Home wrecking error#2:
Then he got the news that he had lymphoma with a life expectancy of two to three years. He kept the news as a secret, because of the fear that if Americans knew about it, they might replace him. This was his most significant mistake, for if he had announced that he had cancer and was dying, there would not have been a revolution. Iranian people are far too traditional to rebel against an old dying man. We could have transferred the power to the nationalist groups and retained his son as a king like Europeans. He had the power, foreign support, and the army to do it with.
Home wrecking error#3: the story of Dr Shariati
Dr. Shariati was a sociologist. He had a long history of anti-shah activities. He was a professor of sociology in university of Mashhad. He came to Tehran to teach Islamic studies in Huseinieh Ershad which was a high-class mosque and lecture hall. Since this hall was only a couple of blocks from our house and I had many friends who worshiped Dr Shariati, I began to participate in his classes.
In all honestly, I was only a freshman in college and his teachings required a more developed brain. Gradually, I understood what he was talking about. I was lucky enough to get to know him personally through a mutual friend. Gradually, we got to know each other, or at least he was kind enough to pretend that he knew me, and the pride of my life was that we saw a movie together. Later on, I read just about all of his books and he had a profound impact on my thinking. He had the same impact on many others. He came up with a new interpretation of Shiite sect of Islam. He was against the clergy, the ruling class and billionaires in a country with poor people in it. His massage was that a good Shiite should rebel against all these forces of evil. The clergy hated Dr Shariati and some of the Ayatollahs called his work a blasphemy. A couple of the Ayatollahs had banned us from going to his lectures. One of the Ayatollahs called him "a crazy boy."
We were all surprised that in an environment of terror, Dr. Shariati was permitted to hold public classes in which he was hitting everyone including the government. The last time I saw him was during his last speech in that temple. He talked about martyrdom; that caused students to get carried away and the lecture turned into a public protest. The next day the place was closed.
The recent declassified documents of the SAVAK show that Dr. Shariati had been able to convince the government that what he was doing was good for the Shah. After all, he was hitting the clergy and the communists. Ironically, all those supposedly intelligent people working for Iranian intelligence services did not realize they were being duped.
Even though Dr. Shariati did a magnificent job of shaking up the society, in the final analysis it all worked totally against us, because:
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 of a heart attack 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. It was most unwise to insult the highest-ranking Ayatollah of the country, who happened to be a 77-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. There was only one opposition leader left alive outside of Iran and that was Khomeini.
Home wrecking error#5
For the Iranian revolutionary forces - Khomeini was the ideal person they were looking for. He was 77 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 galls to tell the Shah off in his face in Iran and once in exile he would write those 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.
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. The people gave him the mandate to do what he thought was the best, and that power caused an emotional transformation in Khomeini. The man who had never lied in his life, changed his word and implemented things totally different to what he had promised.
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