Word: ayatullah
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...relieve extremism in the long run, because the prosaic work of governing tends to make ideological politicians more pragmatic. "Elections are just the start in his view," says a senior Administration official. It's encouraging, U.S. officials say, that powerful Muslim figures--including Iraq's most influential cleric, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, and even some leaders of Hamas--have tried to quell the unrest over the Danish cartoons out of fear of a collapse in law and order. But even if that tames the passions unleashed over the past month, there's every reason to expect the voices...
Excuse me? In fact, the opposite is the case. The Muslim world needs to do something to appease the West. Since Ayatullah Khomeini declared a death sentence against Salman Rushdie for how he depicted Muhammad in his book The Satanic Verses, Islamic radicals have been essentially threatening the free discussion of their religion and politics in the West. Rushdie escaped with his life. But Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician who stood up against Muslim immigrant hostility to equality for women and gays, was murdered on the street. Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who offended strict Muslims, was killed thereafter...
...With few exceptions (Hitler was otherwise engaged), we've done interviews with almost every Man or Woman of the Year in the past several decades. Some, of course, are easier than others. Our correspondent was expelled from Iran only days after his Man of the Year interview with the Ayatullah Khomeini (1979) was published, and we were able to print an interview with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa (1981) when Poland was under martial law thanks only to a correspondent's ingenuity: he sewed the transcript into the lining of his overcoat and smuggled it out. Except in such obviously dicey...
...EASIER INTERVIEW: THE SHAH OF IRAN OR AYATULLAH KHOMEINI? The Shah of Iran. He wanted to be on TV. He was comfortable with being asked any question as long as you preceded it with "Your Majesty." When I interviewed the Ayatullah, he walked in, I put out my hand and he swept past me, sat down and waited for the questions. They had been approved in advance, but I asked one they did not approve. I thought, What are they going to do? Take me hostage? "Anwar Sadat says you are a lunatic," I asked. Of course, he doesn...
...allies left in the Bush Administration. "Jaafari overplayed his hand," says an official, referring to the Prime Minister's overly friendly relations with Iran. There is a possibility that the current ruling alliance of religious Shi'ite parties will split apart. There is the probability that the Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani-the most respected religious figure in the country-will not endorse the Shi'ite slate, as he did last time, even if it holds together. There is also the assumption that the Sunnis, having participated in the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum, will become a significant political force...