What events returned Iran to Muslim control in 1979?

Answer 1

In the middle of the 20th century Iran was on the road to becoming a secular Democracy. In 1951 the Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq moved to nationalize Iranian oil. In response to this in 1953 the governments of the United Kingdom and the US sponsored a coup, known as Operation AJAX, which overthrew the Prime Minister and instated the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Shah was strongly supported by- some say of puppet of- the United States. His reign was known for its brutality, corruption, and forced Westernization. The period from the 1953 coup to the Islamic Revolution in 1979 was a time of great radicalization. The 1979 revolution transformed Iran from a Monarchy to an Islamic Republic.

-Answered by a PhD candidate in American History.

Answer 2

The ISLAMIC REVOLUTION OF 1979 put the Ayatollahs, Shiite Islamic Clerics, in power. This came when the Iranian people, most of them traditional or secular Muslims revolted all across Iran and managed to overthrow the secular autocracy led by Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi. Unfortunately, the Ayatollahs, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were able to consolidate power and create the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran which vested the Religious Fundamentalists with political power.

However, we should note that the phrasing of the question is inaccurate. The Shah's government was entirely run by Muslims; they just happened to be Secular Muslims. By contrast Ayatollah Khomeini and his successors in the Islamic Republic were Islamists, or theocratic Muslims. Secular Muslims are still Muslims, so the Iranian government was never in Non-Muslim control, even when that Shah was in power. The Rise of the Islamists simply means that Islam now became government policy.