Iran has always stood apart from the rest of the Muslim world. Far more than the Arab countries that stretch from Marrakech to Muscat, Iran has proudly, even fiercely, protected its pre-Islamic cultural heritage. If other people from Muslim lands have relocated to the West in search of money – often in the form of generous government handouts – Iranians fled the Islamic Revolution in search of freedom.
Where will the current developments in Iran lead? Will the people bring down the regime? Or will the regime impose on them an even more tyrannical order modeled on the North Korean system? Can it be that while many Muslim governments are loosening the reins on their subjects, the year 2025 will introduce into the international community a brand-new North Korea, this one nearly four times the population of the original? Is it possible, for any length of time, to force the Iranian people, well-educated and worldly as they are, to live in a hermit kingdom?