[yubblegum]

Nothing baffling about it. Religion was used by a clerical class to marshall the lumpen masses with promises of free handouts in this world and paradise in the next. Their own thinking set (of the ruling clique) are bound by ideology - whether as matter of actual belief or means of governance - so they do not make any decisions based on national interest or reason. It is the ideology that does the 'thinking'.

(Sounds familiar? Warning bells for other locals, maybe? ..)

Most educated Iranians you know, btw, are (drum roll) in diaspora, for good reasons.