The Influence of the Shia History and Culture on the Islamic Revolution

Abstract

In this article, the author tries to identify the influence of Shia history and culture on the Islamic Revolution through collecting documents and evidences. In the introduction, he suggests that determining the level of influencing the Revolution by the Shia history and culture is not an easy task. Then, he reviews and evaluates the famous theories about the Revolution victory and shows that none of these theories was able to explain it fully. At the end of this section, he proposes his own theory based on which the Revolution had been under the influence of many factors; one of the most important of them was the Shia history and culture. But when the Revolution defeated the monarchy, the only effective factors were the Shia religion, history and culture.
In the emergence of every revolution, there may be tens of social, political and cultural issues; therefore, the analysts not only can not consider all the main factors behind achieving revolution, but also do not have any index or criteria to evaluate the extend of the effects of each of them. It is clear that the author has had the same problem in writing this article.
On the other hand, many authors, due to lack of a detailed familiarity with the Revolution, like many non- Iranian writers, or having a special background in mind fail to analyze the Revolution in depth and proposed different theories that make determining the main factor difficult. To the author, among the factors effective in winning the Revolution, the Shia history and culture has been the most important one. Even the leadership, though it has played a very important role in leading the people, is indebted to this factor. Obviously, it does not negate the role of other factors, but the goal here is to find and determine the main factor.

The study and analyzing the theories proposed to explain the Islamic Revolution

In general, five theories have been proposed to explain the reason behind the Revolution victory that that we identify and analyze them briefly in the following:

1 Theories about conspiracy

Some people believe that the Islamic Revolution of Iran resided in a conspiracy organized before by some foreign groups, although there is no consensus among the ones who support this theory. In general, the followers of this theory believe that the west superpowers, especially U.S. UK and perhaps USSR helped to overthrow the royal regime.
In this case, the king and some of monarchists think that the west powers decided to topple their regime due to the Iran efforts to increase the oil price in the early 1970s. This issue was insisted repeatedly by the Shah himself. This group, sometimes, suggest that they were jealous of their royalty, and claim that through the all-round economic developments which Iran had achieved, it could export different products to the international market soon up to the late 1970s. Therefore, in order to prevent the risks that threaten their interests, they tried to carry out the revolution to arrest Iran’s development process. The Shah clearly suggested that the west envy of his royalty was the reason why they plotted to overthrow his regime.

 

Reviewing this theory

Although this theory is not based on valid evidences and has unfounded assumptions that does not need reviewing, the fact is that belief in conspiracy has always been a part of psycho- political culture of our society. We can find and mentions many political events, as examples, in Iran’s contemporary history that were considered as conspiracy theories proposed by at least one group of Iranians. For example, they say “he is the British agent” or “there is something in the wind”, etc. and all these expressions show that there has been always a culture of suspicion about conspiracy that historically results from the colonial countries competing in Iran in recent centuries in one hand, and incapability of Qajar kings on the other as well as the psychological and behavioral characteristics caused by the rules of autocratic regimes in Iran because all despotic regimes establish their regime based on conspiracy and trick. So it is better to call this hypotheses as the conspiracy theory.

 

2 Modernization theory

According to this theory, the regime quickly pushed through a serious of modern reforms and tried to make Iran seem developed. But due to quickness of these developments and lack of coordination with cultural and social developments as well as the traditional context of the society, most of the people did not accepted such reforms. Therefore, many people were face with an identity crisis. As the gap between the people and Shah opened up, this crisis transformed to a religious- political conflict and confrontation from which the Islamic Revolution was born.

Reviewing this theory

a) According to this theory, if Shah would not carry out such reform since 1961, he did not have any problem while he had had such problems even before that time. In addition, this theory does not consider the political nature and function of the regime. Based on this theory, the general structure of society is summarized as two powers: one was the regime that tried to reform the country precipitately. And the other are the traditionalists that could not accept such reforms at that time.
b) In this analysis, the Iranian people are insulted and considered as unworthy of reforms to cover and hide the regime failure.
c) In fact, the people did not accepted this modernization policy because it was a tool to achieve financial developments, that is, consumerism along with the western vulgar culture that made the country be more dependent. To the researchers, these reforms were so disastrous that the people could not tolerate them.

3 Economic theory

According to this theory, the sudden and considerable increase in the oil price, provided Iran a huge amount of financial resources in the early 1970s. Shah speeded up the economic developments that led to improving the living conditions of the people. But as the oil price decreased in the second half of the 1970s, the country were faced with some economic problems that dissatisfied the people. In addition, lack of a specified economic program and the royal overspendings intensified this crisis more. These issues were the main reasons of the Revolution.

Reviewing this theory

In this analysis, it is not stated where these economic developments were taken place and how? Can we call increasing the country income due to increase in the oil price as development? Is not true that a significant part of this extra income was at the service west economic and financial system to buy the stocks of the companies in bankruptcy. In addition, the progress had been made only in assembly industries while the traditional agriculture was destroyed. In general, in this analysis, no evidence was found regarding the economic growth. Moreover, the facts related to the Revolution do not prove this theory.

4 Despotism theory

According to this theory, the reason why the people struggled with Shah was his political attitudes. The Pahlavi regime that had been at the so-called Gate of Great Civilization, was not very different from the Qajar dynasty in 100 years ago in terms of political views. Especially after the coup in August, 18, the regime never let the opponents make any movement. Thus, we can claim that the Islamic Revolution was a movement to destroy the old structure and build a new one.
Reviewing this theory
The study and analyzing demands of the Revolution leadership and the people do not confirm this view. What the people wanted was to remove all religious deviations and prohibitions. Through the religious statement, the people came to the scene and struggled against autarchy because it was one an example of the perversion of religion. In addition, there is not any logic to prove this theory since if despotism alone is the reason for conducting revolution, why did not any revolution take place in the years before that? The only thing that this theory confirm is the effect of despotism on conducting the Revolution. Basically, why should we prove that the people liberality results from faith in religion?

5 The theory of anti- Islam policy of the regime

In this case, Amid Zanjani said:
The only factor we can find as the main reason of conducting revolution is to adopt anti- Islam policy by Shah who thought it can help him to strengthen his regime by attracting and receiving the foreign support. Shah adopted such policy because he thought that anti- Islam policy can save his regime from toppling, solve the problems of foreign and domestic policy and bolster his empire.

Reviewing this theory

a) As the previous ones, this theory does not distinguish between the toppling factors of monarchy and the factors of the Islamic Revolution victory while we will see that these two factors can be distinguished well.
b) According to this theory, the regime must be powerful at the beginning of adopting anti- Islam policy and become weak gradually as the revolution continues so that it become vulnerable at the end and would be overthrown, as Amid Zanjani said. But the fact is something else. During the Revolution days, the regime was much more powerful in terms of military, foreign policy, oil income, economic conditions and domestic security. But this theory is more realistic than the previous ones.

The proposed theory

Regarding the reviews done on the previous theories, the proposed theory can answer the following questions:
1. Why Imam Khomeyni was accepted as the leader of the Revolution among different groups and people? Could he be generally acceptable if he was not a religious leader- an authority of imitation?
2. How were the declarations of leadership distributed quickly across the country though there were not many distribution facilities and there was a risk of jail and death?
3. Why the leader’s statements was so motive?
4. Was it possible to mobilize the people if their religion was not Shia?
5. During the Revolution, the people have relatively a life of ease. So why did they conduct revolution and sacrificed their material interests and even children and lives?
6. Why did not the powers who supported Shah interfere directly to put the Revolution down?
7. Why were not the intelligence services of the superpowers informed of the Revolution and called Iran as the Island of Stability even up to the last days? Why do they still antagonize the Revolution?
The theory that is proposed based on the above hypotheses and can answer these questions is that in destructing and delegitimizing that idolatrous regime, the Shia culture and history along with other factors challenged the legitimacy of that regime, that is, during the Revolution, other factors were effective too, but the Shia culture and history was the most effective one and if the opposition was not expressed against the regime and its plans in the form of religion, it was not much motive because the Shia culture is a dynamic, motivational and revolutionary culture that results from Imam Ali’s (Peace be upon him) thoughts and behaviors. This is a culture engaged with Ashura and so on. Therefore, the Revolution resides in the Shia culture that is full of struggling with oppression and injustice and sacrificing lives for cutting the root of corruption.
At the stage of the revolution triumph also, teh main reason is religion, i.e. the Shia history and culture.
It is true that the people and specially the leadership played an important role in victory of the Revolution, but their role is a subgroup of religion. It is clear that the goal of this article is not to ignore or underestimate the significant role of the leadership because there is no doubt that if he was not the leader, the Revolution would not achieve victory. The author believes that although the significant role of the leader and his awesome and unique power result, to some extent, from his individual characteristics, these features are mostly due to the religion he believed in.

Delegitimization of the imperial regime

Regarding the first part of the hypothesis, that is the effect of religion- the Shia history and culture- on delegitimization of the regime and preparation for the Revolution victory, the following are given as reason:

1. The people and groups who played the most important role in the movement

The people who came to the scene with a religious decision and always supported the revolution leader, remained loyal to him and sacrificed their lives. They did this not only to fulfill their religious duty and gain access to God, but also to protect their religion. Therefore, even those groups who did not believe in the religion accompanied the people in the revolution process.

In this case, Morteza Motahari said:

The current movement in Iran does not belong to a special group of people. In this movement, men and women, rich and poor, townspeople and villagers, seminary and university students, etc. have participated. When a statement was released throughout the country by leading authorities of imitation who were leading the movement, all strata of the society were being unified.
It is evident that this unity among different strata of the people results from the Shia history and culture as well as the belief that the religious decisions are the rule of God that must be observed.

 

2 Clergy

The Shia clergy played a leading role in the Islamic Revolution of Iran, like many other contemporary movements, as the most important information network in informing the people. This is because they have some certain features:
a) During the history, the Shia clergy has not tolerated the issues opposite of the religion and reacted to them immediately after they have been committed. They have inherited such attitudes from Imams (Peace be upon them), especially the Karbala movement.
b) In the Shia school, a believer should be a religious jurist himself or follow another religious jurist and when it is not possible to access the jurist, the clergymen act as mediators. These clergymen have raised from ordinary people and have grown among and like them and they are familiar with their problems and never have missed their cultural and spiritual relations with the public. Therefore, the Shia clergy have taken an important and leading role in social and political movements especially in recent years.

On the role of Shia clergy, Gerham said:

The fact is that the Shia clergy in Iran has lived among the ordinary people and have a close and intimate relationship with them and therefore are familiar with their feelings. When the clergymen disagreed with the government policies, their opinions was so legitimate that have been considered by the people even in the most difficult conditions of dictatorship.
c) The independence of clergy from the leading rulers: the Shia clergy, that have been established by Imams (Peace be upon them), have always been against the cruel ruling elites. According to Hamel Elgar:
The Shia clergy is based on denying the legitimacy of the king. Spiritually, the Shia clergy relies entirely on God and socially on the people and never has relied on the government....
The simple life of the clergymen has promoted this independence. Thus, the Shia clergymen have always done their political- religious activities regardless of any concern.

3 The historical roots of the revolution

The Egyptian reporter, Mahmoud Alnajar said: The Shia history has always been an important factor effective in the revolution during the Islamic period. The Shia history is reminiscent of struggles with the tyrant rulers and the Imams have never remained neutral about the deviations to protect the religion and have revolted even with their few followers. The religious authorities also have taken the same approach. These contentions started from the speech of the Prophet Mohammad’s daughter, Zahra (Peace be upon her), at Mosque Alnabi delivered to the immigrants and helpers. Since then, all friends and followers of the Prophet’s House, like Abazar, Abdolah bin Masoud, etc. learned to fight against tyrannous rulers, like Moavieh, Yazid, etc. Even though the methods of these struggles were different, the movements continued until Imam Khomeyni created a movement against the Pahlavi Dynasty. This aggressive and resistant attitude towards cruelty and deviation from Islamic law is one of the features of Shia culture.

As Motahari said:

Imam struggled with oppression. But he proposed the theory of struggling with oppression and cruelty with Islamic criteria, and suggesting that our Revolution is a reflection of Ashura movement, he induced this attitude that a believer should not admit the injustice, submit to suffocation, and let himself be servile and obey the tyrannous governors.
Basically, every revolution is carried out due to dissatisfaction and adversities. In other words, when people are dissatisfied with the governor and wish for an ideal situation, revolution arises. Perhaps, a nation is dissatisfied with the current conditions and wish for an ideal one, but does not conduct any revolution, why? That is because they are susceptible to condescension and submission. Thus, if a nation is dissatisfied with the current conditions, and has an aggressive spirit and denying, they can carry out revolution. Here, the role of schools and attitudes is very significant. One of the features of the Shia is that it induces a sense struggling with injustice and cruelly.

4 The ideological roots of revolution

In the Shia point of view, at the time of the occultation of Imam Mahdi (Peace be upon him), every ruler is usurper and ruthless unless his deputies, who are currently the jurists, run the government. The Shia have always desired to install an Islamic government and settle a world full of justice and equity. Based on this view, the world seeks an ideal situation that will be created when Mahdi reappears to bring justice to the world. As Hamid Enayat said:
What makes the Shia hopeful of final victory over oppression and the ruthless rulers is pending the emergence of Imam Mahdi (Peace be upon him). This has made the Shia to prepare themselves and pave the way for his emergence.

Regarding the same, Hamed Elgar said:

The roots of revolution are related to the Shia belief in Imams, Occultation of Imam Mahdi (Peace be upon him) and its political consequences that are the concrete expression of belief in representation. The Shia believe that any political domination and authority is illegal at the time of Occultation.

The popular uprising against hurting the religious emotions

Another prove for what was mentioned in this section is the theory popular uprising against hurting the religious emotions. In this regard, Motahari said:
The key factor dominating all other factors that could motivate people from all social strata in concert with each other was hurting the people’s Islamic emotions. The people saw that how awfully the Islamic laws are violated in practice.
In 1976, the regime decided to change the Hegira calendar to the Christian calendar. This was not important in terms of policy and economy. But it betrayed the people’s religious emotions because the leadership called it as enmity towards the Prophet and Islam; therefore, this made the people to rise against the regime and helped the Islamic movement to proceed more.

The author of Sudden Fall said in this regard:

One of the main reasons of the fall of regime was to betray the people’s religious emotions, for example, not observing public morals, employing the Baha’is in important jobs and changing the Hegira calendar to the Christian one.

The victory of Islamic Revolution

Now, we deal with the second stage of the hypothesis, that is the victory of Islamic Revolution and provide some evidence that can confirm the validity of the theory:

1- The analysis of the leader of the Revolution

The analysis of the leader of the revolution, the way he was elected as the leader and features of his leadership all clearly prove that the Shia history and culture have had a significant effects in victory of the Islamic Revolution.

Motahari answered why Imam Khomeyni was elected as the leader:

There is no doubt that self- sacrifice, struggling with oppression, vigorous defense of the oppressed, honesty, precision, bravery and tenacity were the significant features of Imam Khomeyni considered as the decisive factors to elect them as the leader. But the main issue is something else. He emerged from the heart of culture and depth of the soul of the nation who have heard the sagas of the Prophet Mohammad, his daughter, Zahra, his grandson, Hossein, his granddaughter, Zeynam, his follower, Abozar, etc. and hundreds of more and these sagas have been blended with their soul. Again, the same proclamation was made by the people. They saw Ali and Hossein (Peace be upon them) in his face considered him as the reflection of their culture that had been degraded by the regime.
Therefore, the leadership is the fruit of Shia culture within which one can find the terms like the religious authority, respecting the authorities’ judgment in the Shia history and culture. If Imam was not a religious authority or if he did not speak in the people’s language, could he be successful?

To answer the above question, Motahari said:

If Imam was not a religious rector, if the people did not sense a deep intimacy with Islam, if they did not love the family of the Prophet and if they could not understand that this is the proclamation of the Prophet and Ali or Hossein (Peace be upon them) that was made by them, the emergence of such a movement and revolution was impossible in our country.
Imam was elected as the leader not only because he had been qualified as a leader but also he was in line with people in terms of demands and attitudes. In other words, although Imam had a lot of good characters, if he acted like many others who tried to take the control of government, he could not succeed in motivating and informing the society.
Therefore, the Imam leadership is indebted to the Shia history and culture and if the main reason of the victory of the people’s revolution has been the leadership, again it must be insisted that the main reason of victory is the religion. Because the leadership motivates the people through the language of the religion and it would be impossible unless the leader was a religious authority. That is why in The Study and Analysis of Imam Khomeyni’s Movement, Motahari insists that Imam motivated the people in a way that attracted the public and coordinated the clergy with the people and adds:
In these conditions, Imam should take the role of a religious authority and adopted the first slogan of the movement as a religious frame to enjoy the deep roots of the people’s religious thought.

Warning the people, a valuable gift from the leader

One way of domestic and foreign colonialism is negligence of the people in their culture and religion. Thus, the foreign colonization and domestic despotism try to make the nations alien to their national culture and religion in order to continue their cruel domination. They also want to destruct the people’s identity in order to make them dependent so that they can despoil these nations. The west powers have always humiliated the people’ culture and religion in east, especially the Muslims, and identified their own societies as the utopian ones and dominated them in this way. It is clear that the only lifeline for the people is awakening and informing them so that they can find their identity and it was a gift given by the revolution leader to the people. When people became aware of the originality of their own religion and culture, they could defeat the regime. In other words, when the people adopted a religious attitude, they prepared themselves to go to the jail, to be exiled and to be killed, but to be saved and it was the most effective factor in the Revolution victory.

Again, Motahari states that:

The leadership could make the people familiar with their own history and culture so that they could be independent; in other words, he could tell the people that they have an independent religion and way of thinking and they can stand alone.
The leader of revolution gained the people respect and helped them to know their own Islamic identity. That was the most valuable gift that the leader gave to the public. He restored the people’s lost faith and knew Islam as the only way to save the world. He believed that Islamic jihad is a duty that should be carried out if necessary. The people who wished for years to be one of Imam Hossein’s followers, suddenly found themselves in a situation in which they could see Imam Hossein clearly and this made them to rise and rush the oppression and cruelty.
We can conclude that the most powerful and effective weapon that can be used to protect this revolution are the people’s faith and belief and restoring the real Islamic values. The superpowers are afraid of the Muslims’ awareness and consciousness. The leader of the revolution tried to make the people familiar with their own history and culture so that they become aware and conscious.
Now, the question that may be raised is that if the Shia history and culture is so effective and important, why the revolution had not been conducted in 1963, for example, during which the leader was active too?
The answer is that, in that period, the people were not quite familiar with their own history and culture. Therefore, they could not be successful even though Imam Khomeyni had been active at that time. During this period up to 1978, the leader tried to make the people familiar with their own history and culture. In an interview published in the The revolution Message Journal, Mahalati said:
On September 8, 1978, the regime wanted to run the same program they had run on June 5, 1963; therefore, they imposed curfew to control the people, but they could not be successful this time because the people had been aware and conscious this time.
In The reasons and factors effective in the Islamic revolution, Behzad Doran states that:
Now, if we want to sociologically interpret the Imam’s point of view on the Islamic revolution, it can be said that awareness of the real Islam among the people makes them to develop spiritually and pay attention exclusively to God, martyrdom, sacrifice and union. These factors as well as the weakness of the regime prepared the conditions for the revolution victory.

3 The revolution slogans

One the obvious manifestations of the Shia culture in this revolution is its surprising reflection on the slogans. These slogans had not been dictated by anybody, but had been inspired from the depth of the people’s Islamic mind. As the author of Sun Interpretation said:
These slogans were not some ordinary statements, but billing blood that had been transformed to some words. In all revolutions, the slogans that motivated a large number of people, have always been more expressive because these statements come from the heart of people and return back to their hearts.
The most well-known slogans of revolution in Iran were “God is Great, Khomeyni is the leader”, “Hossein motivates us, Khomeyni lead us”, “The Iran army is all from Hossein, out leader is Khomeyni”, “Khomeyni who is iconoclast, told to the people that this regime is wicked, worse than Yazid “God, Quran, Khomeyni”, “Independence, Freedon, Islamic Republic”, etc. that not only determine the system of government and leadership, but also liken the Shah to Yazid and Imam to Imam Hossein.
One of the goals of the revolution was to use Shia traditions in order to achieve the revolution goals. The chronological study of the Islamic revolution shows the significance of the Shia history and culture for the revolution victory. Based on this study, it becomes evident that the ups and downs of revolutionary movements have been in Muharram and Ashura.
Prof. Kedi said:
Commemoration of the Forties is one of the best examples of using the Shia traditions in order to achieve political goals. Such a ceremony could not be avoided by the government because this could lead to another commemoration.
The huge demonstrations against the regime during the revolution were organized on religious days of Shia, like al-Fitr Eid, Tasoa and Ashurain the last days of the revolution that broke the government backs. Therefore, the language of revolution, its leadership, days and events and finally its slogans are all influenced by the Shia history and culture at its greatest extent.

4 the revolution properties can be found in the constitution

A brief review of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran shows that the revolution is not only greatly influenced by the Shia history and culture, but also a manifestation of this history and culture. Here, we mention some of these principles:
A. Article II of the constitution: the constitution is a system based on the faith, etc.
1. The justice of God in creation and legislation, 2. The continuous leadership and its role in continuation of the revolution, 3. The dignity and the true value of human.... a) continuous ijtihad of the religious authorities based on Quran and Imams’ traditions.
B. The fifty-seventh article: where it divide the country powers into 3 parts, it adds:
These powers are in control of the leadership.
C. The hundred and tenth article
It is one of the most important articles of the constitution that is related to the rights and duties of the leadership. Regarding the importance of this article, the founder of the Islamic Republic had a great emphasis on it and considered it as the key factor to preserve this Islamic state and said: if you want to preserve the country, support the leadership. It is evident that his emphasis was not on himself, but he considers observing this principle as the guarantee that preserves this revolution.
These principles and many others not only are influenced by the Shia history and culture, but also are the real ideas of the Shia that have been transformed into legal principles.

5 The leader’s point of view on the revolution

The study of lectures and statements released by the leader and religious authorities, especially the divine-political testament of Imam Khomeyni shows that the Islamic Revolution of Iran is mostly influenced by the Shia history and culture. These statements and lectures released by the religious authorities were considered as a kind of instruction for their followers within which there are the expressions and terms that have been adopted from the Shia culture.
Imam Khomeyni, for example, appreciated the martyrs of the September 8, 1978 and said:
Yes, it is the same way that Imam Ali and Imam Hossein (peace be upon them) follow.
On the other hand, he likened what demonstrators and fighters for liberty do to the Imam Ali’s insurrection against Muawiyah and compared the martyrs with the martyrs of the Battle of Siffin . He reproached the general massacre and called the Shah as Yazid and the nation as the followers of Quran and Islam and added:
This nation is the follower of the greatest man of the history who set the mass movement of Ashura with just few people and buried the Umayyad Caliphate in the cemetery of history. The followers of Imam Ali can demolish the cruel dynasty of Pahlavi, God willing.
Imam answered the question how he has surprised the world:
The victory of our revolution originates from Islam.... our movement is religious in all aspects and policy is included in it.
The divine political testament of Imam Khomeyni is full of the statements that insist on the influence of the Shia history and culture on the revolution and consider the revolution as the reflection of these two factors.

6 The authors and researchers’ point of view

The foreign and domestic authors and researchers, who studied the Islamic Revolution impartially, all admit that there are many religious elements influencing every aspects of the revolution.
The author of The Sun Interpretation said:
That was the ideology of the Shia that determined the results of the Islamic Revolution..... And this is the most important ideology of the revolution.
Hossein al-Zin said: In Iran, the religion, especially the Shia, is the most important reason for victory of the revolution.
And as Motahari said: When the people rose up for justice, freedom or independence, they want to achieve them based on Islamic beliefs.
Fisher said: The form of revolution was indebted to the religious traditions of people’s protests.
And finally, as Khamenei said:
Two factors were important in the capture of Khoramshahr; first, the people’s faith and belief and second, the commanders were trained based on religious beliefs and attitudes.

7 The manifestation of the Shia history and culture in the 8- year war against Iraq

The manifestation of the Shia history and culture and the Karbal event in the war against Iraq is clear and does not need further explanations. Love for martyrdom and sacrifice that are two memorials of the Karbala event motivated the revolutionary youth.
As he revolution achieved its victory through an attitude based on the Shia history and culture, the same attitude should be adopted in order to preserve and maintain it. If another way was taken, as it was the case when Banisadr was the president, the revolution could not be survived. And this was that attitude which guaranteed the survival of the revolution.
The features of the wars against Iraq are relatively like the Ashura movement’s. The criteria for movement and jihad must be performing the divine duties and this is a truth shared by Ashura and the 8- year war. Encouraging the youth by their mothers to help the Imam is a lesson induced by encouraging Vahab and others by their mothers to follow Imam Hossein and be martyred.
During the 8- year war, the movement of the mass of people, participating the people from all social strata in defending the country, not bein concerned with increasing the power and capturing booties, the resistance of the leader and his followers to stresses created by the opposition groups are some examples of the influences of the Shia history and culture, especially the Ashura movement, on the revolution.

8 Hostility and cultural struggle of arrogant powers against the revolution

The reason of the hostility of the arrogant powers towards the revolution is that the Islamic Revolution of Iran has enjoyed the Shia high culture that has always been against the oppression and demonstrated the futility of atheistic school of the East and the arrogant nature of the West. Therefore, after trialing many ways to abolish the revolution, they have rushed to our culture and try to make the revolution values seem futile because they know that with these values, they can not exercise their influence on our country.
One of the CIA officials, David Que, said: The best we can do to abolish the Islamic Republic is to change the current culture of Iran society and we are determined to do so.
An anti-revolution writer said: We do not struggle with the Islamic Republic politically, but culturally because our strategy is to struggle culturally. We must change the people’s attitudes and culture to be able to invalidate the Islamic Republic.
Another said: We should start this round of fighting with cultural struggle, in all aspects, theater, cinema, athletics, art, drawing, etc.
Thus, today, the only way to continue the revolution process is to take defensive measures, that is, focusing on our own cultural values, having self-reliance and being sensitive to any activity opposite of the revolution process and the leadership.
Prof. Molana who teaches in universities in the U.S. said in this regard:
If we depend on oil, gas and other natural resources in our foreign policies, we will be defeated because the things I mentioned are what others have too, and the only thing that we have, others do not have it, the enemies, especially the U.S, are afraid of and is our trump card is our dependence on the revolution and its consequences. If we ignore this advantage, we will be like others because the main goal of the west, especially the U.S. is to control our revolution and they try to establish communication with us and claim that the Iran revolution is under their control and they do not need Iran any more.