Why do atheists and liberals like Islam?

[Mister Agenda]

Maybe if the West hadn't replaced the fairly elected reformist president with the iron-fisted Shah, Iran would have stayed on the secular course it was on before the major powers rearranged things to suit themselves.

So they're complaining about Iran, after they already put someone in there that's supposed to be on their side?

The sequence of events goes: Reza Shah overthrew the pro-British Iranian government in 1921. He was elected as Prime Minister in 1923 and appointed monarch in 1925, the first democratically-elected monarch of Iran. He established a constitutional monarchy and instituted various reforms and modernizations. In 1932, Reza cancelled Iran's contract with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and expanded trade with Germany. Britain and the Soviets occupied Iran in 1941, and he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, who was considered more open to compliance Western interests.

In 1951, the PM (Mohammad Mossadagh) nationalized the oil fields, The US and Britain joined forces to orchestrate the overthrow of Mossadagh. Mohammad Reza was also a reformer, and instituted the 'White Revolution' in the Sixties to further modernize Iran. In the late Seventies, opposition to the Shah increased due to him being seen as installed by the West, abolishing the multi-party system, extravagance, charges of corruption and brutality, the imposition of a surveillance state with secret police, and economic problems. One of the leaders of the demonstrations was a cleric named Khomeini who wound up in exile.

Mohammad Reza was forced to flee Iran in 1979. The PM dissolved SAVAK, freed all political prisoners, and allowed Khomeini to return to Iran. The PM promised free elections and asked Khomeini to form a sort of mosque-centered state in the province of Qom. Khomeini didn't go along with this, but instead effectively appointed his own government and replaced the PM with his own choice; crushing all opposition, including.  And the revolutionaries held 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Ironically, the Shah died of cancer in 1980, if the revolution had been delayed by one year, things could have been very different. The PM who invited Khomeini back, Jafar Sharif-Emami, could have drastically altered the course of events by stalling Khomeini's return a few more months, IMHO.