Controversy and Criticism
Khatami's two terms as president were regarded by some people, as unsuccessful or not fully successful in achieving their goals of making Iran freer and more democratic, and he has been criticized by conservatives, reformers, and opposition groups for various policies and viewpoints.
In a 47-page "letter for the future", Khatami said his government had stood for noble principles but had made mistakes and faced obstruction by hardline elements in the clerical establishment.
A Whim for Secularism
Fars News Agency in 2012 published a book titled A Whim for Secularism" about Khatami's political life. The book is written by Seyed Yasser jebraily a former Kayhan newspaper columnist and the current deputy director of Fars News Agency. The theme of the book circles around the idea that after the death of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, Khatami and the Reformist Movement tried to topple down the Iranian religious system of government and replace it with a secular one. In his first chapter, the writer argues that secularism is in apparent contradiction with Islam and the principle of monotheism as it has been described in Quran.
Read more about this topic: Mohammad Khatami
Famous quotes containing the words controversy and/or criticism:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“It is from the womb of art that criticism was born.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)