Bernard Lewis, sage and much-maligned originator of the phrase "Clash of Civilizations", and author of Islam: What Went Wrong? has suggested that Islam has been, in a certain sense, Westernized and Christianized, by the adoption of a hierarchical ecclesiastical structure akin to that of the medieval Roman Catholic church. And, having "caught a Western disease", he has suggested the Western solution brought about the protestant Reformation: separation of the powers of church and state.

Guess who's jumped on that bandwagon? Does the name Ayatollah Khomeni ring a bell? Recently, the current Kohmeni, grandson of the man who helped depose the Shah of Iran, from Najaf in Iraq, has said:

Iran needed "a democratic regime that does not make use of religion as a means of oppressing the people and strangling society." He noted further that it was necessary "to separate the religion from the state," and "to put an end to the tyrannical rule of religion that was reminiscent of the rule of the Church during Europe's Dark Ages," and that "All those who took control of the centers of power of Iran after my grandfather are exploiting his name, the name of Islam, and the religious regime so as to continue their tyrannical rule."

Bernard Lewis thinks such a thing is doable. Now, so does a prominent Imam. Turkey pulled it off for a while. Good things can be formed in the furnace of suffering: perhaps Iran's pain will some day give birth to a new freedom. I vaccilate between doubt and hope: I guess the future will tell.