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Intensive measures of repression taken by the Shah to enforce his westernizing development program nearly eliminated effective political parties and forms of civil society other than activities in the mosques.

— Richard A. Horsley Religion and Empire: People, Power, and the Life of the Spirit (2003)

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More quotes by Richard A. Horsley

Cultural elites in countries that dominate peoples have adapted subject people’s religion for their own purposes.

Religion and Empire: People, Power, and the Life of the Spirit (2003)

Since God himself is just and commands justice, the Muslim community (umma) cannot tolerate a tyrannical law or a tyrannical ruler.

Religion and Empire: People, Power, and the Life of the Spirit (2003)

Islamic revival sought the reunification of the spiritual with the social-political, and of contemporary life with cultural traditions, against the western imperialism that was forcing their separation.

Religion and Empire: People, Power, and the Life of the Spirit (2003)

Khomeini ... was a paradigm of asceticism, which in Islam was not a withdrawal from worldly affairs but a refusal to be seduced by materialism. He was incorruptible.

Religion and Empire: People, Power, and the Life of the Spirit (2003)

A key factor in [the revival of Shiite Islam in Iran] was the Iranians’ refusal to accept the western reduction of religion to individual faith, which would have enabled an easier imposition of a global capitalist political economy.

Religion and Empire: People, Power, and the Life of the Spirit (2003)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Richard A. Horsley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.