Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini had a profound impact on specifically the Middle East, but also the whole world. His vicious hate of the West, especially America, heightened tensions between Muslims around the world and America, paving the way for terrorist bodies such as al-Qaeda. As an Iranian Shia cleric, Khomeini was the political and spiritual leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, then the Shah of Iran. Khomeini ruled Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. Unfortunately, the widespread effect Khomeini had on the Middle East can hardly be considered advantageous. Khomeini’s call for Islamic revolution all over the Middle East led to a war between Iraq and Iran. Khomeini’s strict Shia Islamic law made women inferior beings, and opposition to this law was greeted with harsh punishments ranging from imprisonment to torture to execution. Khomeini planted the seeds for the Islamic jihad that are still breeding war today.

In an attempt to correct things, the Shah tripled taxes on salaried workers, and imposed fines on thousands of shopkeepers. Thousands of Iranians began to protests the taxes, poor living conditions, and misuse of money by their government. For the first few years, various clusters such as industrial workers, bazaaris (shopkeepers), slum dwellers, Shia clergy, and more were divided, each seeking their own interests. Khomeini organized this newly formed revolution from his exile in Paris. In February 1978 radical young soldiers in the Iranian Air Force joined the revolution. It was not long before the Shah was overthrown, and Khomeini was leader of Iran. Under Khomeini's leadership, Iran became a pure Shia theocracy in just a little over two years. Suffering from cancer, Khomeini died in 1989.