I tend to take the view that Persia and Islam are both part of the Mesopotamian cultural matrix which includes the "West", on the argument that seen from the Indian Subcontinent or from the Far East, the Iranians and the Americans are closer than either of them is to India or China.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

More likely, advancing education and relative prosperity accompanies declining religious observance, independently of whether religion is state-sponsored or not. [numbers needed!]

Of course, heavy-handed state sponsorship may increase insincere observance as a social/political obligation, but ultimately that can only hollow out the religious aspect, just as compulsory Party membership in a one-party state kills political belief.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}