1979 Iranian Revolution conspiracy theory


A number of observers, including the Shah, have written of rumours and allegations that the government of the United Kingdom has secretly supported "mullahs" in recent Iranian history, and in particular the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in his successful overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It is alleged that the 1979 Iranian revolution is a Western response to the Pahlavi's White revolution which was intended to bring benefits to Iran and its people, but was unfavorable to the landlords, clergy and the United States and UK that feared that Iran will become independent, thus hampering their further involvement and control of Iranian petroleum.
Khomeini rejected the charges, claiming it was the Shah who was a who had prevented the establishment of Islamic government in Iran until the revolution.

Beliefs of Iranian public

BBC Persian journalist Hossein Shahidi has talked about "the deep-rooted belief" among Iranians "that Britain is behind every move in Iran," and in particular that the BBC radio is "credited with, or accused of, having brought about the downfall of" both Pahlavi kings, Mohammad Reza Shah and his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi whose thirty-seven-year rule was brought to an end by the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79.
A survey of Iranian expatriates in Southern California found the leading explanation for the 1979 revolution to be foreign plots,
as did a recent survey in Isfahan.
A sinister connection between British India, the Iranian flag created after Iranian Islamic revolution, and Khomeini's ancestry, has been put forth by some secular Iranians who opposed the revolution, according to Iranian author Hooman Majd. Khomeini's paternal grandfather was an Indian who immigrated to Iran in the early nineteenth century when India was a British colony. The stylized `Allah` on the post-Revolutionary Iranian flag, bears "a remarkable similarity to the symbol of the Sikhs," whose historic homeland is the Punjab. Majd himself is unconvinced by the resemblance, seeing the issue instead as reflective of "my compatriot's love of and insatiable appetite for conspiracy theories." Khomeini has also been accused of having had a British father. According to an article in Persian Journal mentioned in Forbes.com and elsewhere, Khomeini may have been the son of British adventurer William Richard Williamson, a convert to Islam known to Arab Muslims as Haji Abdullah al-Zobair.

John F. Kennedy and Democratic Party

US Supreme Court Justice William Douglas a close confidant of President John F. Kennedy confirmed the President's dislike for the Shah of Iran and remarked that the Shah "was not the person we could trust." Douglas noted that President Kennedy hoped to overthrow the Iranian monarchy in favor of a liberal republic. Kennedy was angered by reports of that the Shah's government had been secretly funneling in cash donations to President Nixon's 1960 campaign against Kennedy. Within the first few months of office, Kennedy had suspended arms sales to Iran, diverted aid from the country, and ordered US policy towards Iran to be reevaluated. Kennedy's pressure on Iran led to escalating tensions and the rise of the Libration Movement of Iran cofounded by Mehdi Bazargan who later became a pivotal figure in the Iranian Revolution. According to historian Andrew Scott Cooper, Bazargan was inspired by Kennedy's rhetoric towards Iran.

Islamic Revolution

British Petroleum

According to a book by F. William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, a conspiracy to overthrow the Shah was hatched by the British and Americans in 1978 coinciding with the Iranian Revolution.
When "negotiations... under way between the Shah's government and British Petroleum for renewal of the 25-year old extraction agreement... collapsed". According to Engdahl, the end of the agreement meant "Iran appeared on the verge of independence in its oil sales policy for the first time since 1953." To prevent this independence, Engdahl claims "American 'security' advisers to the Shah's SAVAK secret police implemented a policy of ever more brutal repression" against anti-Shah demonstrators, while American President Carter "cynically began protesting abuses of 'human rights'" caused by the American advisers policy. The British Petroleum company "reportedly" organized a "capital flight" from Iran," and so on.

Claims by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

himself asserted that, "If you lift up Khomeini's beard, you will find MADE IN ENGLAND written under his chin," in the later days of his reign as monarch. This statement by Pahlavi was an adaptation of another saying, "If you lift a mullah's beard, you will find 'Made in Britain' stamped on his chin."

1978 ''Ettela'at'' article

On 7 January 1978, the state news agency Ettela'at also published an article accusing Khomeini of being a British agent and a "mad Indian poet."
According to the article
These days thoughts turn once again to the colonialism of the black and the red, that is to say, to old and new colonialism.

Black referring to feudal forces and red to communist ones. The two groups allegedly had formed an alliance to sabotage the monarchy's modernization project. The article went on to say that when this alliance went looking for a clerical mouthpiece two decades ago to dupe the devout.
Ruhollah Khomeini was an appropriate agent for this purpose. It was said that he had spent time in India and was in contact there with institutions of English colonialism, and this is how he became known by the name `Seyyed Hindi`

The article further suggested that Khomeini's opposition to the shah was prompted and paid for by British oil interests.
Supporters of the Khomeini, outraged by the article, organized violent demonstrations in response, which eventually snowballed into the Iranian Revolution and led to the flight of the Shah about a year later.

Post-revolution

Engdahl quotes Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as blaming not the British but the Americans for his overthrow.
I did not know it then – perhaps I did not want to know – but it is clear to me now that the Americans wanted me out. Clearly this is what the human rights advocates in the State Department wanted … What was I to make of the Administration's sudden decision to call former Under Secretary of State George Ball to the White House as an adviser on Iran? … Ball was among those Americans who wanted to abandon me and ultimately my country.