Like a cup reader, Khomeini predicted, during a 1978 interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, that “in the future, Iranian society will be magical and free of any form of repression, brutality, and force.”
And an “Islamic” revolution against the Shah broke out in 1979. Since then, Iran has been in political and social turmoil.
It has witnessed every form of repression, brutality, and force. It slipped into a bloody eight-year war with Iraq that ended in a crushing defeat for Khomeini, who himself admitted to “swallowing the chalice of poison.” With this brief phrase, the “people of Iran’s weariness with the theocratic regime” began.
The Supreme Leader at the time, Khomeini, raised its banner, and he was succeeded after his death by the current Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. Iran has not been free of repression, brutality and force since that day.
Indeed, the “Islamic” Iranian regime has always carried the banners of repression, brutality and force. Everyone now knows that the regime was not satisfied with raising these terrorist banners inside the country. Khomeini’s successor, Khamenei, exported them to Iraq, after the US occupation of 2003, and then to Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
Before his death, Khomeini tried to promote his interpretation of political Islam, which argues that religious scholars should have “divine” authority to rule, speak for the people and society, and have the final say on ethical, political and religious questions.
Eight Presidents of the Republic have ruled Iran since the fall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. First came Abu al-Hasan Bani Sadr (1980-1981), and he was followed by Mohammad Ali Rajai in August 1981, whose term abruptly ended after a bomb targeting the prime minister’s office killed him and the prime minister. Then came Ali Khamenei (1981-1989), who was followed by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997) and then Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005). Next came Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021), and finally, the current President, Ebrahim Raisi, who has been in power since 2021.
With every transfer of power, the Supreme Leader would announce that the new president exercised “divine rule.” In doing so, he uses a misappropriated political weapon called “divine positions” that has no place in international political systems. Nonetheless, most of the Iranian people were not convinced by this sneaky slogan that tries to misappropriate the greatness of God almighty through claims that the Iranian regime is a “religious regime!”
Religious clerics, monks, or religious rulers have established regimes on this round earth since the dawn of history. This type of regime is referred to as a “theocracy,” a term derived from Greek.
All modern researchers agree that the existence of a state religion does not suffice to consider a regime a theocracy in the narrow meaning of the world. Theocratic regimes claim that they exercise divine authority, and this applies to only a few places in the modern world.
Meanwhile, the more widespread use of the term state religion applies to that mentioned in the preamble of countries’ constitutions. These regimes recognize their particular annual calendars, such as the Islamic Hijri year and the Christian Gregorian Calander.
Others have narrower and more limited annual calendars, like that of ancient Sumer in Iraq, which was headed by a high priest with the help of a council of wise men and women. The same is true for Ancient Egypt, as the regime of the Pharaohs was associated with Horus or Osiris, and the Pharaoh was believed to be responsible for mediating between the gods and the people.
In Japan, the emperor was considered the descendant of the sun gods and the supreme leader of the Japanese people historically. However, this view changed after World War II, after which the emperor was no longer a living god but the head of a democratic political system.
Other names, like the emperors of ancient Rome and the Buddhist regime in Tibet, have almost gone extinct, as did the Khanate (from the title Khan) regime in Mongolia, which had been a Buddhist theocracy before it ceased to exist in the early 19th century. In China, rulers were referred to as “sons of heaven” like the Roman emperors, and this title was not used outside of celebratory ceremonies.
Going back to the point I was making in the beginning, Khomeini and then Khamenei claim that the current regime in Iran is a divine regime, not a regular religious regime.
Iran’s constitution is founded on the conviction that the country is run by an ideal global empire that has the right to rule its people however it likes and to export its image, which is supposedly perfect per this fantastical view of the world, to all the peoples of the world.
Khomeini and his successor Khamenei deluded themselves into believing that the idealism of this theory demands punishing any violation of the “ten commandments” with execution, regardless of the age, nationality or gender of the perpetrator.
In the 16th century, Geneva, Switzerland, was a democracy. The separation of church and state was advocated because the clergy had been extremely unjust and wanton in its daily exploitation of its political power. The local governor was replaced by a federal governor from outside the region, the leaders of the church were pursued tirelessly and prosecuted, and a final solution to the disputes around polygamous marriage was found.
Today, we find ourselves in Tehran, not Geneva. The statesman and the religious cleric are the same person, who is also the man who upholds, sends citizens to the gallows, and stands behind the atomic bomb.
Another different and famous example is before: the Dalai Lama, who was the ultimate ruler of the Buddhists in Tibet from his childhood in 1935 to 1959. A polite monk with a sense of humor, he had been his people’s spiritual and worldly leader until he was exiled by the late founder and president of China, Mao Zedong. The latter had attained military victory over former Chinese president Chiang Kai-shek who, withdrew to the island of Taiwan and established the Republic of China, which China is currently demanding be returned.
The surprising twist here is that the majority of the families who had been residing in Tibet are Eastern Catholic Christians, Armenians, and Russians, and their descendants have remained there.
Khamenei gave us “theocratic” rule. Every time an Iranian religious court hands lists of Iranian men and women protesting the death penalty for protesting against assassinations, executions, and poor public conditions, it claims to be upholding “divine judgment.”
Human Rights Watch has confirmed that “Iranian authorities have used excessive and lethal force in their clampdown on nationwide protests.” A few days ago, Iranian writer and film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf asked Khamenei: “Oh, Khamenei! Whose example taught you all this cruelty in willingness to shed blood?”
