Francais | English | Espanõl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image:Unbalanced scales.svg

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Ruhollah Khomeini
<small/>
1st Supreme Leader of Iran
In office December 3 1979 – 3 June 1989
Succeeded by	Ali Khamenei
Born	17 May 1900 Image:Flag of Iran.svgKhomein, Markazi Province, Iran
Died	3 June 1989
Religion	Shia Islam

Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (listen (Persian pronunciation) (help·info)) (Persian: روح الله موسوی خمینی Arabic: روح الله الموسوي الخميني) (May 17 1900<ref name="britannica">Britannica article on Ruhollah Khomeini</ref> – June 3 1989) was a Shi`i Muslim cleric and marja, and the political leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Following the Revolution, Khomeini became Supreme Leader of Iran—the paramount figure in the political system of the new Islamic Republic—until his death.

Khomeini was considered a Marja al-taqlid to many Shi'a Muslims, and in Iran was officially addressed as Imam rather than Grand Ayatollah(even though this defeats the purpose of the Shia Imam idea in Shia Islam); his supporters adhere to this convention.^{[citation needed]} Khomeini was also a highly-influential and innovative Islamic political theorist, most noted for his development of the theory of velayat-e faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult". He was named Time's Man of the Year in 1979.

Contents 1 Family and early years 2 Early Political Activity 2.1 Opposition to the White Revolution 2.2 Opposition against capitulation 3 Life in exile 4 Supreme leader of Islamic Republic of Iran 4.1 Return to Iran 4.2 Establishment of new government 4.3 Hostage crisis 4.4 Islamic constitution 4.5 Relationship with other Islamic nations 4.6 Iran-Iraq War 4.7 Rushdie Fatwa 4.8 Letter to Mikhail S. Gorbachev 5 Life under Khomeini 6 Death and funeral 7 Successorship 8 Political thought and legacy 9 Family and descendants 10 Works 11 See also 12 Notes 12.1 Works cited 12.2 Bilbliography 13 External links

[edit] Family and early years

Image:Ayatollah Khomeini young.jpg

Ruhollah Mousavi was born to Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Musavi and Hajieh Agha Khanum, also called Hajar, in the town of Khomein, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, possibly on May 17, 1900<ref name="britannica"/> or September 24, 1902.<ref>Moin, Baqer. Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999</ref> He was a sayed from a religious family that are claimed descendents of Muhammad, through the seventh Imam, (Imam Mousa Kazem). His paternal grandfather, Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, was born in Kintur, a village in the Barabanki District of Uttar Pradesh, India. He came to Iran in 1834 and bought a house in Khomein in 1839. His third wife, Sakineh, gave birth to Mostafa in 1856. Khomeini's maternal grandfather was Mirza Ahmad Mojtahed-e Khonsari, a high-ranking cleric in central Iran. Following the grant of a monoply to a British company, he banned the usage of tobacco by Muslims. The shah canceled the concession. The event marked the beginning of the direct influence of the clergy in Iranian politics. [1]

Khomeini's father was murdered when he was five months old, and he was raised by his mother and one of his aunts. Later, when he was 15, his mother and aunt died in the same year. At the age of six he began to study the Koran, Islam's holy book, and also elementary Persian.<ref>Encyclopedia of World Biography on Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, Ayatollah</ref> He received his early education at home and at the local school, under the supervision of Mullah Abdul-Qassem and Sheikh Jaffar, and was under the guardianship of his elder brother, Ayatollah Pasandideh, until he was 18 years old. <ref>Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.</ref> Arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Esfahan, but he was attracted, instead, to the seminary in Arak, which was renowned for its scholastic brilliance under the leadership of Ayatollah Sheikh Abdol-Karim Haeri-Yazdi (himself a pupil of some of the greatest scholars of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq).

In 1921, Khomeini commenced his studies in Arak. The following year, Ayatollah Haeri-Yazdi transferred the Islamic seminary to the holy city of Qom, and invited his students to follow. Khomeini accepted the invitation, moved, and took up residence at the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom before being exiled to the holy city of Najaf in Iraq. After graduation, he taught Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia), Islamic philosophy and mysticism (Irfan) for many years and wrote numerous books on these subjects.

Although during this scholarly phase of his life Khomeini was not politically active, the nature of his studies, teachings, and writings revealed that he firmly believed from the beginning in political activism by clerics. Three factors support this suggestion. First, his interest in Islamic studies surpassed the bounds of traditional subjects of Islamic law (Sharia), jurisprudence (Figh), and principles (Usul) and the like. He was keenly interested in philosophy and ethics. Second, his teaching focused often on the overriding relevance of religion to practical social and political issues of the day. Third, he was the first Iranian cleric to try to refute the outspoken advocacy of secularism in the 1940s. His now well-known book, Kashf-e Assrar (Discovery of Secrets) was a point by point refutation of Assrar-e Hezar Saleh (Secrets of a Thousand Years), a tract written by a disciple of Iran's leading anti-clerical historian, Ahmad Kassravi.<ref>Encyclopedia of World Biography on Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, Ayatollah</ref> Also he went from Qom to Tehran to listen to Ayatollah Hassan Modarres- the leader of the opposition majority in Iran's parliament during 1920s.

Khomeini became a marja` in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi.

[edit] Early Political Activity

In this time he could represent his religiopolitical ideas openly. Because the deaths of the leading, although quiescent, Shiite religious leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Burujerdi (1961), and of the activist cleric Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani (1962) left the arena of leadership open to Khomeini, who had attained a prominent religious standing by the age of 60. In addition, although ever since the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi to power in the 1920s the clerical class had been on the defensive because of his secular and anticlerical policies and those of his son, Muhammad Reza Shah, these policies reached their peak in the early 1960s with "White Revolution".<ref>[ http://www.bookrags.com/biography/ruhollah-musavi-khomeini-ayatollah/ Encyclopedia of World Biography on Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, Ayatollah]</ref>

[edit] Opposition to the White Revolution

The White Revolution of 1963 was a turning point in the political viewpoint of Shi'a religionists. The clergy had supported Shiite monarchies since the time of the Safavids, and this was the main source of the monarchy's legitimacy. The Shiite clergy advised them, and the shahs did not enforce religious rules which restricted or threatened religious life or religious institutions, and defended the Shiite religion in Iran. Through the modernizing programs of the Pahlavi dynasty however, the Shiite public and clergy perceived a transformation of the Iranian monarchy into a modern dictatorship that placed restrictions on religious life. The White Revolution proclaimed by the Shah's government called for land reform, nationalization of the forests, the sale of state-owned enterprises to private interests, electoral changes to enfranchise women, profit sharing in industry, and an anti-illiteracy campaign in the nation's schools. All of these initiatives were regarded as dangerous, Westernizing trends by traditionalists, especially the powerful and privileged Shiite ulema ("religious scholars") who felt keenly threatened. The ulema instigated anti-government riots throughout the country. <ref>[2]</ref> They found it a sustainable ideological framework to support a particular relation of domination, in this case the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. This was above all an hegemonic project intended to portray the Shah as a revolutionary leader through the utilization of social and historical myths reinterpreted through the prism of contemporary, often conflicting ideological constructs, such as nationalism and modernism. <ref>[3]</ref>

In January 1963, the Shah announced a six-point program of reform called the White Revolution, an American-inspired package of measures designed to give his regime a liberal and progressive facade. Ayatollah Khomeini summoned a meeting of his colleagues (other Ayatollahs) in Qom to press upon them the necessity of opposing the Shah's plans. Ayatollah Khomeini persuaded the other senior marjas of Qom to decree a boycott of the referendum that the Shah had planned to obtain the appearance of popular approval for his White Revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini issued on January 22, 1963 a strongly worded declaration denouncing the Shah and his plans. Two days later Shah took armored column to Qom, and he delivered a speech harshly attacking the 'ulama' as a class.

Ayatollah Khomeini continued his denunciation of the Shah's programs, issuing a manifesto that also bore the signatures of eight other senior scholars. In it he listed the various ways in which the Shah allegedly had violated the constitution, condemned the spread of moral corruption in the country, and accused the Shah of comprehensive submission to America and Israel. He also decreed that the Norooz celebrations for the Iranian year 1342 (which fell on March 21, 1963) be canceled as a sign of protest against government policies.

On the afternoon of 'Ashoura (June 3, 1963), Khomeini delivered a speech at the Feyziyeh madressa in which he drew parallels between the Yazid and the Shah and warned the Shah that if he did not change his ways the day would come when the people would offer up thanks for his departure from the country. <ref>[4]</ref>

Following Khomeini's public denounciation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a "wretched miserable man" and arrest,<ref>Moin, Khomeini, (2000), p.104</ref> on June 5, 1963,(15 Khordad) three days of major riots erupted throughout Iran with nearly 400 killed.<ref>Moin, Khomeini, (2000), p.112</ref> Khomeini was kept under house arrest for 8 months and he released in 1964.

[edit] Opposition against capitulation

During November of 1964, he made a denunciation of both the Shah and the United States, this time in response to the "capitulations" or diplomatic immunity granted to American military personnel in Iran by the Shah. In Nov. 1964 Khomeini was re-arrested and sent into exile.

[edit] Life in exile

Khomeini spent over 14 years in exile, mostly in the holy Shi`i city of Najaf Iraq. Initially he was sent to Turkey on 4 November 1964 where he stayed in the city of Bursa for less than a year. He was hosted by a Turkish Colonel named Ali Cetiner in his own residence, who couldn't find another accommodation alternative for his stay at the time.[5] Later in October 1965 he was allowed to move to Najaf, Iraq, where he stayed until being forced to leave in 1978, after then-Vice President Saddam Hussein forced him out (the two countries would fight a bitter eight year war 1980-1988 only a year after the two reached power in 1979) after which he went to Neauphle-le-Château in France.

Logically, in the 1970s, as contrasted with the 1940s, he no longer accepted the idea of a limited monarchy under the Iranian Constitution of 1906-1907, an idea that was clearly evidenced by his book Kashf-e Assrar. In his Islamic Government (Hokumat-e Islami)--which is a collection of his lectures in Najaf (Iraq) published in 1970--he rejected both the Iranian Constitution as an alien import from Belgium and monarchy in general. He believed that the government was an un-Islamic and illegitimate institution usurping the legitimate authority of the supreme religious leader (Faqih), who should rule as both the spiritual and temporal guardian of the Muslim community (Umma).<ref>Encyclopedia of World Biography on Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, Ayatollah</ref>

In early 1970 Khomeini gave a lecture series in Najaf on Islamic Government which later was published as a book titled variously Islamic Government or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (wilayat al-faqih). This was his most famous and influential work and laid out his ideas on governance (at that time):

• That the laws of society should be made up only of the laws of God (Shariah), which cover "all human affairs" and "provide instruction and establish norms" for every "topic" in "human life." <ref>Islam and Revolution, (1981), p.29-30</ref>

• Since Sharia, or Islamic law, is the proper law, those holding government posts should have knowledge of Sharia (Islamic jurists are such people), and that the country's ruler should be a faqih who "surpasses all others in knowledge" of Islamic law and justice,<ref>Islam and Revolution, (1981), p.59</ref> as well as having intelligence and administrative ability. Rule by monarchs and/or assemblies of "of those claiming to be representatives of the majority of the people" (i.e. elected parliaments and legislatures) have been proclaimed "wrong" by Islam.<ref>Islam and Revolution, (1981), p.31, 56</ref>

• This system of clerical rule is necessary to prevent injustice: corruption, oppression by the powerful over the poor and weak, innovation and deviation of Islam and Sharia law; and also to destroy anti-Islamic influence and conspiracies by non-Muslim foreign powers. <ref>Islam and Revolution (1981), p.54.</ref>

A modified form of this wilayat al-faqih system was adopted after Khomeini and his followers took power, and Khomeini was the Islamic Republic's first "Guardian" or Supreme Leader.

In the mean time, however, Khomeini was careful not to publicize his ideas for clerical rule outside of his Islamic network of opposition to the Shah which he worked to build and strengthen over the next decade. Cassette copies of his lectures fiercely denouncing the Shah as (for example) "... the Jewish agent, the American snake whose head must be smashed with a stone," <ref>Khomeini on a cassette tape [source: Gozideh Payam-ha Imam Khomeini (Selections of Imam Khomeini’s Messages), Tehran, 1979, (Taheri, The Spirit of Allah, (1985), p.193)</ref> became common items in the markets of Iran, <ref>Parviz Sabeti, head of SAVAK's `anti-subversion unit`, believed the number of cassettes "exceeded 100,000." (Taheri, The Spirit of Allah, (1985), p.193)</ref> helped to demythologize the power and dignity of the Shah and his reign. Aware of the importance of broadening his base, Khomeini reached out to Islamic reformist and secular enemies of the Shah, despite his long-term ideological incompatibility with them.

After the 1975 death of Dr. Ali Shariati, an Islamic reformist revolutionary author/academic/philosopher who greatly popularized the Islamic revival among young educated Iranians, Khomeini became perhaps the most influential leader of the opposition to the Shah perceived by many Iranians as the spiritual, if not political, leader of revolt. As protest grew so did his profile and importance. During the last few months of his exile, Khomeini received a constant stream of reporters, supporters, and notables, eager to hear the spiritual leader of the revolution.<ref>Moin, Khomeini, (2000), p.203</ref>

[edit] Supreme leader of Islamic Republic of Iran

[edit] Return to Iran

Image:Chomeini.jpg Only two weeks after the Shah fled Iran on January 16, 1979, Khomeini returned to Iran triumphantly, on Thursday, February 1, 1979, invited by the anti-Shah revolution which was already in progress.

Main article: Iranian Revolution

Conservative estimates put the welcoming crowd of Iranians at least three million.<ref>Wright, In the Name of God (1989), p.37</ref> When Khomeini was on plane on his way to Iran after many years in exile, a reporter, Peter Jennings asked him: "What do you feel?" and surprisingly Khomeini answered "Nothing!". [6]

[edit] Establishment of new government

On February 11, Khomeini declared a provisional government. On March 30, 1979, and March 31, 1979, the provisional government asked all Iranians sixteen years of age and older, male and female, to vote in a referendum on the question of accepting an Islamic Republic as the new form of government and constitution. Through the ballot box, over 98% voted in favour of replacing the monarchy with an Islamic republic. Subsequent elections were held to approve of the newly-drafted constitution. Along with the position of the Supreme Leader, the constitution also requires that a president be elected every four years, but only those candidates approved indirectly by the Council of Guardians may run for the office. Khomeini himself became instituted as the Supreme Leader for life, and officially decreed as the "Leader of the Revolution." On February 4, 1980, Abolhassan Banisadr was elected as the first president of Iran.

[edit] Hostage crisis

Main article: Iran hostage crisis

On November 4, 1979, a group of students, all of whom were ardent followers of Khomeini, seized the United States embassy in Tehran, and took 63 American citizens as hostage. Three additional hostages were taken at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Thirteen of the 63 hostages were released (mostly women and black personnel) within two weeks, and one more in July 1980. The remaining fifty men and two women were held for 444 days — an event usually referred to as the Iran hostage crisis. The hostage-takers justified this violation of long-established international law as a reaction to the American refusal to hand over the Shah for trial, for crimes against the Iranian Nation. Supporters of Khomeini named the embassy a "Spy Den", weapons and electronic listening devices and equipment were found, and fifty volumes of official and secret classified documents were later retrieved from it, after embassy staff were caught shredding and destroying it. Khomeini stated on February 23, 1980, that Iran's Majlis would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages, demanding that the United States hand over the Shah for trial in Iran for crimes against the nation. U.S. President Jimmy Carter launched a commando mission to rescue the hostages, but the attempt was aborted when the helicopters crashed into other aircraft under unexpected desert conditions in Tabas. Many commentators point to this failure as a major cause for Carter's loss to Ronald Reagan in the following presidential election. The hostages were released during Ronald Reagan's inauguration ceremony; Reagan was informed of this upon leaving the podium after taking the oath of office.

See also: October Surprise

[edit] Islamic constitution

Main article: Khomeini's Islamic leadership

After assuming power, Islam was made the basis of Iran's new constitution and obedience to Islamic laws made compulsory.

[edit] Relationship with other Islamic nations

He intended to reconstruct Muslim unity and solidarity so he declared the birth week of Prophet of Islam ( the week between 12th to 17th of Rabi' al-awwal) as the Unity week. Then he declared the last Friday of Ramadan as International Day of Quds in 1979.

But because of Islamic ideology of Islamic Republic of Iran, most rulers of other Muslim nations turned against him and supported Iraq in the imposed war against Iran, even though most of Islamic parties and organizations supported his idea, especially the Shiite ones.

[edit] Iran-Iraq War

Main article: Iran-Iraq War

Shortly after assuming power, Khomeini began calling for Islamic revolutions across the Muslim world, including Iran's smaller Arab neighbor Iraq,<ref>1980 April 8 - Broadcast call by Khomeini for the pious of Iraq to overthrow Saddam and his regime. Al-Dawa al-Islamiya party in Iraqi is the hoped for catalyst to start rebellion. From: Mackey, "Iranians, (1996), p.317</ref> the one large state besides Iran with a Shia majority population. At the same time Saddam Hussein, Iraq's secular Arab nationalist Ba'athist leader, was eager to take advantage of Iran's weakened military and (what he assumed was) revolutionary chaos, and in particular to occupy Iran's adjacent oil-rich province of Khuzestan and undermine attempts by Iranian Islamic revolutionaries to incite the Shi'a majority of his country.

With what many believe was the encouragement of the United States, Saudi Arabia and other countries, Iraq soon launched a full scale invasion of Iran, starting what would become the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War (September 1980 - August 1988). A combination of fierce patriot resistance by Iranians and military incompetence by Iraqi forces soon stalled the Iraqi advance and by early 1982 Iran regained almost all the territory lost to the invasion. The invasion rallied Iranians behind the new regime, enhancing Khomeini's stature and allowed him to consolidate and stabilize his leadership. As their roles reversed, Khomeini refused Iraqis offer of a truce and reparations for war damage and announced the only condition for peace was that "the regime in Baghdad must fall and must be replaced by an Islamic Republic." <ref>Wright, In the Name of God, (1989), p.126 </ref>

Although outside powers supplied arms to both sides during the war, the West (America in particular) became alarmed by the possibility of the Islamic revolution spreading throughout the oil-exporting Persian Gulf oil and began to supply Iraq with whatever help it needed. The war continued for another six years, with 450,000 to 950,000 casualties on the Iranian side and the use of chemical weaponry by the Iraqi military.

As the costs of the eight-year war mounted, Khomeini, in his words, “drank the cup of poison” and accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations. As the war ended, the struggles among the clergy resumed and Khomeini’s health began to decline.

[edit] Rushdie Fatwa

In early 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie, an India-born British author. [7] Khomeini claimed that Rushdie's murder was a religious duty for Muslims because of his alleged blasphemy against Muhammad in his novel, The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's book contains passages that some Muslims – including Ayatollah Khomeini – considered offensive to Islam and the prophet. Though Rushdie publically apologized the fatwa was not revoked, Khomieini explaining that

Even if Salman Rushdie repents and become the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell. <ref>Moin, Khomeini, (2000), p.284 </ref>

[edit] Letter to Mikhail S. Gorbachev

In December 1988 (before the fall of the Berlin Wall), Ayatollah Khomeini sent a letter to USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev predicting the fall of communism and inviting him to study and research Islam. In his historical letter he wrote: It is clear to everyone that Communism should henceforth be sought in world museums of political history.[8]

[edit] Life under Khomeini

In speech given to a huge crowd after returning to Iran from exile Feb.1, 1979, Khomeini attacked the government of Shapour Bakhtiar promising `I shall kick their teeth in.` <ref>Taheri, The Spirit of Allah, (1985), p.241</ref> He also made a variety of promises to Iranians for his coming Islamic regime: A popularly elected government that would represent the people of Iran and which the clergy would not interfere with. He promised that “no one should remain homeless in this country,” and that Iranians would have free telephone, heating, electricity, bus services and free oil at their door step. These promises were not fulfilled.[9][10][11][12][13] He said, "We want to improve your economic and spiritual lives..."

We, in addition to wanting to improve your material lives, want to improve your spiritual lives. Ye need spirituality; they have deprived us of our spirituality. Don’t be content that we will build real estate, make water and power free, and make buses free. Don’t be content with this. Your spirituality, state of mind, we will ameliorate. We shall elevate you to the rank of humanity. They have led you astray. They have limned the temporal world so much for you that you ideate these as everything. We shall revitalize both this world and the afterlife.

Under Khomeini's rule, Sharia (Islamic law) was introduced, with the Islamic dress code enforced for both men and women by Islamic Revolutionary Guards and other Islamic groups<ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/iran/basij.htm</ref> Women were forced to cover their hair, and men were not allowed to wear shorts or t-shirts. Later, in the 1990s Basijis took on the role of the religious police.

Opposition to the religious rule of the clergy or Islam in general was often met with harsh punishments. In the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, the King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi abdicated and left with his family, but hundreds of former members of the overthrown monarchy and military met their end in firing squads, with critics complaining of "secrecy, vagueness of the charges, the absence of defense lawyers or juries", or the opportunity of the accused "to defend themselves." <ref>Bakhash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs (1984), p.61</ref>

These were followed in larger numbers by the erstwhile revolutionary allies of Khomeini's movement -- Marxists and socialists, mostly university students -- who opposed the theocratic regime. <ref>Bakhash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs, (1984), p.111</ref>

After the operation Forough-e Javidan by People's Mujahedin of Iran against Islamic Republic of Iran which took place immediately after the acceptance of the cease fire[14] by Iran<ref>[15]</ref> , in 1988, Khomeini issued an order to judgical officials to judge every Iranian political prisoner and kill who would not repent anti-regime activities. Many say that thousands were swiftly put to death inside the prisons.<ref>The Millimeter Revolution By ELIZABETH RUBIN [16].</ref> The suppressed memoirs of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri reportedly detail the execution of 30,000 Mujahedin. "Khomeini fatwa 'led to killing of 30,000 in Iran'" By Christina Lamb

Although many hoped the revolution would bring freedom of speech and press, this was not to be. In defending forced closing of opposition newspapers and attacks on opposition protestors by club-wielding vigilantes Khomeini explained, `The club of the pen and the club of the tongue is the worst of clubs, whose corruption is a 100 times greater than other clubs.` <REF>Bakhash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs (1984), p.146 </REF>

Life for religious minorities has been mixed under Khomeini and his successors. Shortly after his return from exile in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering that Jews and other minorities (except Bahai) be treated well. <ref>Wright, Last Revolution (2000), p.207</ref> By law, several seats in the parliament are reserved for minority religions. Khomeini also called for unity between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims (Sunni Muslims are the largest religious minority in Iran).<ref>"4% belong to the Sunni branch," http://www.iranonline.com/iran/iran-info/people/index.html</ref> Non-Muslim religious minorities, however, do not have equal rights in Khomeini's Islamic Republic. Senior government posts are reserved for Muslims. Jewish and Christian schools must be run by Muslim principals<ref> Wright, The Last Revolution, (2000), p.210</ref> Compensation for death paid to the family of a non-Muslim is (by law) less than if the victim was a Muslim. Conversion to Islam is encouraged by entitling converts to inherit the entire share of their parents (or even uncle's) estate if their siblings (or cousins) remain non-Muslim.<ref> Wright, The Last Revolution, (2000), p.216</ref> Bahia are actively harassed. Iran's non-Muslim population has fallen dramatically, for example the Jewish population dropped from 80,000 to 30,000 in the first two decades of the revolution. <ref> Wright, The Last Revolution, (2000), p.207</ref>

Many Shia Iranians have also left the country. While the revolution has made Iran more strict Islamically, an estimated 3 million Iranians have moved abroad, denying Iran badly needed capital and job skills.<ref>Mackey, The Iranians (1996), p.368</ref>

Khomeini supported family planning, a program through which the government called upon women to distribute contraceptives. He also supported organ transplants. .[17]

[edit] Death and funeral

Image:Chomeini-mausoleum.jpg After eleven days in a hospital for an operation to stop internal bleeding, Khomeini died of cancer on Saturday, June 3, 1989, at the age of 89. Many Iranians mourned Khomeini's death and poured out into the cities and streets. Iranian officials aborted Khomeini’s first funeral, after a large crowd stormed the funeral procession, nearly destroying Khomeini's wooden coffin in order to get a last glimpse of his body. At one point, Khomeini's body actually almost fell to the ground, as the crowd attempted to grab pieces of the death shroud. The second funeral was held under much tighter security. Khomeini's casket was made of steel, and heavily armed security personnel surrounded it. Of course in accordance with Islamic tradition the casket was only to carry the body to the burial site.

Although Iran’s economy was greatly weakened at the time of his death, the Islamic state was well established. The value of Iran's currency has been dwarfed compared to what it was in the times of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.<ref>Iran's Economic Morass: Mismanagement and Decline under the Islamic Republic ISBN 0-944029-67-1</ref>

[edit] Successorship

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri, a major figure of the Revolution, was designated by Khomeini to be his successor as Supreme Leader, who referred to Montazeri as the "fruit of my life." Later on, Khomeini denounced him in a letter in 1988, for criticising human rights abuses by the regime. As a result Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came to be selected by the Assembly of Experts to be Khomeini's successor, in accordance with the constitution. Later on, in 1997 Grand Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri was put under house arrest for questioning the unaccountable rule exercised by the supreme leader.<ref>Profile: Iran's dissident ayatollah BBC NEWS</ref><ref>[18]</ref><ref>[19]</ref>

[edit] Political thought and legacy

Throughout his many writings and speeches, Khomeini's views on governance evolved. Originally declaring rule by monarchs or others permissible so long as sharia law was followed <ref>1942 book/pamphet Kashf al-Asrar quoted in Islam and Revolution</ref> Khomeini later adamantly opposed monarchy, arguing that only rule by a leading Islamic jurist would insure Sharia was properly followed (wilayat al-faqih), <ref>1970 book Hukumat Islamiyyah or Islamic Government, quoted in Islam and Revolution</ref> before finally insisting Sharia rule could be overruled by jurists if necessary to serve the interests of Islam and the "divine government" of the Islamic state. <ref>Hamid Algar, `Development of the Concept of velayat-i faqih since the Islamic Revolution in Iran,` paper presented at London Conference on wilayat al-faqih, in June, 1988] [p.135-8] Also Ressalat, Tehran, 7 January 1988, http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/khomeini_promises_kept.html#Laws_in_Islam </ref>

Khomeini was strongly against close relations with Western and East bloc nations, and he believed that Iran should strive towards self-reliance. He viewed certain elements of Western culture as being inherently decadent and a corrupting influence upon the youth. As such, he often advocated the banning of popular Western fashions, music, cinema, and literature. His ultimate vision was for Islamic nations to converge together into a single unified power, in order to avoid alignment with either side (the West or the East), and he believed that this would happen at some point in the near future.

Khomeini expressed support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; in Sahifeh Nour (Vol.2 Page 242), he states: "We would like to act according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We would like to be free. We would like independence." However, Iran adopted an alternative human rights declaration, the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, in 1990 (one year after Khomeini's death), which diverges in key respects from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Khomeini's ideas did not originally find favor amongst some of the orthodox Iranian Shi'i clergy of the time, some of whom did not oppose the monarchy. While such clerics generally adhered to widely-accepted conservative theological schools of thought, Khomeini believed that interpretations should change and evolve, even if such changes were to differ radically from tradition, and that a cleric should be moved by divinely inspired guidance. Towards the 1979 Revolution, many clerics gradually became disillusioned with the rule of the Shah, and began supporting Khomeini's vision of an Islamic Republic.

Many of Khomeini's political and religious ideas were considered to be progressive and reformist by leftist intellectuals and activists prior to the Revolution. However, they did not support many of his other views which conflicted with their own, in particular those that dealt with issues of secularism, women's rights, freedom of religion, and the concept of wilayat al-faqih.

Most of the democratic and social reforms that he had promised did not come to pass during his lifetime, and when faced with such criticism, Khomeini often stated that the Islamic Revolution would not be complete until Iran becomes a truly Islamic nation in every aspect, and that democracy and freedom would then come about "as a natural result of such a transformation". Khomeini's definition of democracy existed within an Islamic framework, his reasoning being that since Islam is the religion of the majority, anything that contradicted Islam would consequently be against democratic rule. His last will and testament largely focuses on this line of thought, encouraging both the general Iranian populace, the lower economic classes in particular, and the clergy to maintain their commitment to fulfilling Islamic revolutionary ideals.

These policies have been viewed by some as having alienated the lower economic classes, allowing wealthy mullahs to dominate the government.

Although Khomeini claimed that he is an advocate of democracy, many secular and religious thinkers believe that his ideas are not compatible with the idea of a democratic republic. Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi (a senior cleric and main theorist of Iranian ultraconservatives), Akbar Ganji (a pro-democracy activist and writer who is against Islamic Republic) and Abdolkarim Soroush (an Iranian philosopher in exile) are supporters of this viewpoint, according to the state-run Aftab News. [20]

[edit] Family and descendants

In 1929, Khomeini married Batol Saqafi Khomeini, the daughter of a cleric in Tehran. They had seven children, though only five survived infancy. His daughters all married into either merchant or clerical families, and both his sons entered into religious life. The elder son, Mostafa, was murdered in 1977 while in exile with his father in Najaf, Iraq and SAVAK (the Imperial-era secret police) was accused of his death by Khomeini. Ahmad Khomeini, the younger son, died in 1995, under mysterious circumstances.

Khomeini's granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi, is married to Mohammad Reza Khatami, head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the main reformist party in the country, and is considered a pro-reform character herself.

Khomeini's grandson Seyyed Hassan Khomeini, son of the late Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini, is also a cleric and the trustee of Khomeini's shrine. Khomeini's grandson Hossein Khomeini, son of Seyyed Mustafa Khomeini, is a mid-level cleric who is strongly against the system of the Islamic Republic and has been quoted as saying:

Iranians need freedom now, and if they can only achieve it with American interference I think they would welcome it. As an Iranian, I would welcome it. <ref>"Make Iran Next, Says Ayatollah's Grandson," Jamie Wilson, August 10, 2003, The Observer</ref>

One of Khomeini's nephews is the brother-in-law of George Weinbaum, attorney to Daphne Abdela in the high-profile 1997 Michael McMorrow Central Park murder trial. Weinbaum in turn is the first cousin twice removed of David E. Zucker, writer, cartoonist, and editor.

After the American-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, Hossein relocated to the holy city of Karbala. He returned to Iran after receiving an urgent message from his grandmother. [21]

[edit] Works

• Wilayat al-Faqih
• Forty Hadith (Forty Traditions)
• Adab as Salat (The Disciplines of Prayers)
• Jihade Akbar (The Greater Struggle)

[edit] See also

• Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri
• Hezbollah
• Islamic Cultural Revolution
• Islamic scholars
• Iran
• Politics of Iran
• Mahmoud Taleghani
• People's Mujahedin of Iran (an active adversary of the Islamic Republic)[22]

[edit] Notes

[edit] Works cited

[edit] Bilbliography