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a) He openly encouraged us to follow Khomeini (he was under same illusion that we were)
b) Throughout the different stages of the revolution the clergy promoted Shariati's books; Khomeini's writings were the last thing to read. Once Khomeini took over he did not implement Shariati's modern doctrine of Islam, instead he promoted the archaic fundamentalist, orthodox, rigid, interpretation, which was obviously his own.
c) Unfortunately, Dr. Shariati died under peculiar circumstances in 1977, although without a doubt he was one of the top 10 people who ignited the revolution. He was not there during the revolution when we needed him most.
Home wrecking error#4
The Shah began to pick on the clergy. He cut their income rather than increasing it. They were not happy with him, but in an idiotic move he went after Khomeini, who was already checkmated in Iraq. Khomeini's oldest son was killed in an accident. Some people pinned it on SAVAK, some called it just an accident. In either case, when the son was dead, religious people sent many letters of sympathy to Khomeini. In response he sent a fiery letter to Iranian people saying losing his son was not as painful as seeing Iranian kids in jail. The Shah ordered an article to be printed in the papers blasting Khomeini in inappropriate language. It was most unwise to insult the highest-ranking Ayatollah of the country, who happened to be an 80 year-old man mourning the loss of his son. By going after Khomeini, he activated the only organization in the country that could bring him down. He might have been successful in fighting the clergy if he was popular, or if he had the testosterone of a twenty-year old. But, he had neither and the friends of thirty years ago were gone. This was a wrong battle with the wrong enemy at the wrong time.
Ayatollah Shariatmadari
Moderate & powerful friend, he got so irritated with the king that he wrote the first revolutionary decree against him
There was only one organization which could stand up to him and that was the mosque. And there was only one opposition leader left alive and that was Khomeini. Thousands of mosques were connected under the supervision of a dozen people who happened to be ardent disciples of Khomeini.
Home wrecking error#5
For the Iranian revolutionary forces - Khomeini was the ideal person they were looking for. He was eighty years old. He didn't own anything. He wasn't into money. He was married with a couple of kids. (None of that polygamy crap). He had spent all of his life fighting against the dictatorships of Iran. He had the gall to tell the Shah off in his face in Iran and once in exile he would write these fiery letters, saying those things that all of us wanted to say but couldn't. He wasn't afraid of anything. He was full of venom. When his son was killed he didn't cry, he just said God is great. The only emotion coming out of him was anger.
Home wrecking error#6
The Shah pushed Saddam Hussein to kick Khomeini out of Iraq. Khomeini's students took advantage of the situation and took him to Paris. When in Paris, he had access to all of the media in the world. European people were taken by him. He was a straightforward, old clergyman, telling the truth, standing up against all the forces of evil in the world. That was quite appealing for Iranians inside and outside. And the demonstrations began against the government. There were the interviews with him and that's where everything went wrong. He said exactly what we wanted to hear. He said that the role of clergy is above politics. And that secular government should run the country.
mesmorised or fooled the world
He had people around him who were quite good in the PR business. They delivered his message to everyone, everywhere. For the religious people inside Iran he was promising a God-like government without any corruption. For the western media, his assistants prepped him up very nicely and came up with the precise answers that they wanted. If you were an Iranian you couldn't help but to love this old man who was telling the truth. Things could not be any better. The Shah's army Killed innocent people and disintegrated at the same time.
Once the shah was defeated and Khomeini took over .He appointed Mr. Bazargan as prime minister, and in return Bazargan put a cabinet together consisting of secular nationalists left over from Mossadegh era.
prime minister
