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Islamic Political Revival

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The Iranian Revolution and its contribution to Islamic Political Revival

Sisy M. Orobitg

INR3274: International Relations of the Middle East

Professor Alla Mirzoyan

December 8, 2008

The Iranian Revolution and its contribution to Islamic Political Revival

The Pahlavi Dynasty was for many Iranians a constitutional monarchy turned corrupt that plagued them with economic frustrations, rising unemployment and an overwhelming feeling of anxiety that began during 1975s oil crisis. Lack of government accountability and increasing political unrest among the middle class exacerbated the crisis and allowed the religious clergy to take advantage. Thus, this disillusionment with the governing monarchy paved the way to a revolution that has proven to be unprecedented. The advent of a new Islamic revival proved successful upon the birth of the Iranian Revolution and with the overwhelming consent of its people came the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as its ruler. With a new political mind-frame, came an authoritarian regime, which volubly conceded to no one, and consolidated itself through each governing tenet. The resilience of this regime brought about terror.( Mehran Kamrava; A Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War (2005)) The author of this new political revival which has impregnated into other areas of the Arab World is The Iranian Republic. All Western world influences that attempted to pollute the sanctity of the creation of a democracy out of a theocracy ended with the rule of the Shah of Iran in 1979.

The Pahlavi Dynasty: Its demise leads to change The role of the Pahlavi Dynasty in instigating an Iranian Revolution proved to be a highly effective invisible force. As Reza Shah attempted to orchestrate a new modern Iran full of secularist ideas, his regime

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