Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Religion, Politics, and Social Change: A Theoretical Framework -- Islam and the Appropriation of Modernity -- Wilayat al-Faqih: An Islamic Theory of Elite Hegemony or, Assabiyyat al- Khawass1 -- The Islamic Paradigm of Nations: Toward a Neoclassical Approach -- Islam, Iran, and Western Discourse: Behind the Democratic Veil -- Liberalism and the Contestation of Islamic Sovereignty1 -- Human Rights: A Double Discourse of Power -- Interview -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.