Ruhollah Khomeini





Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (May 17, 1900 - June 3, 1989) was an Iranian
Shiite fundamentalist cleric and spiritual leader of the 1979 revolution
that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the then Shah of Iran. He is
considered to be the founder of the modern Shiite State.

He was born in the town of Khomein as Ruhollah Mousavi in 1902. Khomeini was
named an ayatollah in the 1950s. In 1964 he was exiled from Iran for his
constant criticisms of the government. He fled to Iraq, where he stayed
until being forced to leave in 1978, after which he went to France. He
returned to Iran on February 1, 1979, invited by a revolution already in
progress against the Shah, and seized power on February 11 (it was later
claimed by his supporters that over 98% of the population were in favour of
it, though independent observers question the number). From then on an
Islamic Republic was formed in which a president is elected every 4 years.
Only those candidates approved by the ayatollahs may run for the office.
Khomeni himself became Head of State for life, as "Leader of the
Revolution," and later "Supreme Spiritual Leader."

On February 4, 1980 Khomeini named Abolhassan Bani-Sadr as the first
president of Iran.

Khomeini's rule quickly ended the westernized society that had existed under
the Shah. Shia Islamic Law was instituted, strict dress code became the law
and enforced for both men and women. Women lost many of their rights as
equal citizens, and freedom of speech and press continued to be curtailed.
Khomeni became the center of a large personality cult, and opposition to the
religous rule or Islam in general was often met with very harsh punishments.
In the immediate aftermath of the revolution there were widespread
allegations of systematic human rights abuses, including torture.

Early in the revolution in the years of 1979 - 1981, Khomeini's followers
held 52 Americans captive in Tehran's US embassy, holding them hostage for
444 days. Khomeini stated on February 23, 1980 that Iran's parliament would
decide the fate of the American embassy hostages. President Jimmy Carter
attempted to rescue the hostages, but this failed when the helicopters sent
on this mission failed under desert conditions. Some Iranians considered
this to be a miracle. Many commentators point to this failure as a major
cause of Carter's loss in the following elections to Ronald Reagan.

Shortly after taking power, Khomeini began calling for similar Islamic
revolutions across the Middle East. Fearful of the threat of the spread of
Khomeini's militant brand of Shiism, the republic of Iraq, led by Saddam
Hussein, invaded Iran, effectively starting what would become a decade-long
Iran-Iraq war.

In early 1989 Khomeini ordered the killing of Salman Rushdie for blasphemy
(the religious crime of prohibited speech). The Satanic Verses, Rushdie's
novelistic examination of the integration of Indian characters into modern
Western culture, contains passages which can be read as implying, amongst
other things, that the Koran has not been preserved perfectly. This event
caused many Western leftists, who had been generally in favor of the
revolution against the Shah, to reconsider their support of Khomeini.

After eleven days in a hospital for an operation to stop internal bleeding,
Khomeini died. A crowd of more than a million Iranians gathered around the
burial location which was not supposed to be revealed at the time. Khomeini
is considered by some as one of the most influential men (for good or bad)
of the 20th century, and was name Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1980.

Quotes concerning Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic revolution

   * Michel Foucault speculated at the time of the Iranian revolution that
     "Islamic government" could initiate a new "political spirituality" and
     herald a "transfiguration" of the world, the sort unknown in the West
     since the rise of modernity.
   * "The Islamic Revolution of Iran presented a new example of perfect
     human beings and society... This is the reason behind the West's enmity
     towards it. Khomeini gave a new meaning to the lives of the Iranians."
     - Roger Garaudy, French intellectual and Holocaust denier
   * "Imam Khomeini and the Iranian nation performed a great historical act.
     In my opinion, as a western and non-Muslim person, I believe, it is a
     miracle that a divine revolution in today's world takes place in such a
     manner." - Robert Kalson, Canadian scientist
   * "The Islamic Revolution of Iran is honourable for it is the cry which
     has its origin in Ayatullah Khomeini's conscience." - William Wersey,
     American author and journalist
   * "One should express his viewpoint regarding what he performed in his
     country and in a vast part of the world with great respect and deep
     thought." - Pope John Paul II
   * "The name of Khomeini will always remain in the new chapter of Iranian
     history." - Erich Honecker, East German Communist Leader
   * "What he [Stalin] did in Russia we have to do in Iran. We, too, have to
     do a lot of killing. A lot." - Behzad, Iranian interpreter for Western
     journalist V.S. Naipaul
   * "Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion
     ... faith in the power of words." - Norman Mailer, at a meeting of
     authors regarding the fatwa, New York City, February 1989
   * "The freedom-lovers of the world mourn the sad demise of Imam
     Khomeini." - Ernesto Cardinal, Nicaraguan combatant scholar
   * "I thought using the Ayatollah's money to support the Nicaraguan
     resistance was a neat idea." - Oliver North

Quotes from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

   * "Americans are the great Satan, the wounded snake. "
   * "In Islam, the legislative power and competence to establish laws
     belong exclusively to God Almighty."
   * "The author of the Satanic Verses book, which is against Islam, the
     Prophet and the Koran, and all those involved in its publication who
     were aware of its content, are sentenced to death. I ask all Moslems to
     execute them wherever they find them."
   * "If one permits an infidel to continue in his role as a corrupter of
     the earth, his moral suffering will be all the worse. If one kills the
     infidel, and this stops him from perpetrating his misdeeds, his death
     will be a blessing to him."
   * "Familiarize the people with the truth of Islam so that the young
     generation may not think that the men of religion in the mosques of Qum
     and al-Najaf believe in the separation of church from state, that they
     study nothing other than menstruation and childbirth and that they have
     nothing to do with politics.
   * Christian, Jewish and Baha'i missionary centers are spread in Tehran to
     deceive people and to lead them away from the teachings and principles
     of religion. Isn't it a duty to destroy these centers?"
   * "All those against the revolution must disappear and quickly be
     executed" (as reported by dissident cleric Agha Hossein Ali Montazeri,
     once in line to be Iran's supreme leader)