Word: ayatullah
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...Tokyo. But the prospects are cheerless: at best, a slowdown in global growth, accompanied by more inflation; at worst, an outright recession?also accompanied by more inflation. Already, the downturn-that-might-be has picked up a name. Washington economists are calling it Khomeini's Recession?after the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, whose Iranian revolution began the oil shortages and rocketing prices that are causing world economic anxiety...
...should we find it so strange that General Grigorenko [June 4] was considered insane by Soviet psychiatrists? Every society sets its own standards for "normalcy," and anyone who deviates is sick. It happens in the U.S. all the time, and no one is alarmed. In Iran, the Ayatullah Khomeini is presently quite sane as he orders political murder in the name of justice. Sanity is relative...
...more than five months now, our own small country of Uganda has shared the international headlines with Iran. On the occasion of the cessation of hostilities in this area, we now wholeheartedly concede to the government of the Ayatullah Khomeini in Iran the title of the world's most oppressive autocracy...
Even more of a challenge to Khomeini is the fact that some high-ranking Islamic clerics share this view. The most notable opposition comes from Ayatullah Kazem Sharietmadari, 79, whose popularity in Iran is second only to that of Khomeini himself. In an interview with Tehran Bureau Chief Bruce van Voorst last week, Sharietmadari implicitly criticized Khomeini-though he never mentioned him by name. Said Sharietmadari: "In politics, all people are equal. I don't think religious edicts should bind citizens to particular political viewpoints. Politics is a matter of opinion. Religious authority may not be called upon...
...Ayatullah, who is one of Iran's most respected Islamic scholars, rejected Khomeini's proposal that the 160-article constitution, now being drafted, should simply be put to a yes-or-no public referendum instead of being debated at an elected representative assembly. Sharietmadari's view was that a constituent assembly was the "only way to reconcile expertise with popular representation." Sharietmadari will openly oppose a referendum. Says he: "It is like asking the man in the street to vote on this or that method of curing cancer...