Ayatollah Khomeini grandson assails Iran regime =
Muslim cleric says he would accept U.S. = intervention

Borzou = Daragahi,=20 Chronicle Foreign Service

Tuesday, August 5, 2003

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Baghdad -- The grandson of the late Ayatollah = Ruhollah=20 Khomeini, the fiery cleric who launched an anti-American Islamic=20 revolution in Iran that sparked 25 years of unrest in the Muslim = world,=20 has condemned Iran's clerical regime and said U. S. military = intervention=20 in Iran might be a path to liberation of his country.=20

"In Iran, the people really need freedom, and freedom must come = about.=20 Freedom is more important than bread," said Hossein Khomeini, a=20 45-year-old cleric who has taken up temporary residence in Iraq. = "But if=20 there's no way for freedom in Iran other than American = intervention, I=20 think the people would accept that. I would accept it, too, = because it's=20 in accord with my faith."=20

The United States has a long, tangled history with Iran dating = to=20 before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the same year that = followers of=20 Hossein Khomeini's grandfather stormed the U.S. Embassy and took = 52=20 Americans hostage, holding them for 444 days.=20

The Bush administration has accused the current government in = Iran of=20 harboring terrorists, trying to build nuclear weapons and = oppressing its=20 own people. Conservatives in Washington have called for the ouster = of the=20 Iranian government in the wake of American military victories in=20 Afghanistan and Iraq.=20

But Hossein Khomeini -- who is in Iraq ostensibly on a = religious=20 pilgrimage to Shiite holy sites in Najaf, Karbala and Baghdad -- = praised=20 the U.S. takeover of Iraq.=20

"I see day by day that the country is on the path to = improvement," he=20 said. "I see that there's security, that the people are happy, = that=20 they've been released from suffering."=20

The rallying cry of the elder Khomeini's revolution was "Death = to=20 America," but his oldest grandson welcomes the United States as a = catalyst=20 for positive change in a Middle East he said was ossified by = culture and=20 history. "Our past and cultural habits oppress us," he argued.=20

Although Khomeini said he had not yet met with any U.S. = officials, such=20 supportive statements from an influential Shiite cleric could = prove=20 helpful to Americans struggling to win the hearts and minds of = Iraqi=20 Shiites, who make up 60 percent of the population.=20

However, they are likely to draw the ire of the Iranian = government,=20 which he described as a "religious totalitarian government." That=20 government is controlled by unelected conservative clerics who = have=20 harshly stifled dissent. About 4,000 people have been arrested in = the past=20 two months, including at least 100 students and intellectuals, = amid an=20 unprecedented string of protests against the regime.=20

Indeed, this weekend Hossein Khomeini was told by two different = sources=20 that a group of assassins had crossed the Iranian border and were = trying=20 to hunt him down. But Khomeini said he was not afraid his words = would=20 bring harm to him or his wife and three children, who are still in = Iran,=20 insisting that one should always take advantage of an "opportunity = to=20 speak freely and tell the truth."=20

Khomeini saved his harshest criticism for the government of = former=20 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and said countries that opposed the = war=20 were ignorant of the conditions under which Iraqis suffered.=20

"The people here were subject to crimes unprecedented in world=20 history," he said.=20

Hossein Khomeini crossed the Iranian border into occupied Iraq = about a=20 month ago in a visit rife with irony.=20

Iran and Iraq have been regional rivals for decades, and Iraq = harbored=20 the elder Khomeini after the Shah of Iran kicked him out of the = country.=20 During his exile years in the Iraqi city of Najaf, from 1964 to = 1978,=20 Khomeini's grandfather masterminded a revolution that ousted the = shah and=20 established the world's first modern-day theocracy.=20

Iran and Iraq later fought a brutal war from 1980 to 1988 that = left=20 about a million people dead. Nearly 25 years later, the grandson = has=20 returned to the country where he spent much of his youth and has = begun=20 speaking out against the legacy of that revolution.=20

The pudgy, chain-smoking cleric suggested that he might open a = Shiite=20 seminary in the holy city of Karbala to spread his reformist = theology, and=20 added that he expected Najaf to regain its status as the most = important=20 place of Shiite learning in the world.=20

If that shift occurs, it could undermine the authority of the = clerics=20 who rule Iran. Currently, the Iranian city of Qom, where Khomeini = and his=20 family live, is considered the center of Shiite religious = authority.=20 Iran's conservative clerics have used its status to extend their=20 stranglehold on Islamic doctrine and impose restrictions on = Iranians,=20 forcing women to cover their heads and punishing dissidents for = heresy.=20

A longtime reformist silenced and shut out of Iran's = conservative inner=20 circle of power, Khomeini laced his sentences with religious = references,=20 but unlike his grandfather, whose revolution made Iran into a = theocracy,=20 he argues for the separation of religion and state.=20

He praised the late Ayatollah Asad Abdul Majid al Khoei, the=20 U.S.-backed moderate Shiite cleric who was killed in the first = days after=20 the war, as "freedom-loving" and honest. "He was the first martyr = on the=20 path to freedom in our region," he said.=20

And he specifically criticized velayet-e-faqih -- the religious = doctrine that decrees that Iranian Shiite clerics are God's=20 representatives on Earth and gives them near-absolute power.=20

He also asserted that nationalism has no basis in religious = doctrine=20 and that freedom is more important than independence from foreign = rule.=20 "Freedom is a basic right," he said. "It supersedes all."=20

But despite his contention that U.S. military intervention = might be=20 welcomed in Iran, he hastened to add: "America is nothing special. = It's=20 just another superpower like Russia or China. The important issue = is=20 freedom."

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Ayatollah Khomeini grandson assails Iran regime = Muslim cleric says he would accept U.S. = intervention

Ayatollah Khomeini grandson assails Iran regime =
Muslim cleric says he would accept U.S. = intervention