Again, the case of Iran seems best: previous to the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran, in 1979, the rule of the Shah was one of the most 'modern' of the entire region. Assimilation of American and European elements of culture later led, however, to an extreme return to Islamic value and rule. .

             The export of the Iranian Revolution was later attempted in nearby states of the region, especially in Iraq, in Syria or Algeria and the only reason that it failed to materialize to the degree it had in Iran was that the international power did not see it as strategically fit. On the other hand, the fact that political Islam or the political component of Islam had significant sympathies in the area must have relied on something, a common element in all regions of the Broader Middle East and Northern Africa.

             This was strictly related to post-colonialism and to the conditions that developed in this area after the collapse of the British and French Empires, after the Second World War. Naturally, the void of power that was produced in the region had to be filled with something. In countries like Egypt, Syria or Iraq, an experimental Arab socialism was attempted2, relying on the friendship and advice from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Its failure left, in many cases, "massive corruption and overreliance on coercion"3. Iraq comes to mind as the best example, but Egypt has never enjoyed democratic conditions after obtaining its independence. We may thus conclude that, in some Islamic states, post-colonialism was assimilated to experiments meant to determine the best governance for the future. Many of these have failed, including socialism assimilation attempts (Syria, Iraq), nationalistic approaches (Egypt) or Western approaches (the Shah rule in Iran). The void that occurred in many cases was filled with political Islam (Iran). In other cases, a third way was chosen, like in Egypt, for example.