in June 1989 something incredible and
extremely memorable happened in Iran but
it barely made news headlines in the
west because it happened on the same day
as the tianan Square massacre in
Beijing but once you see this event
you’re never going to forget
it on the 6th of June 1989 a helicopter
was approaching the paradise of Zara
Cemetery in the southern suburbs of the
Iranian capital
Iran on board was the body of the
supreme leader of Iran two Iranian
people this day is the day of great
sadness we have lost a great
leader and we are all mourning for such
a great man an estimated 10 million
Iranians in Black Funeral dress clamored
to catch a glimpse of the body of their
supreme leader Ayatollah rahah Ki his
supporters gathered like tiny insult
covering every stretch of ground as far
as the eye could see several people were
crushed to death in the hysterical crowd
which was standing outside in 40°
heat the helicopter seemed safer than
going by road but then it landed almost
on top of the crowd the mobs swamped the
helicopter after touchdown hysterical
mourners pulled the coffin from the
helicopter and began parading it around
the site the crowd was in a frenzy the
body fell out of the coffin in the melee
the body of the spiritual leader of Iran
was mauled and appeared to drop to the
ground the burial shroud he was wrapped
in was torn off and came apart as
mourners tried to grab bits of it for
themselves in the chaos some people fell
into the empty grave officials fired
warning shots to get the crowd to move
back they stuffed the body back into the
helicopter and announced that the burial
was
cancelled
the helicopter took off with people
hanging onto the bottom of it and trying
to pull the supreme leader back out as
the helicopter flew away the body was
partially hanging out the door many
hours later the helicopter returned the
funeral casket was enveloped by soldiers
but finally Ayatollah heni was found his
resting place to stop people digging up
the body the guards used a crane to
build a pyramid of shipping containers
on top of the
grave thousands kissed the containers
some passed their children up to the
guards so they could kiss the containers
closer to the center of the pyramid it
was one of the largest Gatherings of
human beings in history and probably the
most chaotic funeral ever caught on film
his son ammed says Ayatollah H is on his
way to heaven it’s been a rough trip so
far this funeral was for a man who had
led his country for just 10 years not
long for an Iranian leader 10 years in
which hundreds of thousands of of young
Iranian men had been killed in a war 10
years which had seen a 60% drop in GDP
per person 10 years which had seen Iran
become a global Pariah virtually
friendless in the International
Community and yet Millions were
hysterically grieving his death mourners
beat their heads in distress distraught
to see the last glimpse of the man
considered almost to be a prophet such
is the power of a revolutionary leader
or
more specifically a revolutionary
idea this is our third episode about the
history of the escalating conflict
between the US and Iran you can go back
if you want to hear more but today the
story of
raahi and how his revolutionary idea
changed the course of Middle Eastern
history and is still affecting us today
I’m Matt bevon and this is if you’re
listening
1960s Iran was a place that was changing
very quickly thanks to the policies of
the Sha Iran’s King of Kings he has
tried to reshape Iran virtually
overnight into a modern industrial
capitalist State while at the same time
preserving the unquestioned authority of
the ancient Persian kings the Sha a man
installed by the British and kept in
power by a CIA Le coup in 1953 was
rapidly westernizing his country with
American help even so most Iranians were
devout followers of a subset of Islam
called TWA shiism more than 90% of
Iran’s population of 35 million belong
to the shate branch of Islam they
believe that the 12th Iman a descendant
of the Prophet Muhammad has been in
hiding for 1200 years waiting to return
at the end of time and create an Islamic
caliphate on Earth for 1200 years most
twers believed they should just sit
tight wait for the 12th Imam to return
and follow the five pillars of Islam
that all Muslims learn as children to be
a good Muslim you have to believe in
Allah and believe that Muhammad was the
last prophet and you have to fast in the
Ramadan and then you have to pray five
times a day and you have to give charity
to the poor and um you have to go to Haj
in to Mecca so sit back follow the
pillars of Islam enjoy a modern
westernized Iran and wait for the imam’s
return but a man named rahah H had other
ideas Hai was a religious leader a
teacher and a scholar who had gained a
big enough following to be given the
title of grand Ayatollah by 1964 he was
well known across Iran as the instigator
of a number of big political protests
Iran sheras and the holy city of K were
the scenes of the most violent
disturbances Street B battling in which
20 were killed and hundreds injured you
see heri had a very big very
revolutionary idea what if instead of
just following the five pillars of Islam
and waiting for the imam’s return to
create the new caliphate we just start
creating the caliphate now prioritize
political activism even over the
traditional Five Pillars don’t separate
church and state Let the church run the
state by the rules set out in the Coran
Islam is not only a religion but a total
system derived from the Quran and the
traditions of the prophet in the Quran a
clear guidelines for every aspect of
personal social and political life
westernizing the country was not his
idea of how to build a caliphate the
shate leaders known as the mullers
believe that the Sha’s great plan for a
modern western style Nation built on the
oil wealth is not only a waste of time
but it’s also morally wrong the protests
continued the Sha sent in in the Army Ki
was arrested briefly jailed and then put
under house arrest Ayatollah Ki has
become a symbol of political opposition
in a nation where political opposition
has for many years been brutally
suppressed now the Prime Minister Hassan
Ali manur who was in charge of running
the government for the Sha called Ki in
to ask him politely to stop he asked to
stay out of politics and go back to
being like every other cleric focus on
the Five Pillars wait for the 12th
imam’s return hum refused repeatedly the
Prime Minister flew into a fit of rage
shouting and yelling and finally he
marched Up To Hai and smacked him across
the
face Hai was taken to the Tyran airport
and put on a plane to Turkey he had been
exiled 2 months later the Prime Minister
was assassinated by supporters of Ki
don’t slap a guy with hundreds of
thousands of fanatical followers now the
old saying of out of sight out of mind
really doesn’t apply to
revolutionaries plenty of revolutions
have been orchestrated by people in
Exile Vladimir lenon overthrew the
Russian Zars in a revolution and did it
all from Switzerland in fact it can be
an
advantage when someone’s in your country
you have some kind of control over them
you can silence them but if they’re
outside your country it’s much
harder so ayat Ed as loud as he
could from his bases in Turkey Iraq and
France the ayat recorded antisha sermons
onto cassette tapes which were smuggled
into Iran and played in mosques he did
interviews with International TV and
radio stations which were then broadcast
into
Iran in his surprisingly calm tone of
voice he railed against the Shar of Iran
the king of Saudi Arabia the dictator of
Iraq and of course the Zionist state of
Israel as we discussed in the last
episode the Sha thought that he had a
special connection with his people and
that just about everyone loved him Thea
has conceded that perhaps 1% of the
people might oppose him turns out it was
a little bit more than that some recent
reports have labeled the Sha’s opponents
as conservative religious Fanatics
others have described them as
revolutionary extremists the Sha himself
has called them Islamic marxists
Communists revolutionaries religious
conservatives throw in workers students
business owners their ultimate aims may
be dissimilar but for the moment they
have won catch cry the Sha must go but
they all agreed they wanted the Sha gone
when the demonstrators sh death to the
Sha their next cry is usually Long Live
Ki in October 1977 K’s oldest son
Mustafa died in an Iraqi jail humi
blamed the death on the savak secret
police saying that that they had
murdered his son now the Sha has a
military government a seriously
disrupted economy and a nation at the
brink of Revolution Memorial services to
Mustafa Ki turned into deadly protests
the Iranian Revolution had begun with
soldiers firing indiscriminately into
crowds of demonstrators leaving hundreds
dead and many more wounded it was really
only a matter of time before the Sha was
forced out the priests have armed the
mobs pistols and petrol bombs are the
new symbols of power in Iran in February
1979 the Sha fled and a plane arrived in
tyan carrying the country’s new leader
home from 16 years in Exile the holiest
of men the Ayatollah Ki The Alliance of
Democrats Communists and clerics who got
together to oppose the Sha disintegrated
and the clerics took charge now K and
the Quran rule where once the Sha
claimed to be United with his
people Iran’s 500y old monarchy was
Swept Away in favor of a
theocracy under the eye of the clerics a
unique hybrid constitutional model was
created the country would have regular
elections a parliament and a president
like most democracies around the world
but a top that would sit a supreme
leader an Islamic cleric who gets to
decide who can run for office which of
the government’s policies can be
implemented and how to use the country’s
resources
under Islam oil like all natural
resources is god-given and God
controlled the supreme leader is
appointed for Life by a council of
clerics is in charge of the Armed Forces
and cannot be disputed the constitution
of the new Islamic Republic of Iran was
more liberal than many expected women
and some religious minorities had far
more rights in Iran than they did in
Saudi Arabia and other Arab monarchies
but despite the appearance of modernity
the regime was just as brutal as the Sha
Islamic justice as interpreted by Ki
will cut off the hands of those who
disobey the reported savagery of the
secret police has not died with the
secret policeman Ki ordered a purge of
the top levels of the military justice
system and secret police with thousands
publicly executed to make way for the
new incoming clerical Elite Ki was
officially named as the Imam a title
previously reserved in Iran for the 12
descendants of Muhammad humi didn’t just
change the trajectory of Iran’s future
his vision of Islam had a ripple effect
across the Middle East the incredible
success of his Revolution triggered
copycat actions from people in other
countries who wanted to accelerate the
rise of a global caliphate an uprising
began in Saudi Arabia an American
Military Base was bombed in Lebanon the
president of Egypt was
assassinated and H started encouraging
followers living in neighboring Iraq to
overthrow the country’s dictator now the
dictator of Iraq was a cool nice guy
with a cool nice mustache who would
never ever dare to cause any problems
for the West Iraq’s president Saddam
Hussein Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein it’s unclear how much us
involvement there was in saddam’s
decision to invade Iraq but what is
clear is that once he did invade the US
was all in the Iraqis began the war
eagerly and with confidence that they
could route an enemy already weaken from
the revolution of the ayatollahi and
purges within the armed forces the
United States government had invested a
lot of time and effort in keeping the
Sha in power and now the Sha was gone
and the Ayatollah had more than 50
American hostages in the US Embassy in
tyan they wanted Saddam to topple Ki it
was a war in which most outside has
predicted a quick Iraqi Victory followed
by the destabilization or overthrow of
Iran’s fundamentalist Islamic regime it
backfired spectacularly far from
undermining the Iranian Administration
the war with Iraq served to strengthen
the regime nothing galvanizes a
population like an invasion just ask
Ukraine Saddam quickly realized that he
was fighting an uphill battle and tried
to find a way out but humi wouldn’t let
him Ayatollah Hai declared there was no
question of compromise the fighting
would go on until the last Iraqi was
driven from Iranian soil after 8 years
and at least a million deaths heni
agreed to end the fighting the Border
was unmoved a year later heni was dead
and given what may very well be the most
extraordinary funeral in history that
war is known as the Iran Iraq war but
it’s not a great name for it
it was really just the first phase of a
war against followers of K’s idea of a
global Islamic caliphate being
established today rather than at some
time in the distant future and extreme
islamists have taken up that fight it’s
not fought in the Iranian mountains it’s
fought by iran-backed groups like Hamas
in Gaza and Israel Hezbollah in Lebanon
and the houthis in the waters of the Red
Sea the houthi say this latest attack is
in response to American British
aggression Ayatollah H’s Legacy is
complex he overthrew the increasingly
despotic sha when most thought that was
impossible but then he instituted a
regime that was just as brutal and
corrupt which has been forced to quash
multiple uprisings against it from the
people it
oppresses now Iran is isolated corrupt
economically desperate and in a
permanent Cold War which is now getting
hotter by the
day
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