More history info re Ayatollah Seyed Hussein Khomeini
Aug. 7, 2003, 9:59AM
Khomeini: U.S. is best example of freedom
By VIVIENNE WALT
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The name is the same, but the words from the younger Ayatollah Khomeini's mouth could hardly be more jolting for those who remember his grandfather's explosive revolution in Iran with the chants of "Death to America!"
"America" says Ayatollah Seyed Hussein Khomeini, "is the symbol of freedom."
Seated in the sprawling living room of his temporary Baghdad home, where he lives under armed guard, Khomeini says, "The best example of freedom in our life now is America, especially its Constitution."
Khomeini, 45, the oldest grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, slipped out of Iran in early July and, he says, now lives under risk of assassination by Iranian security agents. His arrival in Iraq has caused a stir in the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
But the younger Khomeini is determined that Iraq does not relive Iran's revolution.
"Religion has got to be separated from regimes, such as it is in America," says the younger Khomeini, smoking cigarettes through the interview.
As Iraq's 16 million or so Shiite Muslims scramble for their first shot of power, Khomeini's words could have a major impact on their views.
Many Shiites say they envision for the new Iraq an Islamic state similar to the one his grandfather brought to power in his 1979 revolution.
Some of the Shiite leaders heading Iraq's new political parties have close ties to Iran's hard-line Shiite Muslim clerics, who have controlled their country for nearly a quarter century.
But their dictates, such as requiring women to cover everything but their face and banning alcohol, have elicited a sharp response from some segments of Iran's society. About 4,000 people have been arrested since student protests erupted against the Tehran government in May.
Khomeini learned his political lessons at his grandfather's feet. Three decades on, the man who was supposed to inherit the legacy rejects the most basic revolutionary beliefs of the old man, who once dubbed America "the Great Satan."
Says the younger Khomeini: "It is clear to Iranians that they have suffered from the tyranny of that country. Iranians want freedom and democracy."
Khomeini lived much of his childhood with his grandfather, partly in exile in the southern Iraq city of Najaf. It was there that the older ayatollah honed his views of an Islamic government.
That helped spark the revolution that shook the region, and transformed Iran's relationship with the United States from close ally to bitter enemy. President Bush included Iran, with Iraq and North Korea, as a member of the "axis of evil."
The younger Khomeini says he legally crossed Iran's border into northern Iraq last month. Now he is a hunted man, he says, wanted by Iran's government. He is only able to leave the protected villa under heavy guard.
"Iran has given an order that I must be assassinated by whatever means possible," he says. "Their feeling is: This man is dangerous."
U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that they believe Iran's agents are meddling in Iraq's nascent politics, in order to nurture a second Islamic revolution across its border. Some Shiite clerics in Iraq have similar concerns.
"There is a lot of interference from Iran here," said Ali Al-Mousawi Al-Waath, sheikh of Baghdad's main Shiite mosque, speaking at home."They are spending a lot of money on different parties."
Khomeini says he is involved in shaping the ideas emerging from the powerful clerics who lead Iraq's Shiite politics, from a body in Najaf called the Hawza.
But Khomeini's danger to Iran comes largely from his well-known name. His grandfather is revered among Iranians, as well as among Iraq's Shiites, who comprise two-thirds of this country.
For years Saddam Hussein banned public support for Ayatollah Khomeini. Now Khomeini postcards and posters decorate countless storefronts and taxi windows across southern and central Iraq, especially in Karbala and Najaf.
"He was the leader of the revolution, whose echo was heard across the world," says Seyed Ali Al-Yasseri, the younger Khomeini's bodyguard.
Khomeini is the guest of a cleric who had taken over an abandoned house on the Tigris River once inhabited by Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri, a fugitive who was one of Saddam Hussein's top officials. A discarded Rolls Royce sits outside the door, a relic of the former regime.
Last Sunday, Khomeini canceled a day trip to Karbala, 60 miles south of Baghdad, after aides in London tipped him off that Iran's assassins lay in wait there, he says. At the last minute, he arrived in Karbala unannounced. His account of the day suggested his potential.
"Before I had walked five feet hundreds of people began to surround me," he says. "They knew who I was. They totally protected me. It was almost hard to move."
Khomeini has not made his political ambitions clear, but says he would like to be involved.
"I would love to be effective in bringing about freedom with a movement either inside Iran or outside," he says. "I want freedom for myself and my children, whether in the leadership or a step away."
Despite his rejection of many of his grandfather's beliefs, Khomeini says he has loving memories of the man.
"He would play wonderfully with his grandsons. And he did his own housework," says Khomeini. "He didn't want people to do things for him. He was very well organized. He had hours for sleeping, hours for studying."
With that affection, Khomeini said it was difficult to entirely reject his grandfather's extraordinary political career.
"He was a man of the circumstances of the time," he said. "My grandfather accomplished a big historical achievement."
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