Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Political demonstrations began in January 1978 and have continued ever since. They were supported by the political left, including the banned Tudeh Communist Party, but led by the Shi'ite Muslims, and the exiled Ayatullah Khomeini became the embodiment of that protest. Nonetheless, as Professor Bill notes, it was "the educated, professional middle class...
Meanwhile, religious leader Ayatullah Khomeini called for a second "national day of mourning" to commemorate the deaths of more than 1500 persons in anti-Shah protests this year. The government belatedly endorsed the call...
...However, Ayatullah Shariatmadari, the senior Shiite Moslem leader in Iran, led a mass march through the streets of Jom, about a hundred miles south of Tehran, where there were no reports of trouble...
...demonstrations subsided, the struggle between the regime and its opponents became increasingly one of rumor and propaganda. At one point, word spread through Iran's Shi'ite Muslim community that Ayatullah (Sign of God) Qumi of Mashhad had dreamed that he had been visited by Imam Reza, a saint of ancient times. In the dream, Reza complained that Shi'ite Leader Ayatullah Khomeini had been turning Muslim against Muslim and that his teachings were thus running counter to Islamic law. Among the faithful, many were stunned; others dismissed the report as a government trick...
...Tehran mattress maker, supports his wife and daughter by driving a heavy Mercedes truck. On runs that may take him as far as Turkey or even West Germany, he likes to shove a cassette into the tape deck on his dashboard to listen to his favorite commentator: Ayatullah Khomeini...