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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.
