got deeply involved in the Middle East, or was even a world power. Great Britain, in particularly, was seen by many in the ME as more or less the same bunch of White Christians as the USA, and since the UK sort of stepped aside and turned things over to the US (which came out of WWI much stronger than its ally), it appears to many opposed to "the West" that US intervention was an unbroken continuation of UK intervention. US gets blamed for things that the UK did, which US and UK were often partnered in.
Constitutional Revolution and the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty
The Persian Constitutional Revolution between 1905 and 1911 led to the establishment of an Iranian parliament.[94] After the 1921 coup d'etat, the Qajar dynasty was replaced with the Pahlavi dynasty.[95] The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah, who established an authoritarian government that valued nationalism, militarism, secularism and anti-communism combined with strict censorship and state propaganda.[96] Reza Shah introduced many socio-economic reforms, reorganizing the army, government administration, and finances.[97] Reza Shah ruled for almost 16 years until 1941, when he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.
To his supporters, his reign brought "law and order, discipline, central authority, and modern amenities -- schools, trains, buses, radios, cinemas, and telephones."[98] However, his reign has been characterized as a corrupt police state which provided only surface level modernization.[98][99][100]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran#20th_century_up_to_the_Iranian_Revolution/excerpt]
Russia/Soviet Union occupied about the northern third of Iran, GB the southern third. The two acted together to end the era of parliamentary rule and install a friendly dictator. Later GB and the American CIA colluded to install the second Shah, which eventually led to the Iranian Revolution of 1979 due to his repressive, West-facing policies. So Iran has a good deal of resentment toward meddling Westerners. Doesn't excuse the actions of their theocratic dictators, but it's important to know where some of the public's embrace of the fundies comes from.
ETA: And all this is without even mentioning the
Anglo-Persian/Iranian Oil Company, which the UK used almost as an arm of the gov't.
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