Khomeinism is a form of Islamist ideology that refers to the religious and political ideas and practices connected with Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran. While primarily referring to the ideas and practices of Khomeini himself, Khomeinism may also refer to the ideology of the clerical class which has ruled the Islamic Republic of Iran founded by Khomeini, following his death, and to the "radicalization" of segments of the Twelver Shia populations of Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, and to the Iranian government's "recruitment" of Shia minorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan,Alex Vatanka, Influence of iranian revolution in Pakistan: Security, Diplomacy Islamist Influence, I.B.Tauris (1989), pp. 148 & 155 Saudi Arabia, and Africa. The term Khomeinist may also be used to describe members of Iran's ruling clerics, as opposed to Shia Muslim clerics who do not follow the concept of Wilayat ul-Faqih or other ideas of Khomeini.
Under Khomeini's leadership, Iran replaced its monarchy with a theocratic republic. Khomeini brought about a major paradigm shift in Shia Islam. He declared that Islamic jurists (clerics specializing in Islamic jurisprudence) are the true holders of religious and political authority, who must be obeyed as "an expression of obedience to God",Islamic Government Islam and Revolution I, Writings and declarations of Imam Khomeini, 1981, p. 91 and whose rule has "precedence over all secondary ordinances in Islam such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage".Hamid Algar Khomeini's doctrines greatly impacted Shia Islam, which had upheld political quietism for over a thousand years. Another significant revision of tradition was on Mahdism, the messianic belief in the reappearance of their Twelfth Imam and the proper way to wait for Him. Traditional Twelver theologians urged believers to wait patiently for his return, but Khomeini and his followers called upon Shia Muslims to actively pave the way for Mahdi's global Islamic rule.
Since his death, politics in the legal sphere of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been "largely defined by attempts to claim Khomeini's legacy", according to at least one scholar, and "staying faithful to his ideology has been the litmus test for all political activity" there.The New Republic "Khamenei vs. Khomeini" by Ali Reza Eshraghi, August 20, 2009, tnr.com dead link quotation from article accessed 9-June-2010 According to Vali Nasr, outside Iran, Khomeini's influence has been found among the large Shia populations of Iraq and Lebanon. In the non-Muslim world, Khomeini had an impact on the West and even Western popular culture where it was said that he became "the virtual face of Islam" who "inculcated fear and distrust towards Islam".Nasr, Shia Revival, 2006, p. 138
Background
Ayatollah Khomeini was a senior Islamic jurist cleric of Twelver Shi'i Islam (which makes up about 80% of the Shi'i population). Shia theology holds that Wilayah or Islamic leadership (political and religious) belongs to a divinely-appointed line of Shia Imams descended from a cousin (Ali) and daughter (Fatima) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the last of which is the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi. The God-given (Infallible) knowledge and sense of justice of the Imams makes them the definitive reference for (Shia) Muslims in every aspect of life, religious or otherwise, including governance. However, the twelfth Imam disappeared into what Shia believe is "occultation" (ghaybat) in 939 AD and so has not been present to rule over the Muslim community for over a thousand years.
In the absence of the Imam, Shia scholars/religious leaders accepted the idea of non-theocratic leaders (typically a hereditary monarch such as a sultan, king, or shah) managing political affairs, defending Shia Muslims and their territory, but no consensus emerged among the scholars as to how Muslims should relate to those leaders. Shia jurists have tended to stick to one of three approaches to the state: cooperating with it, becoming active in politics to influence its policies, or most commonly, remaining aloof from it.Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shi'i Islam (1985), p. 193.
For many years of his career Khomeini opted for the second of these three, believing Islam should encompass all aspects of life, especially the state, and disapproving of the political developments in his countryIran's weak Qajar dynasty (1789–1925), the Western concepts and language borrowed in the 1906 constitution, and especially the aggressively secularist and modernizing Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979). Precedents for this approach included the theory of "co-working with the just sultan" put forward by Sayyed Murtaza during the Buyid era (934-1062 CE) in his work Al-Resala Al-Amal Ma'a Sultan about 1000 years ago, an idea that was developed further by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201 – 1274 CE). Clerical political influence was institutionalized during the Safavid Empire about 500 years ago. In modern times the Grand Ayatollah Mirza Shirazi intervened against Nasir al-Din Shah when in 1890 that Qajar monarch gave a 50-year monopoly over the distribution and exportation of tobacco to a foreign non-Muslim. Shirazi issued the famous fatwa against the usage of tobacco as part of the Tobacco Protest.
In 1970, Khomeini broke from this tradition, developing a fourth approach to the state, a revolutionary change in Shia Islam proclaiming that monarchy was inherently unjust, and that religious legal scholars should not just become involved in politics but rule. During this phase, the Egyptian Jihadist ideologue Sayyid Qutb was an important influence on Khomeini and the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Origin of the term "Khomeinism" was perhaps first used as the title of a book by Ervand Abrahamian (Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic, 1993), where Abrahamian argued that it was more useful to think of Khomeini as a populist in the same vein as South American caudillos, than as the fundamentalist or traditionalist he was often described as in the West. It is also the title of an unsympathetic report on Khomeini's ideology from a group called United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), emphasising Khomeini's controversial interpretation of Shi'ism, his rejection of Western interference and influence in the Muslim world, authoritarian rule in Iran, his successors' support for allied militias in Lebanon, Iraq, etc. and is used in the title of a chapter by Mojtaba Mahdavi in a 2014 book A Critical Introduction to Khomeini, (Cambridge University Press), which describes "five distinct stages" in the evolution of Khomeini's thought "beginning with political quietism and concluding with political absolutism". The title of a PhD. thesis by Mohammad Rezaie Yazdi (Khomeinism, the Islamic Revolution and Anti Americanism), where Yazdi "attempts to show how the Ayatullah" emphasized a clash between the United States and "Iranian national freedom and religious pride"
Tenets
At least one scholar (Ervand Abrahamian) has argued that Khomeini's "decrees, sermons, interviews, and political pronouncements" have outlasted his theological works because it is the former and not the latter that the Islamic Republic of Iran "constantly reprints." Without the decrees, sermons, interviews, and political pronouncements "there would have been no Khomeinism [ideology]. Without Khomeinism there would have been no revolution. And without the Islamic Revolution, Khomeini would have been no more than a footnote to Iranian history."
Improvisational ability Outside of his doctrinal beliefs, Khomeini has also been noted for being a "brilliant tactician," with a great "ability to improvise." Elaine Sciolino writes:
Khomeini once protested the shah's enfranchisement of women, and then encouraged women to participate in his revolution and vote for his government when he needed their numbers. He once promised that clerics would hold only temporary positions in government and then allowed them to hold the most senior positions. He pledged to continue the war against Iraq until its defeat and then abruptly made peace. He once said that the fact that "I have said something does not mean that I should be bound by my word." Indeed, it is that suppleness, that ability to improvise that has outlived Khomeini and that continues to pervade the Islamic Republic, keeping it going.
At least one scholar (Daniel Brumberg) has argued that Khomeini's ability to swing from one "religiopolitical...perspective to another" has been exploited by followers to advance their various and competing agendas. In particular reformists such as Muhammad Khatami in search of more democracy and less theocracy.Brumberg, Reinventing Khomeini (2001) p. ix Another (Abrahamian) argues that Khomeini's "ideological adaptability" belie the "label of fundamentalist" applied to him in both the West and in Iran.Abrahamian, Khomeiniism, pp. 3, 13–16
Governance
Rulers As to how jurists should influence governance, Ayatollah Khomeini's leadership changed direction over time as his views on governance evolved. On who should rule and what should be the ultimate authority in governance: Khomeini originally accepted traditional Shia political theory, writing in "Kashf-e Asrar" that, "We do not say that government must be in the hands of" an Islamic jurist, "rather we say that government must be run in accordance with God's law ... "1942 book/pamphlet Kashf al-Asrar quoted in Islam and Revolution, p. 170 suggesting a parliament of Shi'a jurists could choose a just king. ( امام خمينى، كشف الاسرار: ۱۸۷ – ص ۱۸۵) Later he told his followers that "Islam proclaims monarchy and hereditary succession wrong and invalid."Velayat-e Faqih, Hokumat-e-Eslami or Islamic Government, quoted in Islam and Revolution p. 31 Only rule by a leading Islamic jurist (velayat-e faqih)1970 book Velayat-e Faqih, Hokumat-e-Eslami or Islamic Government, quoted in Islam and Revolution would prevent "innovation" in Sharia or Islamic law and ensure it was properly followed. The need for this governance of the faqih was "necessary and self-evident" to good Muslims.
Once in power and recognizing the need for more flexibility, he finally insisted the ruling jurist need not be one of the most learned, that Sharia rule was subordinate to interests of Islam (Maslaha – `expedient interests` or `public welfare`),Abrahamian, Ervand, A History of Modern Iran, Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 165 and the "divine government" as interpreted by the ruling jurists, who could overrule Sharia if necessary to serve those interests. The Islamic "government, which is a branch of the absolute governance of the Prophet of God, is among the primary ordinances of Islam, and has precedence over all secondary ordinances such as prayer (salat), fasting (sawm), and pilgrimage (hajj)."
Lack of detail on governing While Khomeini was keenly focused on the Islamic scholars’ right to rule and the state's "moral and ideological foundation", he did not dwell on the state's actually functioning or the "particulars" of its management. According to some scholars (Gheissari and Nasr) Khomeini never "put forward a systematic definition of the Islamic state and Islamic economics;... never described its machinery of government, instruments of control, social function, economic processes, or guiding values and principles."Gheissari, Ali Democracy in Iran: history and the quest for liberty, Ali Gheissari, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Oxford University Press, 2006. pp. 86–87 In his plan for Islamic Government by Islamic Jurists he wrote: "The entire system of government and administration, together with necessary laws, lies ready for you. If the administration of the country calls for taxes, Islam has made the necessary provision; and if laws are needed, Islam has established them all... Everything is ready and waiting. All that remains is to draw up ministerial programs ..."Islamic Government Islam and Revolution I, Writings and declarations of Imam Khomeini, pp. 137–38