Iran And Russian Revolution Essay

Iran and Russia are two cases in which the relationship between the religion and the state play an important role within the affairs of the country. The modern government of Iran was established as a result of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 in which Islam was codified into the constitution. Russia, on the other hand, had an extensive history of pushing atheism as the state’s religion in an effort to secularize the country. Nevertheless, religion was a significant element in the identity of the Russian people and therefore withstood the oppressive anti-religious policies from previous regimes. Using the parallel authority model on the cases of Iran and Russia, this paper will examine the historical importance of religion in shaping social and

In addition, the effects of this revolution were in respond to what many Iranian perceived as an increase to Westernization by non-Muslims countries such as the United States. Mohammad Reza Shah, who was supported by the United States, embarked on a conquest to follow his father’s footsteps to fundamentally shape Iran modernizing despite the country’s high religious influence. Following the overthrow of the monarchy and the Islamic revolution in 1979, the new Ayatollah Khomeini had “successfully mobilized support for his Islamic regime through the use of religious symbols and constriction of a national identity. A religious national community was now ready to accept his vision of the proper form of government and its relations with religion” (Siavoshi, 2002). Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic religious and political transformation of Iran led to the Islam becoming the national identity of the state. As a consequence, Khomeini argued that the new Islamic government should not pass laws based on a democratic majority; rather laws should be passed on the religious scholars insights on the interpretation of the Quran (Siavoshi,