Politics and Religion of Iran

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Politics and Religion of Iran

After the fall of the Shah a new revolution was born with the Islamic Republic of Iran. In November 1979, the Iranian government became a large threat to the United States' national security. In one of the largest and longest lasting hostage situations of American history, the Iranian leadership proved contempt for diplomatic norms and world opinion during the hostage crisis. They appeared supremely confident that Iran would succeed on its own, regardless of the rest of the world and certain that God was on their side. Since this event, Iran has remained an isolated country from the rest of the world and still remains one of the largest threats to the United States' national security.

One of the main problems with the Iranian government is that there is a duality and question of power between the main religious leader and the political leader. The supreme religious leader, as opposed to the political leader, according to the Iranian Constitution, is specifically charged with various duties as leading the television and radio network to appointing personnel to the hugely powerful Guardian Council, which can overrule the parliament at will and dismiss the elected officials assuming power of the supreme command over the armed forces (Mackey, 149-151). This power struggle between the religious and political regimes is what caused the revolutionary war in 1979. The first strike against the American freedoms was seen through the 444-day hostage action against the United States Embassy staff in Tehran. The Islamic revolutionary party took this measure to ensure that the American military would not intervene in the Iranian power struggle. Since the hostage crisis, Iran has become synonymous with terror.

During the revolutionary struggle and the hostage crisis, groups of local toughs were formed and grew in strength. These neighborhood thugs were called hizbollahis, also known as the groups of the Party of God (Schlesinger, 97). These groups were sponsored by the religious revolution of Islam to carry out measures necessary for the revolution. In the beginning the group was given simple tasks like enforcing the policy of all women being veiled and members of party harassed those that were found unveiled. The terrorist group of Hizbollah has now grown into one of the largest state sponsored organizations of the Is...

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...amic Republic of Iran will have to one-day make the distinction between state and religious power, and until this intolerance of all other non-Muslim religions is abolished the rest of the world will be at risk of persecutions by the governments state sponsored terrorism.

Eventually, the Iranian government will have to consider separating the political and religious wings, and allow the people of Iran as well as the rest of the world to live life according to that individual?s own beliefs; but until that time the United States? national security is at grave risk to more attacks by this radical nation. Since the fall of the Shah, the Islamic Republic of Iran has isolated itself from the rest of the world, and has proven to be one of the greatest threats to American security through the use of state sponsored terrorism based on religious goals and formed by political movement.

WORKS CITED

Mackey, Sandra. THE IRANIANS: PERSIA, ISLAM AND THE SOUL

OF A NATION. New York: Penguin Group, 1996.

Schlesinger JR, Arthur M. AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI. New York:

Chelsea House, 1987.

Wright, Robin. IN THE NAME OF GOD: THE KHOMEINI DECADE.

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.

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