Word: imam
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Especially after this summer's postelection chaos, the mausoleum has become ground zero for hard-line conservatives. Supporters of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi rarely go there to pray or seek blessing from the Imam, but fans of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are more concentrated in the area than in most neighborhoods of Tehran. Indeed, on a recent visit, hundreds of men with unkempt beards, ill-fitting pants and untucked white shirts - the trademark garb of the Basij paramilitary vigilantes - milled about in the sprawling parking lot, said to be able to fit 20,000 cars. Dozens of tour buses...
...flimsy but in-your-face blue sign near the entrance displays one of Khomeini's best-known declarations: "We will stand until our last breath, last house, last drop of our blood to elevate the word of God." The shrine's interior, reminiscent of an airport hanger, reflects the Imam's austere outlook. During his rule, Khomeini received all manner of dignitaries in a bare room at his daughter's modest residence in the theological center of Qum, and refused to eat anything more extravagant than fruit, yogurt and rice. In contrast, his sarcophagus has now been enclosed within...
...cancelled a major speech at the mausoleum earlier this month during Ramadan by the most prominent of Khomeini's 15 grandchildren, Hassan Khomeini, who also happens to be administrator of the shrine. Hassan, like many of his relatives, including at least three other grandchildren and a daughter of the Imam, has come out in support of the opposition movement. The move was just the latest in a string of developments in the past few weeks that revealed the regime's efforts to maintain control, even at the risk of further alienating the family of the founder of the Islamic Republic...
Therein lies the predicament for the regime. It has cast the street demonstrations as a supposedly Western-led, secular velvet revolution. But Shi'ites, who are the overwhelming majority of Iranian Muslims, believe that only an Imam's surviving lineage can accurately interpret his ideology. So to have so many Khomeinis jump ship set off alarms for the ruling hard-liners...
...when Hassan criticized the country's military for encroaching into politics. In retribution, a newspaper connected to Ahmadinejad, a veteran of the élite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), accused Khomeini's grandson of corruption and driving a BMW, marking the first time the regime insulted the Beit-e-Imam, the heirs of Khomeini...