Why Did Iran’s Revolution Succeed?

Amil Imani

December 2018 was my 40^th anniversary since I made it to this blessed land, America. Like many of my fellow Persians, I never even imagined to extend my stay in the US beyond the 4 years of the university. Let me remind you that Iranians are not beggars. We don’t ask for charity. We are an extremely proud people. Most of us never ever impose anything on the host country or demand any special privileges. Most of us have assimilated nicely. A major reason for the Iranian assimilation and success in the U.S. is the U.S. itself which provides an ambience conducive to self-advancement, be it in science, business or any other field of endeavor. Another reason is that Iranians inherently share and cherish the same values that America’s founding fathers enshrined in this nation’s charter of life.

Although, the Islamic Revolution forced the removal of the Shah of Iran and the war with Iraq was imposed on our motherland, I was still determined to go back home. What deterred me from returning was my family.

Mother kept telling me that this is not the same Iran you left. This is a different Iran. She also warned me if I went back, the Islamic regime would immediately recruit me and send me to the front lines. The same war zone that took the lives of many of my school friends. It was a terrifying feeling. Now adrenalin was rushing through my veins and fighting an enemy was all I could think of. I said, Mom, my friends lost their lives to defend their country. I find it my duty to come home and do the same. Please say no more. To no avail, she kept begging me not to come back and wait until the war ended. She continued, the Khomeini’s regime doesn’t care about Iran, or the lives of Iranians. In fact, he despises Iran. She convinced me that I could do more for Iran in a free US than a war zone where I would most likely not survive. I listened to her motherly advice and stayed while continuing with my higher education.

Fast Forward

Forty-years has passed and the Islamic Republic is still doing what it did forty-years ago. Iran has been under the rule of Islam since 1979. The Iranian people have attempted on several occasions to end the rule of these barbarians, but each time they were faced with the ruthless regime’s apparatus and many of them were slaughtered while the world watched and did nothing.

In four decades of its existence, the Islamic Republic has managed, notably, to produce more hunger, more anger, more frustration, prostitution at a record pace, drug addiction beyond control, child executions without any regard to international human rights and much more. There are many reports regarding cases of child sexual abuse and molestation reaching epidemic proportions.

Prosecution and imprisonment of the innocent and the systematic and illegal abuse of detainees and hundreds of gruesome acts of torture and rape in the prisons have skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the United Nations did not even blink while European countries continued to expand their businesses within the Islamic regime.

Year 1979

In 1979, the U.S. Government, particularly, Jimmy Carter, along with Western allied forces, were responsible for the formation, perhaps, the greatest Islamic terrorist nation on the face of the earth which led to worldwide Islamic terrorism. President Jimmy Carter, betrayed the most valued friend to the West, the late Shah of Iran. Former President Ronald Reagan, was right in his assessment.

Let me be clear, as a person who partiality witnessed how this revolution began, I don’t entirely blame Mr. Carter for this revolution. Iranians, from all walks of life bear the responsibility too. It would be unfair to only blame one man as the cause of this untimely revolution. Iranians themselves are also to blame. That is why I have referred to the 1979 revolution, as a “perfect storm.”

Brief Break Down

During the revolution of 1979, (Some Iranians call it the Islamic invasion), the communists were as always active and biding their time for an uprising against the Shah. Later, an unholy alliance took place amongst a variety of opposition groups, including Islamists (clergy), pro- Soviet Union Communists (Tudeh), an Islamist-Marxist group of Mojahidin Khalgh, or MEK, landowners, intellectuals, and Baazari merchants who sent large amounts of money to the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iraq. Although these groups inherently despised one another, they managed to bury their hatchets in favor of “unifying” the nation for a “common” cause, under the pretense of democracy and political freedom.

Unbeknownst to many gullible Iranians who jumped on the bandwagon with these two main groups, the communists had the dream of socialism and the Islamists wanted to bring about Islamic fascism. They both deceived the people and betrayed their trust. The Islamists used the notion of “taqiyya” an Islamic deception. And when the opportunity presented itself, they took the nation hostage and hijacked the revolution. Then the Islamists started to arrest and execute the communists and the MEK members and just about anyone they found to be against the establishment of an Islamic Ummah or as they referred to it: “Velâyat-e Faqih or the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist.”

Why Did Iran’s Revolution Succeed?

The question that everyone wants to know is why the West decided to remove the man who was perhaps the greatest ally of the United States and was busy modernizing Iran. Also, why did they replace and install a radical, illiterate Islamist, with a 7^th century mentality, the Ayatollah Khomeini? This is the subject of historical debate. There are several factors that came together to create this perfect storm. Without it, it would have never succeeded. I briefly mention a few factors:

1 —Jimmy Carter: A Democrat was the President and Democrats historically were bad for Iran. “New information has come to light, showing how former US President Jimmy Carter blindly accepted false promises and helped Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini carry out the Iranian Revolution.” “Documents seen by BBC suggest the Carter administration paved the way for Khomeini to return to Iran by holding the army back from launching a military coup.”

“On 27 January, 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini – founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic, the man who called the United States “the Great Satan” – sent a secret message to Washington. From his home in exile outside Paris, the defiant leader of the Iranian revolution effectively offered the Carter administration a deal: Iranian military leaders listen to you, he said, but the Iranian people follow my orders.”

2 —PMOI (MEK): The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) was considered a terrorist organization. This was the first Iranian organization to develop systematically a modern interpretation of Islam. An interpretation that drastically differed from both old conventional Islam of the traditional clergy and a new accessible version invented in the 1970s by Ayatollah Khomeini and his disciples. Furthermore, the MEK, together with Fada’yan Islam (Devotees of Islam), had a critical role fighting the Pahlavi regime. The MEK grew quickly after the Islamic Revolution, and became a major force in Iranian politics. Although the MEK was one of the most powerful and effective organizations during the revolution, the Khomeini regime would not share his power with anyone and especially the MEK. In less than 2 years, the Islamic regime systematically executed over 9,000 members of the MEK. Like other major revolutions, this revolution too devoured its own children.

3 —Strikes: In the fall of 1978, waves of unrest and strikes—led largely by Iran’s oil workers then continued by civil services that spread like a wildfire across Iran. Basically, every governmental institution was shut down. The nation ceased to run.

4 —Iranian Military Declared Neutrality: Iranian generals were in constant contact with the United States, even long before the revolution. Iran’s general staff by the nods of the United States declared neutrality of the armed forces and troops were ordered back to their barracks, assuring the Islamic Revolution’s success.

In short, while there are many other factors that contributed to 1979, the Iranian revolution, without the perfect storm, would have never succeeded. All pieces came together at the same time. The idea was: let’s get rid of the Shah first, then all various groups will be the shareholders in the development of Iran. Well, that never happened. What happened was that history repeated itself. After 1400 years of the Arab conquest of Persia, once again, the Arab-Islamic values, with its barbaric exclusionary and primitive beliefs overtook Iran in 1979 and brutally strove to replace the traditional lofty Iranian belief in human rights and diversity.