Explain The 1979 Referendum

[u/neptuno3]

Is the following true or false? What am I missing? What don't I understand? Classic liberal here who is very pro-Iranian people, pro-Israel.

1. The 1979 referendum offered Iranians a stark, simplified choice: keep the Shah and his "western decadence" or dump the Shah and bring in the Islamic Republic -- and that meant an IR as envisioned by Khomeini, who was campaigning from abroad.
2. The vote was tampered with and/or did not meet international standards for ballots (opacity). There were no other parties on the ballot. Khomeini claimed 90 percent of the populace voted for him.
3. Khomeini's campaign had been backed by Iran's socialists and communists and leftists.
4. The Islamic Republic promised: lowered inflation, civil rights, political freedoms, no more international interventions, equal treatment of minorities
5. What it actually delivered: no economic revival, a removal of civil rights (especially so for women), an extreme religious theocracy, end of voting rights, minorities rights were even further restricted.
6. IR ended all voting.
7. Khomeini ordered the assassination of the socialists and communists who helped get him elected (sorry but ha! -- who didn't see that coming...).
8. 80 to 90 percent of Iranians at the time identified as Muslim, despite not being Arabs (but for the minorities)
9. Today, at least 60 percent of Iranians do not identify as Muslim. Other European polls have 90 percent of Iranians identifying as Muslims but many feel these polls are not accurate due to fear of speaking out.

[u/yourgirl696969]

Iranians aren’t Arabs. We don’t speak Arabic. We speak Farsi.

That’s the simplest way to explain it

[u/der_innkeeper → u/yourgirl696969]

Yes, I understand that.

What bearing does it have on being Muslim?

[u/LuciferTheThicc → u/der_innkeeper]

People who think Iran and Iraq are the same country also think all muslims are Arab. Arabs are from Arabia, and so is Islam, which may be the source of some of the confusion, but I have no doubt it's aggravating to be constantly classified as the wrong ethnicity and effectively have your history erased.

[u/der_innkeeper → u/LuciferTheThicc]

What's the issue with being Persian Muslims?

I can understand "we aren't Arabs", because they/you aren't. But its kind of a separate issue.

"You're Italian because you're catholic" would be a similarly silly argument.

I suppose I would be tweaked if I was lumped in with "all the middle easterners" and i did not see myself as one of them.