the 1955 attacks were particularly destructive and widespread due to an orchestrated campaign by the government and clergy who utilized the national iranian radio station and its official newspapers to spread hatred which led to widespread mob violence against baháʼís. the shah's military also occupied the baháʼí centre in tehran, which was destroyed in the violence. mottahedeh states that under the pahlavi dynasty, the baháʼís were actually more a "political pawn" than a collaborator, and that reza shah's government toleration of baháʼís in the early 20th-century was more a sign of secular rule and an attempt to weaken clerical influence than a signal of favour for the baháʼís.