Ayatollah Khomeni

From RationalWiki

The Ayatollah Khomeni was a fundamentalist Islamic preacher who overthrew the United States-backed dictator of Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1978-9. Once in power, he instituted a very strict form of sharia law and officially proclaimed Iran to be an Islamic Republic. He is most remembered from that time for issuing a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie.

The Ayatollah Khomeini should not be confused with the Ayatollah Khamenei, who took over (somewhat) sometime after the prior's death. The latter is (by Iranian standards) a moderate, and when in office sought détente with the US.