Florida Conservative

Religious differences are a foregone conclusion—but even within Islam, there is no unanimity beyond a shared anxiety among ruling elites: that mass ideological movements, especially those cloaked in religious legitimacy, threaten their hold on power.

The difference between Islam as a religion and Islamism as a political ideology is essential. Militant Islamists justify their political agenda by citing explicit passages from the Qur’an and Hadith.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, under the leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has defined itself as the vanguard of Islamic resistance against the West, Israel, and regional Sunni powers. Its survival and defiance are bound to a revolutionary identity that cannot accommodate visible defeat without ideological collapse.