A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF REFORMS OF MUHAMMAD REZA SHAH PAHLAVI AND MUHAMMAD BIN SALMAN IN THE CONTEXT OF RELIGION

Abstract

This study is a comparative study of religious changes brought about by Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran and Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) of Saudi Arabia, and how these figures used or used religion to achieve modernization and state consolidation. The study uses a qualitative comparative historical approach that covers five dimensions of reform, which include institutional control, religious education, gender policies, legitimacy structures, and responses of the society. Primary policy documents and archival sources, as well as secondary scholarly analysis, provide data. The results show that both rulers tried to modernize very conservative societies with a strong emphasis, but their attitude to religion did not coincide. Secularization initiated by the Shah through the White Revolution, sidelined the religious institutions, leading to ideological opposition, which resulted in an Islamic Revolution in the year 1979. On the other hand, the reforms under the vision 2030 by MBS are aimed at domestication of religion, that is, encouragement of a state-defined moderation of Islam to warrant social liberalization and economic diversification. Such a comparison highlights that religious reform and not secularization is the focus of sustainable modernization in the context of the Islamic world. The issue of political stability depends on the redefinition of the role of religion in the state instead of trying to eliminate the latter. Finally, the paper concludes that the enigma of sustainable change in Muslim dominating states is the capacity to engage religious legitimacy with modernization agendas, whereby religion ceases being a barrier but rather a flexible governance tool.

Keywords: Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Muhammad bin Salman, Religious Reform, Modernization, Legitimacy, Islam and Politics, Comparative Politics.