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Religion, rights, and civil society - Challenges in the Islamic world - Islamist revolution in Iran

9 important questions on Religion, rights, and civil society - Challenges in the Islamic world - Islamist revolution in Iran

What was the Islamist revolution about?

Since the 1950s political Islam has been the source of numerous reform movements, but perhaps none was as important as the 1979 Islamist revolution in Iran which toppled a Western-backed monarchy and replaced it with a rigid theocracy.
The spiritual leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, imposed a new Islamic social and political order on a state that had adopted a crash program in Western-style modernization under the leadership of an authoritarian monarch who was closely allied to the US.

What was the shah's government like?

The shah's government rewarded foreign investors and well-placed Iranian businessmen, but in general the wealth generated from the sale of oil did not improve the lot of small merchants, landless laborers, or rural peasants.
Spectacular infrastructure projects in the capital boosted the shah's international reputation as a modernizer, but had little resonance in the Iranian countryside.

How did the shah look towards Islam?

The monarch emphasized the pre-Islamic Persian history of the country, and his indifference to Islamic tradition infuriated the ayatollahs (religious experts) and the mullahs who led local prayer groups and who enjoyed broad support among the common people.

How did conservative leaders view Pahlavi?

In the view of conservative religious leaders, American economic, military, and cultural penetration would continue to undermine the integrity of Muslim culture so long as the Pahlavi dynasty remained in power.

On which fronts did the monarchy get opposition?

Unemployed peasants who had migrated to the capital city of Tehren in search of work;
middle-class nationalists who resented both the presence of thousands of foreign military and technical advisors;
critics of the royal family's lavish lifestyle;
Shiite clerics who claimed that the shah had betrayed Islam and the values of traditional culture.

Who is Khomeini? What policies did he have?

On February 1, 1979, the militant cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned home to a hero's welcome after almost 15 years of exile in Turkey, Iraq and finally France.
This inveterate critic of the Pahlavi dynasty and its Westernizing policies had skillfully employed modern technology in order to reach his audience.

How did Khomeini get to his supporters?

In the lead up to the revolution, audio recordings of Khomeini's lectures were distributed through a network of mosques and sympathetic Islamic groups.
Through these recordings, in extensive interviews with the Western television media, and in direct phone conversations with his leading supporters inside Iran, the ayatollah framed the debate in terms of a rich Islamic tradition at war with the poisonous influence of the secularized and debauched West.

How did Khomeini call USSR, US and Israel?

Khomeini rejected the established international order, excoriating the US as the "Great Satan" and dismissing the USSR as the "lesser Satan" (Israel became "the Little Satan" in this lexicon).
And he called for the immediate export of the Islamic revolution and the establishment of a world order shaped by Muslim law as distilled from the Quran.

What was behind the decision by the Reagan administration to support killing Hussein?

The decision by the Reagan administration to offer assistance to the murderous dictator Saddam Hussein came within the context of additional signals that Islamism had emerged as a serious threat to the stability of Western-oriented Muslim states.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

A Concise History of the World Since 1945 | 9781352010206 | W M Spellman

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