Iran’s Islamic Revolution: The Fall of The Shah

“IRAN’S ISLAMIC REVOLUTION (The Fall of the Shah) - On October 8, 1962, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Western-oriented shah of Iran, whose father, Reza Shah, had admired Kemal Ataturk and set Iran on a secular path, granted women the right to vote in elections for local councils and gave permission for those elected to take their oaths of office on any sacred book, not just the Qur’an—which meant that they didn’t have to be Muslim. 115 In response, a little-known ayatollah named Ruhollah Khomeini and his colleagues instructed Shi’ite clergy all over the country to denounce the government. Several weeks later, the shah relented: his prime minister, Assadollah Alam, announced that candidates for local councils would have to be Muslim, that oaths must be sworn on the Qur’an only, and that the Majlis would decide the question of women’s suffrage. 116 Then, in January 1963, the shah announced a series of reforms he called the White Revolution, including distributing land to the poor and allowing women not only to vote but also to run for office. Khomeini declared, “What is happening is a calculated plot against Iranian independence and the Islamic nation, and it is threatening the foundation of Islam.” 117 He and other Shi’ite clergy called for demonstrations, which so unnerved the shah that on January 24, 1963, during a presentation on the glories of land reform, he gave an impromptu speech attacking the ayatollahs and their allies as “a stupid and reactionary bunch whose brains have not moved… stupid men who don’t understand and are ill-intentioned… they don’t want to see this country develop.” 118 The “stupid and reactionary bunch” didn’t give up, and over the years, tensions increased. The shah exiled Khomeini, but that didn’t calm the situation. In exile in Iraq in 1970, Khomeini articulated a view called velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist). Islam, Khomeini argued, had not just given mankind a set of laws. “A body of laws alone,” said Khomeini, “is not sufficient for a society to be reformed. In order for law to ensure the reform and happiness of man, there must be an executive power and an executor. For this reason, God Almighty, in addition to revealing a body of law [that is, the ordinances of the Sharia]… has laid down a particular form of government together with executive and administrative institutions.” 119 Where were these divinely ordained executive and administrative institutions to be found? Khomeini argued that clerical rule, which many dismissed as an unacceptable innovation in Islam, was mandated by the example of Muhammad himself, whom the Qur’an declared to be the supreme model for Muslims (33: 21): “The Most Noble Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) headed the executive and administrative institutions of Muslim society. In addition to conveying the revelation and expounding and interpreting the articles of faith and the ordinances and institutions of Islam, he undertook the implementation of law and the establishment of the ordinances of Islam, thereby bringing into being the Islamic state.” 120 So, Khomeni argued, following the example of Muhammad, modern-day Shi’ite clerics should rule Iran and make it an Islamic state. He explained: “The fundamental difference between Islamic government, on the one hand, and constitutional monarchies and republics, on the other, is this: whereas the representatives of the people or the monarch in such regimes engage in legislation, in Islam the legislative power and competence to establish laws belongs exclusively to God Almighty.” 121 The unrest in Iran grew, and repressive measures from the shah only made matters worse. Finally, on January 16, 1979, after riots and numerous calls for him to go, a tearful shah and his family left Iran. 122 Two weeks later, on February 1, Khomeini returned to Iran after fourteen years of exile. He announced the formation of a new government, declaring: “This is not an ordinary government. It is a government based on the shari’a. Opposing this government means opposing the shari’a of Islam and revolting against the shari’a, and revolt against the government of the shari’a has its punishment in our law… it is a heavy punishment in Islamic jurisprudence. Revolt against God’s government is a revolt against God. Revolt against God is blasphemy.” 123 On November 4, 1979, a group calling itself Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line (that is, Khomeini’s line) entered the U.S. embassy compound in Tehran and took hostage the skeleton staff of sixty-six that was still serving there after the fall of the shah. 124 Khomeini was delighted, dubbing the hostage-taking “the Second Revolution.” 125 He told a reporter, “I regard the occupation of the American Embassy as a spontaneous and justified retaliation of our people.” 126 He explained that the hostage crisis would assist the Islamic Republic in consolidating power: “This action has many benefits. The Americans do not want to see the Islamic Republic taking root. We keep the hostages, finish our internal work, then release them.” 127 Fifty-two of the American hostages remained in captivity for 444 days, until January 20, 1981.128 Khomeini continued to ensure that the Islamic Republic would be Islamic, and nothing but. He declared, “What the nation wants is an Islamic Republic. Not just a Republic, not a democratic Republic, not a democratic Islamic Republic. Do not use the word ‘democratic’ to describe it. That is the Western style.” 129 Indeed, there was nothing democratic about his regime. Khomeini embarked on a reign of terror, executing his political foes in large numbers and shutting down opposition newspapers and magazines. 130 He told secularists, “The ‘clog-wearer and the turbaned’ have given you a chance. After each revolution several thousand of these corrupt elements are executed in public and burnt and the story is over. They are not allowed to publish newspapers.… We will close all parties except the one, or a few which act in a proper manner.… We all made mistakes. We thought we were dealing with human beings. It is evident we are not. We are dealing with wild animals. We will not tolerate them any more.” 131 The Sharia state that Khomeini constructed gave Iranians neither democracy nor equality of rights under the law. In 1985, Sa’idRaja’i-Khorassani, the permanent delegate to the United Nations from the Islamic Republic of Iran, declared that “the very concept of human rights was ‘a Judeo-Christian invention’ and inadmissible in Islam.… According to Ayatollah Khomeini, one of the shah’s ‘most despicable sins’ was the fact that Iran was among the original group of nations that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” 132 Khomeini thundered that fighting was an Islamic duty: “Jihad or Holy War, which is for the conquest of [other] countries and kingdoms, becomes incumbent after the formation of the Islamic State in the presence of the Imam or in accordance with his command. Then Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled or incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world.… Islam’s Holy War is a struggle against idolatry, sexual deviation, plunder, repression and cruelty.… But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world.” 133 The goal of this conquest would be to establish the hegemony of Islamic law. Khomeini had no patience for those who insisted that Islam was a religion of peace: Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them [the non-Muslims], put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]. Does this mean sitting back until [non-Muslims] overcome us? Islam says: Kill in the service of Allah those who may want to kill you! Does this mean that we should surrender [to the enemy]? Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur’anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim. 134 Under the Islamic Republic, Iran became a totalitarian Sharia backwater and a chief financier of global jihad terrorism. Iran was the embodiment of a notorious statement of Khomeini’s: “Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious. Islam does not allow swimming in the sea and is opposed to radio and television serials. Islam, however, allows marksmanship, horseback riding and competition.” 135 The Party of Allah There was no fun in Islam—or in Iran, either. Through its proxy, the Lebanese jihad terror group Hizballah (Party of Allah), the Islamic Republic pursued jihad against the United States. On October 23, 1983, Hizballah bombed military barracks in Beirut, murdering 241 American servicemen (including 220 Marines) and fifty-eight French military personnel. Hizballah and Iran denied involvement in that bombing, but there was considerable evidence to the contrary—not least the fact that the truck carrying the over twenty-one thousand pounds of TNT that exploded at the barracks was driven by Ismail Ascari, an Iranian national. On May 30, 2003, U.S. District Court judge Royce Lamberth found Iran and Hizballah responsible for the bombing, which he called “the most deadly state-sponsored terrorist attack made against United States citizens before September 11, 2001.” 136 The Lebanese terror group also won notoriety for its jihad suicide bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on April 18, 1983, which killed sixty-three people, including seventeen Americans. As he did in the barracks case, Lamberth found that the embassy bombing had been carried out by Hizballah and financed by Iranian officials. Hizballah continued its actions against the United States by kidnapping the CIA station chief in Lebanon, William Buckley, on March 16, 1984. Buckley’s captors subsequently delivered several videos to American embassies showcasing how they were torturing him. After viewing the first, CIA director William Casey said: “I was close to tears. It was the most obscene thing I had ever witnessed. Bill was barely recognizable as the man I had known for years. They had done more than ruin his body. His eyes made it clear his mind had been played with. It was horrific, medieval and barbarous.” 137 No one knows for certain when William Buckley died. The likeliest time is sometime during the night of June 3, 1985, the 444th day of his captivity.” 138 Hizballah’s primary mission, of course, was to wage jihad against Israel. Hizballah founder Hassan Nasrallah has said, “If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” 139 Hizballah menaced the Jewish state from Lebanon in the North, while Hamas (Sunni, but also funded by Iran) harassed it from Gaza in the South. The Islamic Republic’s Example In the last two decades of the twentieth century, the Islamic Republic of Iran became for those who believed that Islamic law was the sole legitimate source of law for every society what the Republic of Turkey had been for secular Muslims in the middle of the century: an example and an inspiration, an indication that a group with their perspective could succeed in overthrowing an established national government and take and hold power in a state. Bringing down the biggest infidel state of all in the second half of the twentieth century was the goal of other jihad groups.”

— The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer