Word: shariatmadari
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Ghotbzadeh confessed on Iranian television last week that he had participated in a plot to overthrow the government and assassinate its spiritual leader, the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Looking tired and drawn, Ghotbzadeh told a bizarre story in which he implicated an other powerful religious leader, the Ayatullah Seyed Kazem Shariatmadari. The plot purportedly called for Khomeini's house to be bombed or rocketed while he was meeting with government leaders. After that, attacks were to be launched against headquarters of the police, the Revolutionary Guards and radio and television stations. Two army officers with whom Ghotbzadeh conspired had apparently...
...unprecedented step, the religious leadership stripped Shariatmadari of his title of marja ' (guide), the highest position in the Shi'ite Muslim priesthood. The ayatullah, 78 and ailing, was apparently not arrested. It is forbidden under Islamic law to execute a religious leader of Shariatmadari's stature. His downfall, however, was seen as another victory for the religious hardliners. Under the constitution, the successor for the role faqih, or supreme theologian, must be chosen before Khomeini dies. But the process has bogged down in a morass of clerical rivalries. At the time the alleged plot was revealed, some...
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