The Decisive Factor Of The Iranian Revolution

Islam: The Decisive Factor of the Iranian Revolution “The First day of the government of God” – Ayatollah Khomeini On March 30, 1979, after the Iranian Revolution, which is also known as the Islamic Revolution, 97% of the Iranians in the country voted in the national referendum for the establishment of an Islamic Republic. During the Iranian Revolution, Islam, which appeared in Iran after the Islamic conquest in 637 B.C., played a huge role in motivating the Iranians to fight against the Shah. Islam is the decisive factor that generated Iranians to start the Iranian Revolution against the Shah, who tried to inhibit the influence of the Islamic base in Iran through modernization. This led to the Iranian Revolution started by Muslims, purposed
by their religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini, and rapidly involved millions of Iranians. This eventually ended the Pahlavi Dynasty’s regime that had existed since 1925 and established Islamic culture as the law of Iran. Before the Iranian Revolution, the Pahlavi family, the royal family in Iran, tried to minimize the importance of Islam in Iran by establishing laws and starting the White Revolution, a modernization that reformed the lands from the Islamic landlords since 1963. (?Why is this a bad thing)Therefore, under the instructions of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian Revolution started in January 1978. “the protesters demanded that Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi steps down from power, and the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini be returned from exile. The protests grew incredibly fast, reaching between six million and nine million in strength in the first week. About 10% of the entire population had taken to the streets in the Muharram protests.” So, the Pahlavi Dynasty, who ruled Iran for 300 years, ended with the Shah leaving and establishment of an Islamic Republic. While the modernization movements, the Pahlavi family established, benefited the economy in Iran during the Pahlavi Dynasty, they attempted to use the modernization movements in order to shake up the Islamic base in Iran.
After Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last shah’s father, established the policies toward Islamic culture, Sattareh Farman Farmajan, an Iranian activist, said in an interview in 1936 about the policies of banning women’s veil that, “To allow strange men to gape at his wives in public was shameful in the extreme…. To my mother, it was exactly as if he had insisted that she parade naked in the street.” (?) This shows that Reza Shah Pahlavi attempted to use policies to get rid of Islamic culture. However, Sattareh Farman Farmain claimed that veils, as part of the Islamic dress code, already influenced most Muslims’ thinking like her and her family. This made them feel awkward when women could not wear veils. Farmain’s words emphasized the conflict between Islamic culture and the modernization ideas the Shah promoted, which eventually angered the Iranians and led to the revolution. Also, during the White Revolution Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah, started, “The Shah sought to limit or coopt the influence of the Shi'a clerics(ulama) through such measures as seizing their religious endowments (waqf), closing their schools and harassing, imprisoning and exiling the defiant ones.” The White Revolution is a modernization movement that mainly affected Muslims since the
Shah considered Islamic culture a giant obstacle of their modernization process. Through the White Revolution, the Shah, therefore, aimed directly toward the Islamic base in Iran and showed his ambition of overthrowing Islam and creating a modern country. Unfortunately, while the White Revolution significantly benefited the economy in Iran, it accumulated rage in Muslims and gave Khomeini a great chance to lead the Iranians to fight for their rights. Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini, also known as the religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini, deeply influenced the process of getting rid of the Shah and building the Islamic Republic, because he viewed Islam as politics and weapons to fight against the Shah and foreigners, who supported the Shah. When the Iranian government arrested Khomeini in November 1964, because of his denouncement towards the Shah and the United States, and asked him to focus on practicing religion instead of politics, Khomeini answered that, “All of Islam is politics.” Khomeini, as the religious leader in Iran, emphasized that Muslims should one day fight for their rights and their ideal society. Therefore, Khomeini expressed the idea that Islam should be politics, which shows his goal of transferring Iran to an Islamic base country.
These words changed Iranian’s perspective about religion and politics and caused the Shah to exile Khomeini, which angered Muslims and motivated them to fight against the Pahlavi Dynasty for their religious leader. Moreover, during the Iranian Revolution, Khomeini gave a speech on October 29, 1978. Khomeini accused the foreigners that, “They do not permit our Islamic culture to develop, and through their propaganda, they try to distance the people from Islam... They realize that were true Islam put into practice in Iran, or in other countries, the foreigners would have no place there.” Khomeini realized that Islam, in the foreigners’ mind, was the greatest trouble for them to control Iran. Accordingly, Khomeini showed a target for the Muslims in Iran, foreigners, and incited them to fight against the target for their Islamic culture. This convinced the Iranians that Islam is a true weapon and Iranians, especially Muslims, should stand together to protest the foreigners and protect their Islamic culture. As a result, Khomeini emphasized how significant Islam was in Iran and encouraged the Iranians to fight for it, which eventually led to the Iranian Revolution. During the Iranian Revolution, Islam motivated Muslims to start the revolution and involved Iranians in fighting against the Shah from 1978 to 1979.
When a researcher in China institute of International Studies describes his experience in Iran as an ambassador to Iran, he said that, “An article that was published in Newspaper of Iran in 1978 triggered an enormous protest against the Shah. The article blasphemed Khomeini, the leader of Islam in Iran. Therefore, from January 7th to 9th, thousands of theological students objected the Shah in Kum, the holy city of Islam, and was repressed. This caused 70 deaths and 400 injuries. The even in Kum ignited the flame of the Iranian Revolution between 1978-1979.” For Muslims in Iran, Islam was their belief and Khomeini was the religious leader the Islamic symbol, which were untouchable. Therefore, the belief of thousands of theological students motivated them to protect Khomeini in order to protect Islam from being offended by criticizes. Eventually, when the Shah repressed the students and caused injuries, more Iranians involved and the Iranian Revolution occurred. Besides, the Iranian Revolution, in Iranians perspective, was a war to protect their Islamic belief. Ali, an Iranian who experienced the 1979 revolution, reflected it many years later that, “We all thought [the] revolution was something beautiful, done by God, something like music, like a concert. It was as though we were in a theater, watching a concert, and we were
happy that we were part of the theater. We were the actors now.” Ali describes the Iranian Revolution as an act that the Islamic God directed and the Iranians joined. This reflected the Iranians minds that the Iranian Revolution occurred for their god. Also, this shows that Islamic culture brought a great impact to the Iranians, who were the main characters in the revolution, and gave them faith about the establishment of the ideological Islamic Republic, which would end the Shah’s control. Eventually, with the promotion of Islam, the Iranians ended the revolution through Khomeini’s return on February 1st, 1979 and started the process of building a country dominated by Islam, an Islamic Republic. After the Iranian Revolution, Islam, as the faith of millions of protesters, became the dominant religion and even the law of Iran through the national referendum Khomeini held on March 30, 1979. During the referendum, 97% of the Iranians voted for a new form of country, an Islamic Republic. Therefore, on March 31, 1979, Khomeini exclaimed that, “the first day of the government of God.” Khomeini claimed that Iran is now the country the God rule since Iran became an Islamic base country instead of a dictatorship country. Also, because the Islamic Republic was formed by the decision of millions of Iranians, Iranians gained rights to decide the development direction of the country. These results proved that Islam started to dominate the country. This overthrown the anti-Islamic movements during the Modernization process Pahlavi family attempted and made Iran as a uniquely religious country at that time. Furthermore, “Following the referendum approving the Islamic Republic in March - enshrining Islamism in the nation's very name - an Assembly of Experts was elected in August. This assembly, which was dominated by the ulemas and the PIR (Party of the Islamic Revolution) now devised a new constitution. This contained articles establishing the guardianship of the Islamic jurist (velayat-e faqih) and gave absolute power the Guide, in the person of Khomeini.” After the national referendum, a series of actions, which built up the position of Islam, took place in Iran. The Islamic Republic government supported Islam by using Muslims as the member of the assembly and determining the supreme status in Iran. This showed that Islam eventually influenced the Iranian culture and became the absolute part of it. Islam, after emerged in 637 B.C., influenced the Iranians people, motivated them to fight against the Shah under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, the symbol of Iranian Islam, and eventually became the culture and laws of Iran. Islamic struggle started when the Pahlavi family, the royal family of Iran, attempted to shake the Islamic base in Iran by establishing modernization movements, such as anti-Islamic laws and the White Revolution. This encroached the Islamic culture and gave Khomeini a chance to spread his politics ambition, ending the Pahlavi Dynasty and building the Islamic Republic. The goal Khomeini induced led to a further accusation from the Shah, toward Islam, and brought death to the Iranian Muslims. This eventually increased the protest population. Consequently, Iranians voted for Islam as the new political base of Iran through the national referendum and Muslims’ actions after the revolution. Thus, Islam acted as a decisive factor in the Iranian Revolution since it motivated Muslims to started the revolution, which millions of Iranians joint, and finally owned the supreme position in Iran.