Khomeini’s Thoughts on Jews and Israel (Middle East Review – Spring 1979)

          
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          By Michael Curtis
          The strife and turmoil in Iran that resulted
          in the extraordinary spectacle of the sudden
          collapse of the Shah, the disintegration of
          the Bakhtiar government, the daily mass
          demonstrations and the bloodletting are
          largely the result of the uncompromising
          and intransigent attitude of the Ayatollah
          Khomeini,who has claimed to embody the
          true legitimacy and authority in that divided
          country. Equally astonishing has been his
          call, indeed demand, for an Islamic Repub-
          lic in conformity with Islamic doctrine,
          which is to be the basis of a new political
          system.
          It remains unclear what the nature of that
          Islamic Republic is to be, but the Ayatol-
          lah's vision of the world has been
          documented in his writings arid lectures
          (published in Arabic) and also in speeches
          (published in Persian in 1975). While his
          advocacy of the enforcement of flogging,
          stoning and cutting off of the hand for mis-
          deeds are practices not unknown in Libya
          and, to a lesser degree in Saudi Arabia and
          Pakistan, his Islamic Republic would teach
          further into the social fabric than even Libya
          has yet travelled. As he states in his Islamic
          Government (published in English by the
          U.S. Joint Publications Research Center.
          Springfield, Va., Jan. 19, 1979) the Islamic
          canonical law will be the basis for “acorn-
          plete social system.”
          As he has long maintained in theory,
          women are to be prohibited from teaching at
          boys' schools or working in government of-
          fic,es. The ruler is no more than the executor
          of God's command and decree. Go ern-
          ment and administration—and also Iran's
          Dr. Curtis is Professor of Politicat Science at
          Rutgers University. New Bninswick. He is the author
          and editor of many books and axticies on internationaj
          relations and on the Middle East.
          law courts—are to be in the hands of the
          mullahs. Representative government is de-
          nied and Western influence attacked. The
          “enemies of Islam,” who have led to laxity
          in the country's moral fibre include Iran's
          ethnic and religious minorities, predomi-
          nantly the Baha'is, members of a different
          religious sect, and, above all, the Je vs and
          the Christians. (Iran also has a large Kurdish
          minority. Many of them are Sunnis, as op-
          posed to the Ayatollah's — and Iran's —
          majority Shi'ite doctrine.)
          In his writings, Khomeini does not al-
          ways differentiate between Jews and Israel.
          In the foreword to islamic Govern,nen, he
          states that the Islamic movement , both his-
          torically and at present, ‘was afflicted with
          the Jews when they started their counter ac-
          tivity by distorting the reputation of Islam,
          by assaulting it and by slandering it.” He
          admonishes fellow Muslims for not adher-
          ing to the Qur'anic phrase (“Prepare for
          them all the force and the horses you can
          muster so that you may scare away the
          enemies of God and your enemies. “) Had
          Muslims been ready to tight under all cir-
          cumstances, .j would not have been possi-
          ble for a handful of Jews to occupy our land
          and to damage and burn our Al Aksa
          Mosque without being faced with any resis-
          tance.” For Khomeini. the allegation that
          “Zionists” burnt the Mosque persists. The
          Mosque must not be repaired; the traces of
          the crime must remain.
          In addition, he declares, the Muslim
          world must be warned against the forces of
          colonialism and its agents, “the treasonous
          (sic) rulers, Zionism and atheistic mate-
          rialism which are collaborating to distort is-
          lam. “Khomeini sees the Jews “tampering
          with the Qur'an and distorting its phrases in
          new editions which they have published in
          occupied territories and other parts.” “We
          
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          MIDDLE EAST REVIEW—SPRING 1979
          must expose the treachery,” he writes,
          “and must shout at the top of our voices so
          that we may make the people realize that the
          Jews and their foreign masters seek to snare
          Islam and pave the way for Jews to dominate
          the entire world.”
          It is particularly against Israel and the
          United States that Khomeini rails. Israel and
          the Jews (whose connectfon with Persia is
          older than Islam) are responsible for Iran's
          desecration and are the basic cause of Iran's
          moral and religious evils. In his collection
          of lectures entitled KIto,neipzi and the
          Move nent (1970) he declares:
          Israel does not wish that the Qur'an exist in
          this kingdom: Israel does not wish that the
          mullahs of Islam exist in this country
          Israel through its evil agents . . . has dealt a
          blow to us. It strikes at you, the nation: ii
          wishes to seize your economy; it wishes to
          carry off your commerce and agriculture
          The Qur'an bars its way—it must be
          removed . . . The Iranian government of the
          Shah in pursuance to the purposes and
          schemes of Israel has humiliated us and
          continues to do so
          Politically, Khomeini holds, there is no
          legal justification for Israel, which
          “usurped a Muslim people's land. “Indeed,
          part of Khomeini ‘s opposition to the Shah
          stemmed from the Shah's policy of ‘‘sup-
          port for Israel.” “By maintaining diploma-
          tic relations with Israel and granting eco-
          nomic aid to that country the Shah is going
          against the interests of Islam and the Mus-
          lims,” he declared in an interview in Le
          Monde of May 6, 1978. He strongly urged
          Muslims throughout the world “to unite and
          fight their enemies, including Israel.'' [ nan
          interview with Der Spiegel (January 22,
          1979) he stated, “. . we shall break all
          relations with Israel because we don't be-
          lieve there is any legal justification for its
          existence. Palestine belongs to the Islamic
          space and must be returned to Muslims.”
          Khomeini warns of the Zionist danger
          and the Anglo-American colonialism that
          supplies the Israeli entity with the mainstays
          of life. Behind all the enemies of Iran—and
          Islam—he declares in his collection of
          speeches (1975) lurks the United States
          which supports Israel and its svellwishers; it
          is America which gives Israel the power to
          turn MusIim Arabs into vagrants; it is
          America which directly or indirectly im-
          poses its agents on the nation of Iran; it is
          America which considers Islam and the
          glorious Qur'an a source of harm to itself
          and wishes to remove both from its path.
          The Islamic Republic, Khomeini has de-
          clared, will put an end to the old close rela-
          tionship between Iran and the U.S. It will
          ban the use of Iran for intelligence !nonitor-
          ing of the Soviet Union and remove the
          country from all regional defense pacts, in-
          cluding CENTO.
          His attitude toward the future of the Jews,
          the Christians. the Zoroastrians, the Arme-
          nians (he has condemned the Daha'is for . —
          their “support of the Shah”) is by no means
          clear. His Islamic government, he told CBS
          News in an interview on January 14, 1979,
          will retain the existing provisions regarding
          the participation and representation of the
          religious minorities and their right to work
          in governmental agencies. Even the Baha'is
          will be “recognized”he has said, provided
          they become a religious, and not a “politi-
          cal” minority group. Yet, one cannot help
          draw the parallel with former Islamic sys-
          tems from the 7th century on in which
          non-Muslim communities were given the
          status of ‘‘protected peoples'' (dhim nis). It
          remains to be seen whether Islamic doctrine
          will really form the basis of political reality
          in Iran or whether that doctrine will be sub-
          ordinated by more moderate and Western-
          educated political leaders to the needs of
          economic modernization and political de-
          velopment.