January 16, 1979
In what would become a major shift in Middle Eastern politics, Iran’s secular leader, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, sick and under pressure at home, flees into exile opening the door for Iran to be taken over by a charasmatic religious leader. Iran, over the next four decades, becomes a cauldron for the use of political Islam as a platform for mobilization, slowly threatening the stability of secular Arab regimes in the region.