Iran’s revolutionaries imitated Robespierre and Stalin, not Islamic models

Evidence

While their symbols and allusions are Islamic rather than European, the leaders and practitioners of the revolution have found their models of style and method in European history. The summary trial and exe­ cution of great numbers of ideologically defined enemies; the driving into exile of hundreds of thousands of men and women; the large-scale confiscation of pri­ vate property; the mixture of repression and subversion, of violence and indoc­ trination that accompanied the consolidation of power—all this owes far more to the examples of Robespierre and Stalin than to those of Muhammad and Ali. These methods are deeply un-Islamic; they are, however, thoroughly revolutionary. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1509

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapter on the French Revolution / Reign of Terror framing in this same survey, and to the general pattern of revolutionary terror borrowing across civilizations.
• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘revolutionary’ method actually means as a category: terror, exile, confiscation, indoctrination — regardless of stated ideology.