Iran and the Islamic Revolution

Immaculate Conception or Veiled Deception?

Shia/Cia Islamic Revolution’s Real Birthday.

The rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran have always described their Islamic Revolution as if it were an Immaculate Conception, and celebrating its true birthday on 15^th Khordad, 1342 (June 5, 1963):

“The movement of Khordad 15 [June 5, 1963] began here in this Madrasa.  On the afternoon of Ashura, a great meeting took place here, accompanied by speeches exposing the crimes of the government. The sequel was the uprising that took place on Khordad 15. It was an uprising that took place for the sake of Islam, in the name of Islam, and under the leadership of the religious scholars.”    Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, June 5, 1979.

This notion is interesting to me because I was there right in the middle of it.  On June 2, 1963, through Col. Qafari and Mr. Khabazbashi, General Valliollah Qarani’s liaison to Khomeini’s organization, my close friend Mustafa, some students from Tehran University and I, went to visit Iran’s rising religious celebrity, Ayatollah Khomeini, at his residence in Qom.  General Qarani was a long-time family friend and a veteran of the 1953 Shia/Cia coup that restored the Shah to power and the 1958 failed coup plot that had tried to remove him.  On September 1, 1962, the disastrous Bou’in-Zahra earthquake had hit our nation.  The following day, Mustafa and I, and those students from Tehran University all had pitched in on the relief effort.  So, as we all were eager to promote “democracy” in our homeland, General Qarani wanted us to meet his partner and “co-revolutionary,” Khomeini.  The Ayatollah greeted us warmly, and took quite an interest in our earthquake relief “heroics.” However, upon our departure as he discovered that one of the students was Armenian, his attitude quickly grew cold.

The next day, June 3^rd, Ashoura, the holiest day to Shia Muslims, Khomeini gave a speech.  I listened keenly, especially to his concluding remarks:

“…what is this tie, this link, between the Shah and Israel that makes SAVAK consider the Shah an Israeli? Does SAVAK consider the Shah a Jew? Mr. Shah! Maybe those people want to present you as a Jew so that I will denounce you as an unbeliever and they can expel you from Iran and put an end to you? Don’t you know that if one day, some uproar occurs and the tables are turned, none of those people around you will be your friends? They are friends of the dollar; have no religion, no loyalty. They are hanging responsibility for everything around your miserable neck!”

The rulers of the Islamic republic have always contended that Khomeini’s speech from Qom deeply angered the Shah, and that in retribution he ordered his commandos to arrest Khomeini.  However, as I learned years later, Khomeini was arrested because the Shah had uncovered the Qarani/Khomeini coup against him.  As the 1953 Shia/Cia coup–an alliance between the Shia religious leaders, Iran’s military and the CIA–had successfully restored the Shah to the throne, the June 1963 coup was intended to take the Shah out.  And, this coup–also an alliance between Iran’s military (General Qarani) and Shia religious (Khomeini) leaders–reportedly had the blessing of President John F. Kennedy.  The late Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri’s memoir, published in 2001 by the Unity of Iranian Editors Europe, P. 137, has clearly confirmed Qarani-Khomeini’s 1963 coup.

And so, as dawn broke on June 5, (15^th Khordad, 1342 Iranian calendar) news of Khomeini’s arrest spread quickly–first through Qom, then Tehran and other cities.  The news inspired masses of demonstrators to come out in support of Khomeini.  However, the Shah’s tanks and troops brutally clamped down on the demonstrators, killing thousands which provoked riots.

15^th Khordad changed my life forever.  At around 11 a.m. the demonstrations swelled in Tehran near the bazaar on what would become the first day of rioting.  Crowds began to gather in front of the Iran Radio Station at Arq Square (today, Imam Khomeini Square) near the headquarters of the military border patrol.  Shouting anti-Shah slogans, thousands of men, some women, and children stormed the radio station, chanting “down with the Shah,” and demanded Khomeini’s release.

Mustafa and I were walking behind some demonstrators when a teenager threw a rock at a military jeep.  Soldiers opened fire on him with a machine gun.  Among those caught in the crossfire was an 11-year-old boy.  Seeing him hit and half his head blown away, Mustafa and I were in tears as Mustafa picked up the young boy’s body. As Mustafa and I advanced toward the front lines, we joined the rest of the crowed, shouting, “Down with the Shah,” “Shah is a murderer,” and “long live liberty.”  The firing started again, and Mustafa was hit with several bullets while still holding the dead boy.

I dropped to the ground cradling Mustafa in my arms.  As he lay dying he struggled to ask, “…why, why…” His last words before his eyes went blank, was “Mese man naro [don’t die like me].”  Mustafa and I held dear the principles of freedom and democracy.  His tragic death on June 5th affected me profoundly.  It made me more determined than ever to pursue that sacred cause.  I remained politically active, hoping that one day Iran would have a truly democratic government.  However, those efforts and my hopes were dashed by Khomeini’s concocted Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the creation of the world’s first Shia Islamic republic–the only religious theocracy of its kind–the birthdate of which is the very day I lost my dear friend.

Last year, on June 21—Father’s Day, as I watched the post-presidential election protests in those same Tehran streets, suddenly before my eyes I saw the video of this beautiful young woman, Neda Agha Soltan, dying on the street in a pool of blood just as Mustafa had died 46 years before her.  Like him she too was murdered in the name of “state security”.  All those memories and feelings flooded back into me.

As long as I can remember, if you wanted to thoroughly discredit someone in Islamic society, particularly in Shi’a Islamic Iran, you accuse them of being “against Islam.”  The 1953 Shia/Cia coup is a classic expamle.  Khomeini’s spiritual Godfather, mentor, and friend, Ayatollah Seyyed Abol-Ghasem Kashani (known to be on the CIA payroll), the Iranian military, and the CIA used this exact “technique,” to topple Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, Iran’s democratically elected “secular” premier.  Kashani, particularly, played a key role in the success of that coup.  At that time, “nearly all the important religious leaders [of Iran] with…large…followings firmly opposed” Dr. Mosaddeq, and depicted him as being anti-Islam. The Islamist “terrorist gang,” Fadayan-e Islam [Devotees of Islam], particularly used this religious card against him.  As a young cleric in 1953, Khomeini had participated in some of the Shia/Cia-staged demonstrations against Mossadegh, and considered the CIA coup as “Allah’s slap against Mossadegh” whom Khomeini said had “turned against Islam.”

Where does that leave us?

Watching the current spectacle in Iran unfold before us, I am struck how cynical it all is.  Today we have Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, etc. all pointing fingers at their opponents, officially labeling them, “against Islam.”  On top of this they are demanding that their old partner, the US, “Apologize” for the “evils” it brought against Iran in their 1953 coup by reinstating the Shah to power.  A strange demand considering that, “the Shah, a day after his triumphant (1953) return, took the “unprecedented step of calling on Kashani (Khomeini’s mentor) at his house and thanking him for his cooperation in the restoration of the monarchy (FO 371/Persia 1953/104571).”  Ervand Abrahamian (The 1953 coup in Iran (Science& Society, Vol.65, No2, Summer 2001, 182-215).

So, let me see if I understand this. In 1953, 1963, 1978-79, and beyond, the Shia Islamists asked the “Great Satan” for help; they got that help every time; then after they finally consolidated their power, they demand an apology from said “Great Satan” for actually providing the help they asked for in the first place.

What’s wrong with this picture?

The Shia religious leaders plot against the governemnt several times–that is TREASON, folks.  As soon as this treacherous alliance succeeds–with the help of the foreign “Great Satan”–all their opponents conveniently become the traitors and all their problems are caused by interference from “foreigners.”  Hollywood has nothing on these guys.

No wonder that this convoluted relationship is one of the great ironies of the 20^th century.  Its history is not understood and its true meaning presents the world community with one of its greatest challenges.  Over the next while, we will be exploring this together as we unravel the veil of misunderstanding and disinformation which, if left unanswered, will have grave consequences for all of us.

Fara Mansoor