Ma`rifat Siyasi

The current version of majority-based religious democracy is not appropriate for multicultural societies; rather, a special version of religious democracy is needed to provide justice and security in these societies. The main research question concerns the political structure appropriate for such societies. Using descriptive- prescriptive method and based on the principles and main components of religious democracy such as social justice, political pluralism, popular acceptance, the rule of religious law, and supervision over power, this study offers a specific structure for these communities in four territorial, legislative, administrative and judicial areas. The results show that the federal system with a bipolar administrative structure consisting of the democratically-elected president and the prime minister elected by the parliament, the proportional distribution of power and benefits at different levels, the supervision of a religious institution over the legislative process and judicial structure based on judicial independence in personal status, the use of independent courts, the strengthening of human rights institutions, and the application of accepted human rights and Islamic human rights laws are the most appropriate structures in multicultural societies.