Use Islam to End the Iranian Regime

Ariel Schalit / AP Photo Thirty years ago, Iranians used Islam as a catalyst to overthrow the shah. Nazee Moinian, who lived through that revolution, on how the protesters on the streets of Tehran can use religion to bring down the current leadership.

I remember the Iranian Revolution vividly—and yes, it does look like this week’s riots in Iran.

During the second half of 1978, frenzied funeral processions and large memorial services created a rallying point for angry rioters, who began to see the struggle as a religious quest. Clerics’ calls for national strikes paralyzed the country. The importance of Islam to rally the crowds was huge. Now, 30 years later, Iranians can borrow a page from their Islamic playbook and use that revolution to win this fight: In 2009, they must continue to gather for large memorials.

Fortieth-day gatherings of commemoration and national strikes turned the tide against the ill-fated Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. If done systematically, they can do the same in 2009.

Yet again, Iran is going through an upheaval. Oddly enough, it is Islam that may provide the catalyst for revolution yet again. The tragic death of Neda, the young Iranian woman killed by a single Basiji bullet to her heart, has all the hallmarks of martyrdom. She perished needlessly in her march for freedom from the yoke of injustice. She may or may not have been religious, but as a cellphone video of her killing started spreading, she provided Iranians with enough Islamic fervor to announce their own readiness for martyrdom. “I will die a martyr, too,” a father Twittered, “if it means freedom for my three daughters.”

Mir Hossein Mousavi’s call to Iranians to gather this week and commemorate Neda’s death is reminiscent of the events leading up to the Islamic Revolution. Using absentee messages to empower the crowd, he is using his Web site so he can emerge at the right moment—again, actions reminiscent of the Islamic Revolution. His mentor, Imam Khomeini, saturated Iranian households with cassette tapes before his return from exile. Once on Persian soil, he recalled his “promise” to Allah to “shepherd his subjects to salvation.”

In December 1977, during a presidential visit to Tehran, President Jimmy Carter raised a glass of Champagne to toast Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and saluted Iran as “an island of stability.” Iranians from all walks of life lined the streets of Tehran to get a glimpse of the presidential motorcade and chant: “Long live the shah!” “Long live Farah!” Grown men and women, overcome by emotions, wept openly. Children stood frozen or frantically waved flags. Store owners distributed sweets and filled the sidewalks with flowers. Iran was awed by the majesty of the Shahanshah, the king of kings, and thought it was at the zenith of greatness.

We lived it. We believed it.

The sense of witnessing a historic transformation from a feudal and stagnant country to a modern oasis was not lost on my parents or the people of their generation who had seen harder times. Iranians were running, not walking toward modernity. The country was making great strides. With a treasury flush with funds from the oil boom of the 1970s, the shah pursued ambitious programs. Like his father, Reza Shah, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was determined to bring Iran into the 20th century, and was prepared to ignore all outward signs of discontent, which were slowly gaining substance and momentum.

As the pace of change quickened, the youth felt left out, the intellectuals insulted, the bazaaris and clerics threatened.

And then the riots began. Downtown Tehran became a hotbed of anti-shah demonstrations. In a show of defiance, clean-shaven, European-styled young men stopped shaving and threw off their ties. They stood on street corners handing out free cassette tapes of Imam Khomeini. They filled the streets and shouted “Death to the dictator,” imploring their “brothers and sisters” to listen to the “truth” and “denounce the lies.” They threw rocks at the police and chased them out of neighborhoods; then regrouped at night and set cars ablaze.