Word: khomeini
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Right-wingers vs. Khomeini...
...divisions have pitted Muslim against Muslim, faction against faction-and, increasingly, right-wing mullahs against the revolution's leader, the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Though the disputes have so far been contained, they have become worrisome enough to elicit a pointed warning from Khomeini: "Let no one doubt that if dissension continues between groups committed to Islam, it will spread nationwide and lead to armed confrontation...
...clerical battle lines have not been clearly drawn. But there have been struggles between the Islamic Guards, the clergy's private army, and the Friday Prayer Leaders, Khomeini's personal representatives throughout Iran. And in recent weeks a number of right-wing clergymen have agitated publicly for a share of political power, now monopolized by the ruling, Khomeini-backed Islamic Republic Party (I.R.P.). One source of their discontent: Khomeini's announcement on Oct. 12 that he was delegating some functions of the cherished Velayat-e-Faqih (Supreme Theologian's Mandate)* to the Majlis (parliament...
...Khomeini took that step to end a deadlock between the parliament and the "guardian council," a twelve-member constitutional watchdog committee, which for religious reasons had blocked needed reform legislation. Still, his questionable action offended many right-wingers. Said one ayatullah: "It is bad enough that his understanding and application of the [mandate] are faulty and selfish. His decision to suspend Islamic law for political expediency is apostasy. If his so-called Islamic republic cannot survive the application of God's law, then there is something wrong with his system. God does not make defective laws...
...fundamentalist challenge is dangerous for Khomeini, particularly because his right-wing critics can outdo him in blind radicalism and rabble-rousing. An outstanding example of the obscure but dangerous figures growing angry with him is Sheikh Mahmoud Halabi, seventyish leader of a Shi'ite purist society. Halabi, says one Iranian writer, "is so right wing that compared with him, Khomeini is Karl Marx." Halabi criticizes the I.R.P. for its political accommodation with the Tudeh Party, Iran's pro-Moscow Communists. (The arrangement is designed to counter opposition from left-wing Muslims.) And he calls for a program against...