At least one scholar has described Baháʼís in Iran prior to the Islamic Republic as "a political pawn". Government toleration of Baháʼís being in accord with secular Western ideas of freedom of worship was "a way of showing mullahs who was boss." Correspondingly, since the Baháʼís were a relatively small minority and most Iranians followed traditional beliefs of Apostasy in Islam, when the government was politically weak and in need of clerical support, withdrawal of government protection to "allow active persecution of the Baháʼís," was a "low cost pawn that could be sacrificed to the mullahs". Thus during the heyday of secular ruler Reza Shah Baháʼís were protected; while in 1955, when Reza Shah's son, Muhammad Reza, needed clerical support for the Baghdad Pact and with the 1953 Iranian coup d'état only two years past, Baháʼís were attacked.