iranian society has witnessed three kinds of treatments: first, negation of the Constitutionalism achievements; second, inclination towards melting in the Western discourse and constitutionalism; and the third way tries to combine constitution achievements and local values. Mohammad Esmaiil Mahalati is one of the thinkers going in the third way and by Islamic reinterpretation of Constitution movement tries to combat the Western colonialism and exploitation. By using the approach of internal logic and Skinner's text-author method, this article tries to explain Mahalati's responses to colonialism problem. For emancipating from colonialism, Mahalati provides two responses: The first response is that one could combat colonialism through making state apparatuses coherent and removing authoritarianism from political system. The second response is that Iran could preserve its religious values meanwhile learn lessons from the Western culture positive achievements, and it can depict its freedom and civilization comparing to other cultures. We should note that this article does not seek to attribute cultural pluralism to Mahalti's thought but it aims to show that Mahalti's approach towards combating colonialism manifests a pattern in multicultural approaches that regards national independent life simultaneously globally and locally.

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