A Sociological Study of the Different Positions of Islamists in Contemporary Revolutions:(Case Study of 2011 Tunisia Revolutionary Movement and Islamic Revolution of Iran)

The presence of the element of religion in the occurrence of revolutions always determines the kind of worldview of nations to social values and norms. The worldview in the occurrence of the Islamic Revolution of Iran originated from Islamic culture, which led to emergence of such groups as Ennahda Movement in Tunisia led by Rashid al-Ghannushi due to the diffusion and spread of spiritual influence of Iran’s revolution in the 2011 events in Arab countries. The main purpose of this paper is to study the role of Islamists as religious activists compared to non-Islamic forces. Therefore, to study the role of Islamists in the occurrence of the Iranian and Tunisian revolutions, their position in the context of a conceptual framework consisting of ideology, mobilization, leadership, and organization has been studied. This research is a qualitative research employing historical-comparative method. The findings of this study show that in the Islamic Revolution, the Islamists, by adopting an Islamic ideological policy, were able to take over the leadership and organization of the mobilization of forces and ascended to power by gathering other revolutionary dissidents under their banner. But the Tunisian revolutionary movement has been accompanied by a relatively democratic process