There is no time to give a detailed analysis of what has happened to the Azadegan party during the past three or four decades, or to try to explain why it has not made progress. One major fact, however, can be mentioned: the tremendous and complex nature of their task. The Azadegan were fighting all segments of the establishment – political, religious, literary-academic, educational, economic, in a highly traditional culture. No other group has done that. There was no "interest group", or economic class, or any other categrory of people, whose particular interest they were defending against others and on whom they could therefore count. They were, in a sense, fighting the very people – or at least their most cherished traditions – whose cause they were advancing. To make things more difficult, when they started, in 1941, political organizations were, for all practical purposes, something new in Iran, especially one based on ideology, and there was no collective experience to draw on. Furthermore, unlike most other parties, they neither had nor sought either financial backing or moral support of the Iranian government or of rich Iranians, or of foreign powers. Had Kasravi lived a few more years until the party was on a sounder organizational basis (and with a larger membership), things would very likely have been different. As it was, removal of Kasravi from the scene, occurring at a very sensitive juncture, at first made his fellow-party members more determined, and resulted in a burst of energetic activity. Gradually, however, things slowed down and, as far as structured activity is concerned, ultimately came to a standstill.
However, there is a difference between movements such as that of the Azadegan in the twentieth century and those of earlier eras that could save Kasravi’s ideology from oblivion, and indeed perhaps cause it to ultimately gain the attention it deserves. At the very least, the printed word will keep alive an accurate record of the ideology as presented by its founder. That even in Iran the number of literate people continues to increase will help. If proper conditions should prevail, at some point in the future, other means of mass communication would also help.
Finally, developments within Iran itself might work in favor of the movement. The Islamic religious establishment, always criticizing the secular government and directly or indirectly seeking an "Islamic" government and a Shi’I society as the ideal solution for Iran’s problems, has had its chance to show what it was talking about. Other groups, leftist and rightist, have also been tested.
There are, in fact, some signs of increased interest in Kasravi’s ideas. Some visitors from Iran inform us that more people than before read Kasravi’s writings, and find them more appealing than before. Outside of Iran, the same is true. His name appears with some frequency in letters to the editors of emigre Iranian press, and in some articles. Occasionally, an entire newspaper or journal article is devoted to him. Some references to him indicate misunderstandings, some serious, or based on a speaker’s or writer’s wishful thinking. But perhaps, on balance, his ideology will become better known, and judgments of it, favorable or unfavorable, will be based on accurate knowledge.
The Book: Dar Piraamoon e Eslaam
I have spoken many times on Islam. I would like to speak once again on this subject, and I hope that this will be the last time I do so. I am writing this in order to leave no room for excuses for anyone. As for those who will not accept what I have to say, I have nothing else to say. Let God be the judge.
Today, there remains no country called Islam for you to rule. Today, Moslems of every ethnic group have separated, and each has created a country in the name of that ethnic group. In Iran, people live as Iranians, not as Moslems. That is why they consider the Iraqis, Egyptians, Jews, and Zoroastrians who live in Iran to be one of them. Besides, for many years, Western laws have been practiced in Iran, and Islamic laws have been set aside. Is this not proof that Islam has been eliminated?
What has forced us into such discussions is the facts that, as we said, the clerics have made a claim to the government and they disrupt the life of the nation. And their pretext is that Imam Ali ebn Abitaleb was chosen calif by God, and other such statements. In order to show that their claim is without any foundation, we have been forced to engage in such discussions.
Excerpts From: (On Islam And Shi'ism / Ahmad Kasravi; translated from the Persian by M.R. Ghanoonparvar; with an introductory essay and bibliographical note by M.A. Jazayery, pages 5,6,7,38,40,41,45,60,199&204, Copyright 1990 by Mazda Publishers).
Dr. William C. Staley Jr., Princeton University 1966
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