Word: imam
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Last February he prompted a worldwide outcry when he demanded the death of Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born, British author of The Satanic Verses, a book many regard as blasphemous to Islam. "It is incumbent on every Muslim to do everything possible to send him to hell," declared the Imam. An angry Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Iran, and many Western ambassadors were temporarily recalled from Tehran...
...place in the world of Shi'ite theology gave him a platform. Unlike Sunni Muslims, members of Islam's other, much larger branch, Shi'ites believe in an intermediary between God and man. In Shi'ism's first centuries, this role of mediator was played by the Twelve Imams, who were thought to be the rightful successors to the Prophet Muhammad and who combined religious and secular authority. Most Shi'ites continue to believe that the Twelfth Imam, who disappeared in A.D. 940, will one day emerge from hiding to establish a purified Islamic state. Some Iranians hailed Khomeini...
...condition or cancer for much of the past decade, the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, 89, has displayed remarkable longevity. Last week, though, doctors performed surgery on the religious leader to stop what was officially described as "bleeding in his digestive system." Providing a rare and somewhat bizarre glimpse at the Imam's private life, Iranian television actually broadcast scenes from the operating room...
...more apparent last week, when a 110-page memo surfaced in which he accused Montazeri of disloyalty. Khomeini the younger, however, must contend with powerful Parliamentary Speaker Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who last week emerged from a visit with the Ayatullah to declare, "God willing, we will see the Imam for long years, healthier and stronger...
...crowd picks through the offerings carefully, learning something about what makes Al Frank and Stan Weinstein and possibly also the market tick. They search for revealing new indicators or for an unknown face who has it all figured out (a hidden imam, in the jargon). They browse among new ideas, like one newsletter's espousal of the "butterfly effect," the chaos theory that a hurricane in the Caribbean may be caused by an unknown butterfly flapping its , wings six months earlier somewhere in Brazil, and that, by analogy, there are no hidden imams because it's all too complicated...