Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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TEHRAN. Iran--The Iranian government yesterday said Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, the exiled Islamic religious leader, could return to Iran...
Government officials gave Air France permission to fly the Ayatullah from his exile in France to Iran. Meanwhile the American Embassy ordered U.S. government dependents out of Iran "at the earliest feasible date" because of attacks on three Americans...
...short, banal and often repetitive. He can rarely be drawn out on crucial political issues: Who should rule the Islamic republic he espouses for Iran? What kind of nation would it be? How does he propose to bring down the fledgling government of Shahpour Bakhtiar? What role would the Ayatullah himself play on his anticipated return to Tehran? Even when he gives direct answers ("Every form of domination-political, military, cultural and economic-will be brought to an end"), they almost invariably are the kind of vaporous generalities that only a nongoverning opposition leader can afford to make...
...Ayatullah (an honorific title meaning sign of God) was born in central Iran, the son of a mullah who was shot to death-according to Khomeini followers, by Iranian government agents-while on a pilgrimage to Iraq. Educated largely at the holy city of Qum, Iran's orthodox Shi'ite center of learning, Khomeini became what has been described as a "fine medieval scholar." That did not mean he was an expert on the Iranian Middle Ages, but rather that his Islamic philosophical and legal expertise belong to an intellectual tradition unstudied in the West since the 16th...
Perhaps such significant shading is one reason why Le Monde's Middle East veteran, Eric Rouleau, reflects that U.S. journalism got trapped in clichés about "the progressive Shah" beset by "fanatic religionists." But when it comes to nationalism, how about the French? They allowed Ayatullah Khomeini a sanctuary they rarely grant other political exiles to campaign for the Shah's overthrow. Rouleau speculates that the French, miffed by being shut out of Iran's arms deals, "took a calculated bet that it wasn't a bad idea to be host...