Imam Khomeini's legacy

 

The 1979 Islamic Revolution spearheaded by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini centered on the principles of justice and struggle against hegemonic powers of the world and laid the foundation for other movements across the world, from South Africa to South Asia.

Imam Khomeini had the distinction of being the first world leader to break all ties with the then South African apartheid regime as well as the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv, bravely declaring them as illegitimate entities in what was widely regarded as a daring move by the nascent Islamic Republic.

 

Over the years, the Islamic Republic of Iran remained steadfastly devoted to one of the key founding principles of Imam Khomeini’s movement against global arrogance and international Zionism that vowed an all-out, unified effort (jihad) to liberate al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the entire occupied Palestine from the genocidal occupation and its Western backers.

 

we  remember Imam Khomeini’s persistent calls for unity among Muslims as well as all oppressed people around the world to mount resistance against foreign-backed aggression and atrocities on their respective nations, famously insisting in one of his speeches following the victory of the Islamic Revolution that if every Muslim pours a bucket of water on Israel, it would be swiftly washed away.

 

The US administration of Jimmy Carter at the time made no secret of its vigorous efforts to suppress any sort of revolutionary movements in the Muslim world, most particularly in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region and North Africa, citing Egypt – neighboring the occupied territories – as the most immediate source of concern.

 

Despite all attempts to contain the spread of the Islamic Revolution in the region, the people of Afghanistan – neighboring Iran – successfully waged a major resistance campaign that led to the eventual withdrawal of Soviet occupation forces from the country and the ouster of the nation’s Moscow-installed communist ruler.

 

Following the failure of repeated US efforts to engineer subversive plots and coups to topple the nascent Islamic Republic in Iran – as evident by documents discovered in the US Embassy in Tehran following its takeover by a group of Iranian students in November 1979 – Carter administration admitted to Washington’s role in instigating the imposition of a war of aggression against Iran by then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in September 1980 as part of their new campaign to punish Tehran.

 

Interestingly, Imam Khomeini’s designation of the ‘Great Satan’ label for the US continues to resonate today, with the global condemnation of unreserved US support for the Israeli regime’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza as well as its shipments of bombs and other weaponry to the Zionist entity.

 

The label has often been used across the globe and throughout the United States to describe Washington for its domestic policies facilitating persisting police brutality against African-Americans and other minorities, mass shootings, brutal anti-immigrant measures and Islamophobia as well as foreign meddling and waging military invasions, assassination terror attacks, economic sanctions, and supporting and supplying tyrants and terrorist groups in regions from Asia Pacific to Latin America.

 

While Imam Khomeini’s firm stance against dictators and arrogant powers drew the wrath and evil plots of global arrogance, international Zionism and the establishment of media conglomerates in the US and Europe, his unflinching defense of oppressed communities in their struggle for justice, basic rights and decent living, won him respect and admiration in the farthest corners of the world.