Some, however, have questioned just how much religion had to
do with the Iranian Revolution or with its aftermath. “There is no
doubt that the religious leaders, led by Khomeini, played an
instrumental role in attacking the Shah’s pro-Western, corrupt,
and ‘immoral’ dictatorship,” wrote Dr. Amin Saikal, a political
scientist. “Their role, however, must not be overestimated, for the
mass movements were not essentially religious. In fact, a large
number of people who followed Khomeini were not necessarily
practicing Muslims. Nor did they agree with Khomeini’s idea of
an Islamic Republic. They followed him because they shared a
common opposition to the Shah’s rule.”^67
In the 1994 book Islam and the Post-Revolutionary State in
Iran, author Homa Omid declared, “Khomeini intended to build
a thoroughly Islamic state, yet—despite the rhetoric—by the
time he died, in terms of real politics Islam had become more of
a posture than a reality.”^68 Omid believed that because of the
“conservatism of the religious institution ...what has emerged
over the past decade and a half is a stumbling, self-serving
administration, that has failed its people and has chosen to
forget the high-minded aims and ideals that Islam and Shiism
had set.”^69 The author concluded, “The first serious attempt at
setting up an Islamic government in the twentieth century has
proved to be an abysmal failure. In Iran all pretence of Islami-
fication of the economy has been abandoned. Once more the
country is turning to the West and attempting to borrow and
perhaps spend its way out of its miseries.”^70
Regardless, the Shiite leadership—“political clerics,” as they
have been labeled^71 —remain in firm control over Iran. They
have enjoyed relative freedom from a threat of military revolt,
because Iran’s military is quite divided. Its staunchly loyal
Islamic Guard, a quarter-million strong, is as powerful as the
regular army.
By the close of the century, however, most Iranians seemed to
have decided the theocracy established by the 1979 revolution
was not exactly what they wanted. The younger generation of
Iranians craved a measure of freedom from the strict demands
Iran After Khomeini 83