Word: imam
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...then adorned with the messianic title of Imam, Moussa Sadr established and funded a Shi'ite militia named Amal, the Arabic word for "hope." Celebrating the deeds of Shi'ite warriors of the past, the Imam declared, "Arms were the adornment of men." Moussa Sadr then vanished in a manner guaranteed to immortalize him to his followers. On a visit to Libya in 1978, he simply disappeared. Many Shi'ites still believe that he remains the captive of Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi...
Kraft isn't the only Western journalist to misunderstand and misportray Khomeini Richard Reeves, in a long story for The New Yorker on Pakistan last October, managed to slip in this gem: "Ayatollah Khomeini (or Imam Khomeini; the title applies to all Shia leaders...
...unclear whether "the title that applies to all Shia leaders" is "ayatollah" or "imam," but both are incorrect. In fact, "imam" has extreme, messianic connotations among Shia Muslims, and it raised more than a few eyebrows a few years ago when Khomeini's followers began to call him by that nomenclature...
...dramatic act of violence momentarily distracted Beirut last week: a Shi'ite Muslim splinter group blew up the Libyan embassy to protest the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr, their spiritual leader, who vanished while visiting Libya in 1978. Aside from that, life in the city was normal. On Wednesday four men were kidnapped, allegedly by Christian vigilantes. The next day, three Christians were abducted. And somewhere in the city, several more women suddenly agonized over whether they should hope or mourn. -By James Kelly...
...singer known as the Charmer, Farrakhan in 1955 joined the puritanical (no smoking or drinking) Nation of Islam, a black separatist group founded by Elijah Muhammad in the 1930s. Once 250,000-members strong, the Nation of Islam split apart upon Muhammad's death in 1975. His son Imam W. Deen Muhammad renamed the group the American Muslim Mission, rejected many of his father's teachings and began admitting whites. Farrakhan formed his own faction, keeping the Nation of Islam name and prophesying that one day white "devils" would be incinerated by holy fire, leaving Black Muslims...