Word: mystics
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Unifying a nation behind such extremist positions is a remarkable achievement for an austere theologian who little more than a year ago was totally unknown in the West he now menaces. But Khomeini's carefully cultivated air of mystic detachment cloaks an iron will, an inflexible devotion to simple ideas that he has preached for decades, and a finely tuned instinct for articulating the passions and rages of his people. Khomeini is no politician in the Western sense, yet he possesses the most awesome?and ominous ?of political gifts: the ability to rouse millions to both adulation and fury...
...Western scholars who have visited Khomeini, profiles prepared by Western intelligence analysts, and the speeches and interviews he has given during his year on the world stage, it is possible to gain some insight into the Ayatullah's thinking. First and foremost, all sources agree, he is an Islamic mystic who believes that God tells him directly how to apply the principles of the Koran and the Shari'a (Islamic law) to life and politics...
...Khomeini, the essence of the mystic attitude is detachment?serenity in accepting and preaching God's will. He does feel emotion; intimates insist that with students and his family, he weeps, laughs and even cracks jokes. In public, however, Khomeini will not permit himself to display joy, sorrow, rage or any other emotion. His angriest words are delivered in a soft, uninflected voice that seldom rises above a murmur...
Ignorance and mystic certitude can be a dismaying combination. Some of Khomeini's preachments sound bizarre and even irrational to Western ears. He has justified polygamy, for example, on the ground that there are more women than men in the world, and that women without the protection of multiple marriages would be driven into prostitution. He asserts that the Shah's soldiers, who fired into crowds during the Iranian revolution, were imported Israelis dressed...
...stand as a symbol of the Ayatullah's whole rule, which aims at creating, to ward the end of the 20th century, a modern version of his ideal 7th century state. In one sense he has succeeded: Iran is undoubtedly the only major nation that is ruled by a mystic philosopher-king sitting cross-legged on the floor of a bare room in a dusty provincial town...