Word: ite
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Khomeini, refusing all talk of compromise, made repeated broadcasts from the holy city of Qum, whipping his followers into a mass frenzy that culminated in two vast outpourings of support. The first was on Friday, which to Iran's Shi'ite Muslims was Ashura, the holiest day of the year (and the anniversary of the demonstrations that led to the Shah's downfall). The second was on Sunday, when Iranians were to vote on a new constitution that would make Khomeini in effect dictator of the country. With the Imam flatly declaring that it was every Iranian's religious duty...
...military threat happened to coincide with the start of Muharram, a monthlong sacred period for Iran's dominant Shi'ite Muslims, which this year begins the Islamic 15th century. Last year it also marked the start of mass demonstrations that eventually brought down the Shah, and thus it has acquired a revolutionary tinge. Excited by that combination, roaring crowds numbering in the tens of thousands surrounded the embassy. Their frenzy was so great that even the youths occupying the embassy urged the mob through loudspeakers to calm down. Dozens of people fainted in the crush and were passed unconscious over...
...demand." He disclosed that Iran and Libya had agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations after a break of several years. The two countries had been especially at odds for the past year, following the disappearance and alleged assassination in Libya of the leader of Lebanon's Shi'ite community, Imam Moussa Sadr. The reconciliation was interpreted as a victory for the hardline Muslim radicals in the Iranian leadership, who have been arguing for closer ties with Libya in spite of the Moussa Sadr affair...
...similar difficulty exists in Khuzistan, center of the Iranian oil industry. The Khomeini regime has alienated the 2 million Shi'ite Arabs of Khuzistan, particularly the oilfield workers, who feel that their strikes made a significant contribution to the overthrow of the Shah. The Iranian oil industry also needs technocratic leadership, which the Ayatullah has been unable or unwilling to provide. The current oil minister, Ah' Akbar Moinfar, last week announced that he would suspend shipments to the U.S. "the moment we get orders from the Imam." In fact, no such order was issued, and U.S. companies said that there...
Saddam Hussein faces potential opposition from two of Iraq's dissident populations: the Kurds in the north, who share with their ethnic cousins in Iran a yearning for autonomy, and Shi'ite Muslims in the south, whose political consciousness has been further raised by the Ayatullah Khomeini's revolution. Shortly after the July executions, he announced that 1,000 Kurdish tribesmen would be allowed to return to Kurdistan from exile in the south. On a visit to the predominantly Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, he reiterated his support for an autonomous area where the Kurds will have their...