The gravest exestential threat to Iran and the Islamic Republic has never been external, it has always come from within. At the heart of this threat lies a long-standing policy of dividing citizens into "insiders" and "outsiders," a strategy the Iranian state has pursued with considerable success.
The first group consists of those loyal to the system: individuals and networks who depend economically on the state, present themselves as guardians of Islam and religious values, and have imposed an anti-imperialist and anti-democratic ideology on society.
