Word: islamics
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...Tehran's ties with the terrorist networks of Shi'ite radicals that stand ready to do the Ayatullah's bidding. Though tactics may shift, Khomeini's ultimate goal remains the same as when he came to power in Iran in 1979: to extend Shi'ite fundamentalism over all of Islam and recover the unity and power that the Muslim world has lost since the Middle Ages. "Khomeini is a one-track fanatic," contends a senior Israeli official. "But he is very cunning, very clever and knows what he wants...
...third placed a boxlike device at the base of a concrete wall, then rejoined his comrades. Subversives? Yes indeed, but not the kind to start an armed rebellion against the government. These, after all, were children of the Khomeini revolution, indoctrinated in the dream of conquering the world for Islam. But on this occasion they had another aim: they began to dance wildly as the pulsating rhythms of Michael Jackson's disco classic Thriller blared from the tape recorder the youth had placed beside the wall...
...than the traditional authorities are the Pasdaran, or Revolutionary Guards, who constantly patrol the streets. Says a young Iranian Jew who fled to Israel: "They stop you if they do not like your looks or if they have the slightest suspicion that you are not obeying the rules of Islam. If you go hand in hand with your wife, they will stop you and force you to show them your marriage license. If you do not have the document, you will be arrested." In the minds of many Iranians, the Revolutionary Guards have taken the place of SAVAK, the Shah...
That confession of faith, the shahada, is professed by all Muslims, be they the 700 million Sunnis who dominate the Islamic world from Morocco to Indonesia or the 90 million Shi'ites who rule Iran and form majorities in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq. To the shahada, however, the Shi'ites add, "And Ali is the Friend of God." Those additional words in praise of Ali, whom the Shi'ites passionately claim is Muhammad's true successor, epitomize the complex and often bloody feud between Islam's two branches...
Among the close disciples of the Prophet, his son-in-law Ali was the most familiar with the teachings of Islam's founder. Yet when Muhammad died in A.D. 632, his followers bypassed Ali for the succession. However, the Shi'at Ali, the partisans of Ali, argued that the Prophet had designated Ali and his family the hereditary rulers of Islam. Persevering with his claim, Ali became Islam's leader in A.D. 656, only to be assassinated five years later. Hussein, Ali's son, eventually pressed his own claim to the leadership. But he and most of his family were...