The exiled Iranian religious philosopher and prodemocracy activist Abdolkarim Soroush is one of the leading thinkers in the Muslim world. In the early 1980s, Ayatollah Khomeini personally appointed Soroush to Iran’s Cultural Revolution Council. In 2005, Time Magazine listed him among the top 100 most influential intellectuals in the world. Soroush has written dozens of books and articles in Farsi (some of which are translated into English) on the subjects of the compatibility of Islam and democracy, epistemology, religious pluralism, tolerance and hermeneutics. Soroush is a leading critic of the postrevolutionary regime in Iran. His book entitled Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush (Oxford University Press, 2000) is the subject of his keynote lecture.