Is God really the enemy of freedom? The Iranian revolt exposes a theocratic lie

By Prof. Hemantkumar Shah* 

Iran today sits at a dangerous crossroads, and the question many are whispering, both inside and outside the country, is disarmingly simple: Is Allah the enemy of democracy? Yet the real target of that question is not God but the people who govern in His name. Iran’s political history since the 1979 Islamic Revolution offers haunting clues as to why this question even arises.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served as Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013, once declared that Hitler’s genocide of six million Jews was a myth. It was a stunning statement not only because it contradicted overwhelming historical fact, but because it was spoken by the head of a nation-state. If Iran’s official goal is to “erase” Israel, must one bend truth to suit ideology? Can a lie be sanctified merely because it is uttered invoking Allah? Does God license falsehoods?

In 1979, Iran overthrew the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, widely seen as a U.S.-backed autocrat. The revolution promised justice, dignity, and liberation from imperial interference. What emerged, however, was the rule of the Ayatollahs. Demonstrators at the time carried a chilling banner that read: “Neither East nor West, Islam everywhere.” The slogan implied that there was no room in the world for other faiths, cultures, or moral frameworks. Islam alone—and their version of it—must dominate. If that is the creed, democratic coexistence is doomed at birth.

Ayatollah Khomeini, the architect of the revolution, chose exile in France, a secular democracy. One might ask why he did not take refuge in an Islamic country if theocratic governance is so sacred. The irony was overlooked then, but history remembers.

Four decades later, ordinary Iranians are exhausted by clerical rule. Ideology has curdled into oppression. Nowhere is the repression more brutal than in the treatment of women. Two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Shirin Ebadi in 2003 and Narges Mohammadi in 2023, won global acclaim for fighting for democracy and women’s freedom in Iran. Both paid dearly. Ebadi now lives in forced exile in Britain, and Mohammadi remains imprisoned, punished for demanding liberty rather than submission.

In 2022, a young woman named Mahsa Amini was arrested by the “morality police” for wearing her headscarf “improperly.” She died in police custody at the age of 22. Her death ignited a nationwide uprising under the electrifying slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Men marched beside women. Ordinary citizens risked everything. The government’s response was swift and savage: mass arrests, beatings, torture, disappearances.

Amnesty International’s 2024–25 report on Iran confirms hundreds jailed without trial, arbitrary killings, suffocating censorship, and near-total suppression of dissent. Yet the defenders of the regime insist that such brutality is necessary to enforce Islamic law. One must ask again: Who authorized cruelty in Allah’s name?

This repression has reached a fever pitch today. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently declared that protestors are “enemies of Allah.” But why drag the divine into political survival? These protests are directed at the state, not at God. If opposing dictatorship is equal to opposing Allah, then only two conclusions remain: either God Himself is the enemy of democracy, or rulers are weaponising faith to keep their grip on power.

Defenders of the regime predictably claim foreign conspiracy. But to believe that every Iranian woman who burns a headscarf is a CIA agent is to insult the intelligence of an entire nation. One need not accept Western interference to acknowledge that a young woman should not die for clothing choices.

Across the Muslim world, democracy is conspicuous by its absence. Of 33 Muslim-majority nations, none are true constitutional democracies; many are monarchies, military states, or outright dictatorships. Millions live without the right to dissent or even express themselves freely. One must wonder: is this a coincidence, or a systemic rejection of democratic values in the name of protecting religion?

Human rights and individual liberty are universal values, belonging to no single culture or creed. Their violation anywhere is the concern of people everywhere. When Iranians demand the freedom to think, dress, write, speak, and live without fear, they are not attacking Allah. They are reclaiming their humanity.

In truth, the question is not whether Allah is the enemy of democracy. The question is who gets to speak for Allah—and how long citizens must suffer under leaders who believe that suppressing human dignity is an act of faith.

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*Senior Gujarat-based academic