Word: ayatullah
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...outskirts of Baghdad is no doubt spitting out weapons that might be used against the multinational alliance arrayed against Saddam in the Persian Gulf. Cardoen rationalizes his position by explaining that he began selling Saddam arms "when Iraq was considered a friend of the West who was fighting the Ayatullah ((Khomeini...
...Israel has held on to the West Bank at least partly because of a belief that it needed the territory for defense against neighboring states that have never recognized its right to exist and often threatened to destroy "the Zionist entity." No one, not even Ayatullah Khomeini, has ever proposed to wipe Iraq off the map. Nor can Iraq conceivably claim that it needs Kuwaiti ( territory for defense. It fought off Iranian assaults quite effectively throughout eight years of war without making any use of Kuwaiti soil...
...kind of guerrilla statement. He revels in being attacked by "respectable" people. "The President of the U.S. attacked me ((when he ran for the state legislature)). The ex-President attacked me. The state party attacked me, the national party. The only one who didn't attack me was the Ayatullah Khomeini, and that was only because he was ill at the time." The Cajun men in undershirts cluster around Duke as he moves across a duskily lit softball field, praising his courage. "No one else will speak out," one of them says...
Saddam has tried to pose as a victim of Western imperialism and has called for jihad (holy war) against the 26-nation military force in the gulf. Last week Saddam's call was echoed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. He accused the U.S. of supporting Iraq in its eight-year war with Iran and making Saddam "arrogant enough to invade Kuwait." But, he said, it was the duty of the other states of the region to settle the conflict. "Anyone who fights America's aggression," Khamenei went on, "has engaged in a holy war in the cause...
...1970s produced a few sprouts of freedom. Women appeared on TV for the first time, and educational opportunities for them were expanded. But the overthrow of the Westernizing Shah of Iran by the Ayatullah Khomeini's followers in 1979 froze the budding trend toward liberalization. Later that year, the royal family was shocked when 250 armed religious extremists occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Their defeat took two weeks and cost 229 lives. Suddenly the regime became more devout. Executions were stepped up. And the mutawa, the religious police, gained greater influence. Its members patrol the streets carrying slender sticks...