Word: shied
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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...
Arafat was also trying, with little success, to mediate the growing dispute between the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims and several Lebanese leftist factions. Last week the dispute suddenly erupted into battle in the south as well as in Beirut, with more than 50 casualties...
...greatest uncertainty Iran faces is what will happen when Khomeini, 81 and ailing, passes from the scene. Intense jockeying persists within the ranks of the ruling Shi'ite clergy, and even government officials acknowledge that the transfer of power poses great dangers...
...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...
...result of a major miscalculation by Saddam. He attacked not only because he coveted the shared estuary but also because he wanted to appear to be the emerging leader of the Arab world. In addition, he was infuriated by the repeated calls by Khomeini to his fellow Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq, who form 55% of the country's population, to overthrow their President. Saddam was convinced that Iran, swept by revolution, would be unable to resist an Iraqi attack. But the war became one cause in which the multifarious factions of Iran could unite. Explains one Iranian...