Ruhollah Khomeini

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was an Iranian Shiite fundamentalist cleric and spiritual leader of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the then Shah of Iran.

He was born in the town of Khomein as Ruhollah Hendi in 1900 and changed his name to Khomeini in 1930. 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 in 1979, after helping foment a revolution - it was later claimed by his supporters that over 98% of the population were in favour of it. From then on a Islamic Republic was formed in which a president is elected every 4 years.

Early in the revolution in the years of 1979-81 his followers held 52 Americans captive in Tehran's US embassy, holding them hostage for 444 days. Jimmy Carter attempted to rescue the hostages, but this failed when the helicopters sent on this mission failed under desert conditions. Many Iranians considered this to be a miracle. In the United States an article was written in the Washington Post stating that: "The professionals of the American military have compiled a modern record replete with failure and catastrophe." The country was disappointed.

Khomeini warned Soviet officials that the U.S.S.R. was in danger of collapse, an observation obvious to many people at that time, and counseled them to "return to God". They failed to heed his advice. Ronald Reagan pulled off his gamble to defeat the U.S.S.R. economically in the Cold War race to build up military arms; the U.S.S.R. economically ran itself into the ground, trying to keep up in the arms race, and collapsed in the early 1990s.

On June 3, 1989, after eleven days in a hospital for an operation to stop internal bleeding, Khomeini died. Americans shed no tears, nor did they see a miracle in this event. A crowd of more than a million Iranians gathered around the burial location which was not supposed to be revealed at the time. Only a couple of months before he had ordered the killing of Salman Rushdie for blasphemy: the crime of prohibited speech.

Khomeini is considered by some as one of the most influential men (for good or bad) of the 20th century.

Quotes concerning Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic revolution:

Roger Garoudi, French intellectual:

"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."

Robert Kalson, Canadian scientist:

"lmam 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."

William Wersey, American author and journalist:

"The Islamic Revolution of Iran is honourable for it is the cry which has its origin in Ayatullah Khomeini's conscience."

Pope John Paul II:

"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."

Erich Hoenecher, German:

"The name of Khomeini will always remain in the new chapter of Iranian history."

Ernesto Cardinal, Nicaraguan combatant scholar:

"The freedom-lovers of the world mourn the sad demise of Imam Khomeini."

Norman Mailer, American author:

"Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words."

Oliver North, government unto himself:

"I thought using the Ayatollah's money to support the Nicaraguan resistance was a neat idea. "

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. The colonialists have spread in school curricula the need to separate church from the state and have deluded people into believing that the ulema [religious experts] of Islam are not qualified to interfere in the political and social affairs. The lackeys and followers of the colonialists have reiterated these words. In the prophet's time, was the church separated from the state? Were there at the time theologians and politicians? At the time of the caliphs and the time of Ali, the amir of the faithful, was the state separated from the church? Was there an agency for the church and another for the state?
The difference between the Islamic government and the constitutional governments, both monarchic and republican, lies in the fact that the people's representatives or the king's representatives are the ones who codify and legislate, whereas the power of legislation is confined to God, may He be praised, and nobody else has the right to legislate and nobody may rule by that which has not been given power by God. This is why Islam replaces the legislative council by a planning council that works to run the affairs and work of the ministries so that they may offer their services in all spheres.