FLUSH WITH victory at home in 1980, Iran's new rulers turned their attention abroad. "I hope that [Iran] will become a model for all the meek and Muslim nations in the world," Ayatollah Khomeini said. His wish did not come true. No other state has adopted the concept of velayat-e faqih, or Shia clerical rule. Ali al-Sistani, the Iranian-born spiritual leader of Iraq's Shias, wants clerics to stay out of politics. When Bahrain's long-suffering Shia majority revolted in 2011 they demanded a democratic parliament, not a theocracy. Iran is broadly unpopular in the Arab world. A recent poll found that 66% of Arabs see it as a threat, below only Israel and America.
展开▼
