Ali’s Reviews > Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah > Status Update

The Shi‘i clergy was for some seven centuries in opposition to the Sunni majority rule; for over four centuries it shared power with a traditional Shi‘i monarchy; for half a century it opposed the secularised monarchy...A decade of clerical rule under Khomeini may prove to have had more impact on the clergy itself than the five centuries or so that followed the creation of a Shi‘i state in Iran by the Safavids.

In early January 1989, however, he [Khomeini] threw all caution to the winds in a letter to the Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbachev in which he declared that communism belonged to the museum of history and that, before falling into the trap of materialistic capitalism, Gorbachev should study Islam seriously as a way of life.

As a man who, through the guardianship [velayat] that I [Khomeini] have from the holy lawgiver [the Prophet], I hereby pronounce Bazargan as the Ruler...This is not an ordinary government. It is a government based on the shari‘a. Opposing this government means opposing the shari‘a of Islam...Revolt against God’s government is a revolt against God. Revolt against God is blasphemy.’