Editing Abdolkarim Soroush (section)

== Reception ==
In 2008, in an online open poll, Soroush was voted the 7th-most intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by ''[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]'' magazine ([[UK]]) and ''[[Foreign Policy (magazine)|Foreign Policy]]'' (United States).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/prospect-100-intellectuals/ |title=Intellectuals « Prospect Magazine |access-date=2010-02-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930143349/http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/prospect-100-intellectuals/ |archive-date=2009-09-30}} </ref>

Due to Sorush's prominence in the religious intellectual movement, he has been called "the [[Martin Luther|Luther]] of Islam" by the media, a title he disputes as he argues his agenda is fundamentally divergent from that of Martin Luther's.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Meisami|first=Sayeh|date=2013|title='Abdolkarim Soroush|url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0034.xml|url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-12|website=Oxford Bibliographies|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105164410/http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0034.xml |archive-date=2013-11-05 }}</ref>

=== Criticism and attacks ===

Soroush's ideas have met with strong opposition from conservative elements in the Islamic Republic. 
His "postmodern" views on [[epistemology]] and [[hermeneutics]] have been criticized from a "traditional" Shi'i standpoint by the philosopher [[Ayatollah]] [[Abdollah Javadi-Amoli]].{{sfn|Dahlén|loc=chpt. 5b|2003}}

Both he and his audiences were assaulted by [[Ansar-e Hezbollah]] vigilantes in the mid-1990s. A law imposing penalties on anyone associating with enemies of the Islamic republic is thought by his allies to have been at least in part provoked by some of Soroush's lectures and foreign affiliations.<ref name=autogenerated1>''The Last Great Revolution'' by Robin Wright c2000, p.57</ref>

According to the journalist [[Robin Wright (author)|Robin Wright]]:
<blockquote>Over the next year, he lost his three senior academic appointments, including a deanship. Other public appearances, including his Thursday lectures, were banned. He was forbidden to publish new articles. He was summoned for several long 'interviews' by Iranian intelligence officials. His travel was restricted, then his passport was confiscated.<ref name=autogenerated1 /></blockquote>

At the celebration of the sixteenth anniversary of the [[Iran hostage crisis|American embassy seizure]] in 1995, Wright found that Iranian [[Supreme Leader of Iran|Supreme Leader]] [[Ali Khamenei]] "devoted more time berating Soroush&nbsp;... than condemning the United States or Israel."<ref>Wright, Robin, ''Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East'', Penguin Press, 2008, p.291-2</ref>

Besides opposition from conservatives, Sourush has also been criticized by secular intellectuals who disapprove of the religious aspects of his ideas and argue that religious intellectualism is a paradoxical ideology.<ref name=":0" />