Imam Khomeini and Iran’s Islamic revolution
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
Friday,JUNE 15,2007
Every year on June 4, the Iranian government and people observe the death anniversary of Imam Roohullah Khomeini by holding a public meeting at his mausoleum located around 20 kilometres outside Tehran and arranging related political and cultural activities. The yearly event provides an opportunity to the Imam’s followers to keep alive his memory and energise the Islamic Revolution that he successfully led in 1979 by toppling the powerful monarch Raza Shah Pehlavi, better known by his high-sounding title Shahinshah of Iran.
Imam Khomeini died 18 years ago on June 4, 1989. His last days were spent in the simple, two-room house that he had rented in Tehran’s middle-class Jamaran locality after doctors advised him to shift to the Iranian capital where the weather was pleasant and suitable for patients suffering from asthma and other breathing problems. Until then, the ailing Imam was living in Qom, the seat of religious learning in Iran with a number of seminaries run by well-known Ayatollahs. Imam Khomeini had lived a major part of his life in Qom before and after the Islamic Revolution and it was in this city that he gave a bold and path-breaking speech at the Faizia seminary, sited adjacent to the popular shrine of Imam Raza’s much-venerated sister Hazrat Masooma, that earned the wrath of the Shahinshah and resulted in a campaign of victimization against the Imam and his supporters.
Imam Khomeini’s Jamaran home in northern Tehran is now a place of pilgrimage. The small house is often unable to accommodate the number of visitors. Everything in his use has been preserved. A photo gallery depicts his journey from being a young student to his long years of exile in Iraq, Turkey and France and then his victorious return to a tumultuous welcome in Tehran. A library provides free books and literature encompassing the Imam’s life and times along with titles on contemporary religious and political issues. The simplicity and smallness of the house explains Imam Khomeini’s disdain for the luxuries of life. He could have demanded and got anything that he wanted as the country’s supreme leader. Instead, he continued to lead the simple and spiritual life that he had chosen for himself as a man of God. In the process, he set precedents that his successors and followers must follow even if it is a tough act to do so. For visitors like us coming from countries where rulers insist on strict observance of protocol to the accompaniment of pomp and show while performing various official functions, it came as a relief and pleasant surprise to see Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad going about their business and receiving guests as normal human beings. It is primarily due to Imam Khomeini’s legacy that his successors strive to be the servants of their nation instead of being rulers.
Twenty-eight years after the fall of the mighty Pehlavi dynasty, there is not much evidence that the Islamic revolution is losing steam or there is a big drop in the revolutionary fervour of its cadres. In fact, it has received regular doses of energy on account of internal and external factors to retain its vitality. Right now the US-led opposition to Iran’s nuclear programme and the sanctions imposed on the country through the United Nations Security Council is enabling the clergy-led Iranian government to gain the sympathy of the people by appealing to their patriotism. The Iranians are highly patriotic and most of them are religious. The fact that the US has done everything within its means to undo the Islamic revolution and weaken the government of the Ayatollahs has made majority of Iranians even more determined to support those ready to defy America and its allies. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that “death to America” slogans still receive the loudest response at political rallies.
Earlier, the eight-year war with Iraq kept patriotic sentiments at its peak and prompted the Iranian people to support Imam Khomeini and his colleagues in their efforts to defend the homeland. There is no doubt that President Saddam Hussein was emboldened to attack Iran due to the not-so-covert assistance from the US and other western and Arab powers and one of the objectives of that misguided war was to defeat the Islamic revolution before it could be established on a sound foundation. The death of dozens of Iranian leaders including President Mohammad Ali Rejai and Prime Minister Ayatollah Syed Jawad Bahunar in acts of terrorism in the early years of the Islamic revolution also motivated the followers of Imam Khomeini to close ranks and continue supporting him and his comrades.
The clerics who have been in power in Iran since 1979 have been smart enough to fulfil both their spiritual and temporal responsibilities. No doubt implementing Shariah has remained their primary concern and steps have been taken to Islamize the Iranian society, which had become largely westernized in urban centres during the rule of the Shahinshah. But the ruling Ayatollahs have also paid attention to resolving the socio-economic problems of the Iranian people and improving their life standards. Elections are regularly held even if they don’t satisfy western demands and some freedoms are allowed in keeping with Islamic teachings. Iran’s huge energy resources have allowed the government to keep the economic uplift projects on track and maintain healthy growth rates. The economic well-being of the people despite US-led sanctions is a remarkable achievement of the government. The infrastructural development and the impressive socio-economic indicators also keep the people generally happy and deny an opportunity to opponents of the Iranian regime to exploit the situation in their favour.
Apart from the US-led western countries and their other allies such as Israel and some Arab neighbours of Iran that are hostile to the Iranian government, there are also some Iranians who have been campaigning to overthrow the ruling Ayatollahs. The Mujahideen-i-Khalq, derided in Tehran by referring to it as ‘Munafiqeen-i-Khalq,’ probably remains the strongest opponent of the Iranian government but its France-based leadership is far removed from the region to make an impact. It had training camps and bases in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule and some of these facilities still exist under the patronage of the US occupying forces there. But there is little evidence that the group, which was later joined by discredited former Iranian president Banisaddar, enjoys popular support in Iran. The supporters of the late Shahinshah’s son are also in no position to influence Iranian public opinion. Non-Shia groups such as some Baloch operating from the platform of the mysterious Jundullah organization have made their presence felt by organizing terrorist attacks in Zahidan and elsewhere in Seistan-Balochistan province of Iran but these operations are few and far between.
It is obvious that Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad appear firmly in control of the situation. There is no immediate threat to their government and the Islamic revolution has come to stay. And the more the US tries to bring a regime change in Tehran by attacking Iran or imposing further sanctions, the chances are that Imam Khomeini’s successors will emerge stronger and the Islamic revolution will become even more well-entrenched.
The writer is an executive editor of The News International based in Peshawar. Email:
bbc@pes.comsats.net.pk
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=60617