Politics of the Middle East Q&A

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Answers to Questions

Karl Marx labeled religion as the sigh of the oppressed creature , the heart of the heartless , and the soul of soulless conditions . Religion is the opiate of the masses . According to Karl Marx , religion is a creation of capitalism . It is the apparatus by which the ruling class expresses its will - it is in , general , the instrument used by the capitalist state to suppress the masses . Religion teaches virtue , respect for authority , and religious fatalism - things which are necessary to `tame

br and `civilize ' the masses . By taming the masses , the ruling class would be able to control the affairs of the state , expand their economic base and deprive the proletariat the means to production . Marx 's critique of capitalism necessarily applies to the West and Christianity

However , in some Middle East countries , Marx 's proposition is inapplicable . An example of which is Iran . Before the Iranian Revolution of 1979 , the state of Iran functioned more or less like a capitalist state . King Shah Pahlavi allied Iran with the West in order to seek more investments for the country . Ayatollah Khomeini , the leader of fundamentalist Moslems , accused Pahlavi of heresy and initiated a revolution . The king was overthrown . Khomeini became the supreme leader of the newly established Islamic Republic . According to Lee , much of Khomeini 's support came from the youth and the working class . Khomeini 's call to jihad forced the king to abdicate . From the Iranian experience religion is not an...