It was within this competitive environment that Khomeini worked to consolidate the power of Islamist faction At the time while many political groups operated under the wide intellectual umbrella of the nationalists (both secular and religious) ambiguity gradually gave way to polarization as nationalism stopped functioning as a distinct political category Through this turbulence the leftist and Islamist groups in their various forms quickly and controlled the political theater of revolutionary Iran However in the space of less than two years following the revolution Khomeini and his supporters purged the leftists from government and instigated a long-term comprehensive perpetual revolution to fundamentally alter all aspects of Iranian society The perpetual revolution dominated and transformed Iranian and regional geopolitics for the subsequent thirty years
The Iranian Revolution was not simply a short-term takeover of Tehran’s political machinery it was the fundamental remaking of Iranian politics and society by religious elites Islamist ideas permeated Iran’s approach to its neighbors from support for Hezbollah and other Shi’a movements to martyr operations in the Iran –Iraq war The people of Iran had long been observant Shi’a Muslims but the Iranian Revolution –like other Islamist movements in Afghanistan Eqypt and elsewhere-was a revitalization of religious identity in opposition to secular pan-Arabism the decadent Persian shah atheistic
communism and godless capitalism The initial revolution including the shah’s overthrow was led by religious clerics in association with other political messages and mosques as safe havens for political activity Ayatollah Khomeini quickly neutralized his secular his secular allies installing a theocracy under the leadership of Islamist jurists (velayat-e faqeh) and used Islamic themes to define citizenship national service (including martyrdom) and obedience to the state all of which have remained vital for more than thirty years