Word: mullah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...next day a makeshift tribunal consisting of five mullahs was set up in a corner of the prison yard. They sent a few new prisoners to the execution squads before my time came for interrogation. One of the clergymen asked me whether I remembered where my brother was. When I replied that I didn't know, the mullah said to his colleagues, "Why keep such vermin alive anyway?" They nodded. My interrogator came for me and waved a paper under my nose. "Well, it's all over, this is your writ of execution," he said...
...impotence. American diplomatic support and military backing could not prevent the fall of the Shah, who for decades seemed the paragon of a U.S. friend overseas. Then came the humiliation of the embassy seizure, the burning of American flags, the ritual chanting of "Death to the great satan!" by mullah-led mobs. Recent years have spawned an array offerees seemingly inimical to American interests, ranging from the extortionist pricing policies of OPEC to xenophobic Islamic fundamentalism. Iran, in a peculiarly ugly way, has managed to represent both...
...Fire!" The guns roared. My bladder emptied reflexively. A moment passed. I awaited the impact, searched for the pain. Another moment. Was I dead? Then there was a surge of emotion, the realization that they had not shot me. I cried uncontrollably. My blindfold was ripped off and the mullah was yelling, waving his finger in my face. But I could not hear a word. I was dazed, my vision blurred, the shouted order to fire and the crack of the rifles echoed ceaselessly in my head. I babbled insanely as they dragged me back to my cell...
...been spared? I can only speculate. The mullah and guards who singled me out were obviously acting on behalf of one of the many factions that exist within the militant clergy, a group trying to discredit Ghotbzadeh. They had no official authorization to do anything to me. My wife had been frantically phoning my government sources all evening, and word probably reached my captors that powerful officials were asking after me. Failing to force a confession that would suit their needs, the unknown mullah and his men then simply abandoned me. They left me in the prison, where the authorities...
...would have seen itself as the new country's declared enemy, the only enemy in sight since the Shah had fled. No one in the mobs was keeping that secret. It would also have seen Khomeini for the demagogue he is, and not as some obscurantist mullah waiting benignly in the background. "We do not have the range or the flexibility to deal with a revolution of this character," observes Richard Bulliet, acting director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. Range and flexibility would have been nice to have, but in the meantime it would have helped...