What is the current status of the Islamic revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power in 1979? The question is now central to the situation in a Middle East defined today by tremendous evolution, particularly since the American intervention in Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein. Iran was the spearhead of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism; that movement’s future, and the debate currently raging in Teheran between conservatives and reformers, is now the focal point of much speculation. Ramine Kamrane queries this distinction, and shows the impasse that religious power is currently foundering in. He describes its failures and analyses their causes in great detail. Above all, he highlights the deep divide separating the country’s leaders from a society worn out by politico-religious rhetoric. Furthermore, this book makes apparent the limits of an evolution towards a moderate Islamic regime that many are calling for or consider as a viable solution. What Iranians are waiting for, what the country’s youth desires overwhelmingly, is a separation of Church and State, in other words, a return to a secular government. Above and beyond Iran itself – which has often been a precursor to, and set the tone for, the region’s transformations – the outcome will affect the entire Muslim world.