Word: banisadre
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...Islam, what crimes they commit in your name! -Abolhassan Banisadr...
Their crime was that they had demonstrated against the dismissal of Banisadr from his post as President of the nation. The Islamic judge who sentenced them-Ayatullah Mohammadi Gilani-did not even know who they were. The twelve girls, the oldest 18, the others under 16, refused to identify themselves in court. When Gilani asked their names, each in turn replied, "Mujahed" (Crusader). To the question "Child of?" each replied, "The people of Iran." Gilani solved the problem of identifying the girls by having them photographed. Then he consigned them to the firing squad...
...attack on Banisadr marked a new stage in the mullahs' campaign to crush moderate opposition. By exploiting their control of the cabinet, parliament and the judiciary, the mullahs had been chipping away at Banisadr's sources of power. They succeeded in shutting down his newspaper, ousting his sympathizers from government posts and finally getting him dismissed two weeks ago as commander in chief of the armed forces. The owlish, 48-year-old economist had launched a belated bid to shore up his presidency by soliciting support from generals who applauded his frequent front line tours...
...Banisadr's special ties with the army hardened the suspicions of his fundamentalist foes, who already distrusted his "Western ideas," gleaned during his 16 years of exile in Paris. They convinced Khomeini that such close bonds between the President and the military could lead a counterrevolutionary coup. Vowing that he would "cut everybody's hands off" who threatened Islam, Khomeini fired Banisadr as commander in chief. He then issued a stern warning to military officers: "Politics in the army is worse than heroin. It destroys the army from inside...
Khomeini suggested that Banisadr could retain the presidency if he apologized for urging the Islamic country to "resist the dictatorship" of Islamic hardliners. "I am sorry that [he and his supporters] have dug their own graves," Khomeini told clergymen massed near his home in north Tehran. "I did not want it to happen this way. I want them now to say that they have been wrong so far in inviting people to revolt." Banisadr's reply, though respectful, fell short of contrition. "However angry you are, my honesty toward you will not be diminished. I think your treatment...