The Western media, in particular, has cast Iran variously as an outlaw country or an outcast but seldom as a normal country, as least since the demise of the Shah or Iran. The United States doesn't cotton to countries falling out of its sphere of influence, particularly if they happen to possess substantial oil reserves, as Iran does, and contain important listening posts on Russia. Add to that a fundamentalist Muslim regime, and the result is an outlaw or outcast label. Yet, could Iran perhaps represent the wave of the future for Muslim countries? Does the label itself tell more about the labellers than about Iran? This book presents papers which present facets of Iran's political activities which might not normally reach Western readers.