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In Kathleen Cahill's "The Persian Quarter," the trauma of misplaced hopes in Iran's revolution, which 30 years ago brought in the Islamic Republic, is writ large. The play also shows why Iranians have attempted ever since to oust the clergy. In its most recent outpouring last year, the Green Movement appeared until a month ago to be the most vibrant political struggle in the Middle East.

No more. With the uprising in Tunisia that overthrew long-time dictator Zine el Abedine Ben Ali, and with its spread to Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen and, most spectacularly, Egypt, the Arab world is on the march, demanding democracy, human rights and jobs.

Yet, for all the hope and enthusiasm, the worry, particularly in Washington, is that a dark side to this popular outpouring lurks in the possible hijacking of the movement by Islamic fundamentalism. Will the Arab experience not repeat what happened in Iran, when the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi led to the country's takeover by ayatollahs? That certainly has been Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's argument, and his excuse for three decades of martial law. His warning that it was either him, or the Muslim Brotherhood, was designed to instill fear both at home and abroad, and has resonated well with Western concerns.

The "either me or them" line, however, echoes an earlier mantra used by Iran's shah. In his day, it was not Islamism but communism that struck fear in the Western heart, and communism, he said, would replace him were he to fall. Ensuring against a Red Iran drove the CIA coup that put him on the throne in 1953 (as "The Persian Quarter" points out), and guaranteed him U.S. support until the bitter end. As a result, the real story of the Iranian revolution — as an organized, mosque-based movement that for years had been building the momentum to topple the Shah — was ignored until too late.

Looking at the movements in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan as what they really are — rather than as what they are feared to be — reveals broad-based popular uprisings that do not bear the Islamist imprint. The Egyptians in the streets, presumptive coalition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, and women's-rights activist Nawal El Saadawi, all state categorically that events in Cairo, Suez, and Alexandria have nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The demonstrations were started by bloggers, social media activists and al-Jazeera viewers, not by the Brotherhood. There are no Islamist banners being held up in the streets, no Islamist leaders calling the faithful to jihad.

In Iran in 1979, Islamic slogans were as common as banners calling for the Shah to go. Demonstrations marked Shia holidays, such as Ashura, and followed the 40-day Shia mourning ritual for "martyrs" killed by the army. Ayatollah Rouhollah Mousavi Khomeini and other clerics led the demonstrations through exhortations at Friday prayers. Women and men often marched separately, the women shrouded in black. From the outset, for anyone willing to read it, the writing was on the wall: Iran's revolution was Islamic.

The Arab demonstrations look nothing like those in Iran at that time. In Tunisia, Ben Ali fled with no hint that Islamist groups had contributed to his ouster. In Egypt and Jordan, women and men march side-by-side, calling for the right to vote, empowerment and human rights. For anyone willing to read the message, the writing is on the wall: The Arabs are marching because they wish for change, not Islamism.

These are the voices of people who no longer fear the slogans that if it's not dictatorship, its Islamic extremism. They, more than any Western observer, are aware that Islamism, sharia law and religious governance are as stifling as any other form of authoritarianism. The demonstrators have only to look east and see the failure of the Green Movement in post-revolution Iran to remind themselves of what they do not want.

Washington, too, needs to move on and recognize that the Arabs are marching to escape once and for all any such heavy-handedness. What the demonstrators truly are in search of is dignity, work, and freedom.

Roxane Farmanfarmaian is a visiting scholar at the Middle East Center of the University of Utah. She lived in Iran during the Revolution. The premiere of "The Persian Quarter" is Friday night, performed by the Salt Lake Acting Company.