Abdolkarim Soroush (عبدالكريم سروش (listenⓘ) Persian pronunciation: [æbdolkæriːm soruːʃ]), born Hossein Haj Faraj Dabbagh[1] (born 16 December 1945; Persian: حسين حاج فرج دباغ), is an Iranian Islamic and Rumi scholar, and a former professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran.

After receiving a master's degree in analytical chemistry from University of London, he went to Chelsea College, where he studyied history and philosophy of science.

He then went to Tehran's Teacher Training College where he was appointed the director of the newly established Islamic Culture Group.

A year later, all universities were shut down, and a new body was formed by the name of the Cultural Revolution Committee comprising seven members, including Abdulkarim Soroush, all of whom were appointed directly by Ayatollah Khomeini.

He submitted his resignation from membership in the Cultural Revolution Council to Imam Khomeini and has since held no official position within the ruling system of Iran, except occasionally as an advisor to certain government bodies.

His public lectures at universities in Iran are often disrupted by hardline Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante groups who see his intellectual endeavors as being mainly motivated by anti-regime politics.

[11] In an interview, Soroush said that "True believers must embrace the faith of their own free will - not because it was imposed, or inherited, or part of the dominant local culture.

"[13] At Oxford, Soroush was heavily influenced by Iranian philosopher Komeil Sadeghi, to whom he has dedicated one of his books Expansion of Prophetic Experience.

[citation needed] Soroush's political theory is in line with the modern tradition from Locke to the framers of the American Constitution.

He believes that the assumption of the innate goodness of mankind, shared by radical utopians from anarchists to Islamic fundamentalists underestimates the staying power of social evil and discounts the necessity of a government of checks and balances to compensate for the weaknesses of human nature.

[1] Soroush's political philosophy, as well, remains close to the heart of the liberal tradition, ever championing the basic values of reason, liberty, freedom, and democracy.

Soroush entwines these basic values and beliefs in a rich tapestry of Islamic primary sources, literature, and poetry.

His "postmodern" views on epistemology and hermeneutics have been criticized from a "traditional" Shi'i standpoint by the philosopher Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli.

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.

[21]At the celebration of the sixteenth anniversary of the American embassy seizure in 1995, Wright found that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei "devoted more time berating Soroush ... than condemning the United States or Israel.