Mohsen Sazegara

Would you say it's 60%?

Would you say it's 60%?

You ask me a question, I give you my answer. When you are talking about brainwashing, definitely you should have the tools for that. Propaganda. Especially now, we have social media that can create political turbulence. That is a new era, by the way. And mass media. In Iran, during the Shah, the exclusive state-run TV belonged to Shah.

You ask me a question, I give you my answer. When you are talking about brainwashing, definitely you should have the tools for that. Propaganda. Especially now, we have social media that can create political turbulence. That is a new era, by the way. And mass media. In Iran, during the Shah, the exclusive state-run TV belonged to Shah.

There was no propaganda for the Islamists who wanted to come to power, except the mosques and the mullahs that they were, you know, and blah, blah, blah. I mean, when you look at a huge event like Islamic revolution, I believe that revolutions are not produced by one person or a group of people, revolutions are a big social events that happen.

There was no propaganda for the Islamists who wanted to come to power, except the mosques and the mullahs that they were, you know, and blah, blah, blah. I mean, when you look at a huge event like Islamic revolution, I believe that revolutions are not produced by one person or a group of people, revolutions are a big social events that happen.

You can go and say, so far it has been written more than 1,000 books in Western countries about Islamic revolution. You can go and find the roots of the idea of Islamism get the power by Muslims to be for constitutional revolution of Iran. From this point of view, Islamic revolution in Iran is a part of a bigger event in the whole region of the Middle East and Islamic countries. Why?

You can go and say, so far it has been written more than 1,000 books in Western countries about Islamic revolution. You can go and find the roots of the idea of Islamism get the power by Muslims to be for constitutional revolution of Iran. From this point of view, Islamic revolution in Iran is a part of a bigger event in the whole region of the Middle East and Islamic countries. Why?

Because after the decline of Ottoman Empire for the first time, Islamic nations found out that, oh, they are under power of colonialism. So they started to, and their confrontation with modern world, they started to say that, OK, what can we do? What should we do? And I think that in mid-'50s Muslim Brotherhood that was founded in Egypt

Because after the decline of Ottoman Empire for the first time, Islamic nations found out that, oh, they are under power of colonialism. So they started to, and their confrontation with modern world, they started to say that, OK, what can we do? What should we do? And I think that in mid-'50s Muslim Brotherhood that was founded in Egypt

And the famous book written by Sayyid Qutb, or Qutb, they call him here, his famous book, 20th Century Ignorance, in that book, Sayyid Qutb says that, okay, why should we try to reach the Western civilization? Mm-hmm. We should get rid of that. That's the ignorance. They are brutals. They are criminals.

And the famous book written by Sayyid Qutb, or Qutb, they call him here, his famous book, 20th Century Ignorance, in that book, Sayyid Qutb says that, okay, why should we try to reach the Western civilization? Mm-hmm. We should get rid of that. That's the ignorance. They are brutals. They are criminals.

We should go back to genuine Islam that is Islam of the prophet and companions or in Shi'ism, prophet and imams. Then we will have paradise on the earth and we will become powerful again. And we will not be under control of the Western countries. That idea from 50s spread in all the Islamic countries. And so far, that idea of Sayyid al-Khattab is still

We should go back to genuine Islam that is Islam of the prophet and companions or in Shi'ism, prophet and imams. Then we will have paradise on the earth and we will become powerful again. And we will not be under control of the Western countries. That idea from 50s spread in all the Islamic countries. And so far, that idea of Sayyid al-Khattab is still

the belief of all the fundamentalists, like ISIS, Daesh, or Al-Qaeda, or Islamic Republic of Iran, that if we go back to Islamic shariat, Islamic faith, the Islam of the prophet and the first years of Islam, then not only we create paradise on the earth, But we become powerful and we can come from the Western civilization. That's one of the roots of Islamic revolution.

the belief of all the fundamentalists, like ISIS, Daesh, or Al-Qaeda, or Islamic Republic of Iran, that if we go back to Islamic shariat, Islamic faith, the Islam of the prophet and the first years of Islam, then not only we create paradise on the earth, But we become powerful and we can come from the Western civilization. That's one of the roots of Islamic revolution.

Gradually from 50s and 60s, it became a dominant idea. The second part that gradually came to Iran was go back to 60s, for instance, and early 70s. Ideological revolutionary ideas, leftist ideas, that was dominant in intellectuality of not only Iran, but even in the US. I was studying in the US in 1975 till 1978. Especially European countries, you were not intellectual if you were not leftists.

Gradually from 50s and 60s, it became a dominant idea. The second part that gradually came to Iran was go back to 60s, for instance, and early 70s. Ideological revolutionary ideas, leftist ideas, that was dominant in intellectuality of not only Iran, but even in the US. I was studying in the US in 1975 till 1978. Especially European countries, you were not intellectual if you were not leftists.

ideological leftist ideas became dominant. I can borrow the word from Thomas Cone, paradigm. the era of some discourses, that was a revolutionary paradigm. Everybody thought that, OK, if we make a revolution, everything will be solved. That was so powerful idea that Mohammad Reza Shah himself calls his reforms as white revolution.

ideological leftist ideas became dominant. I can borrow the word from Thomas Cone, paradigm. the era of some discourses, that was a revolutionary paradigm. Everybody thought that, OK, if we make a revolution, everything will be solved. That was so powerful idea that Mohammad Reza Shah himself calls his reforms as white revolution.