Iran: From the Shah’s Dictatorship to Khomeini’s Demagogic Theocracy

“Not the ‘republic of Iran,’ nor the `democratic republic of Iran,’ nor the ‘democratic Islamic republic of Iran,’ just the `Islamic Republic of Iran,’ the Ayatollah Khomeini told the nation imperiously before the referendum of March 1979. On behalf of the nation, his Prime Minister Bazargan had prostrated himself before Khomeini, the Imam, the Supreme Leader of the Revolution: Islam was not to be denigrated by the adjective “democratic.” Late in May ’79, prefacing what he considered his moss important speech since the February revolution with “O God, witness that I gave your message,” Khomeini reaffirmed that Iran was to remain an Islamic republic; anyone wishing Iran to be just a republic, or a democratic republic, or a democratic Islamic republic was the enemy of Islam and of God.

Like so much else, the significance of Khomeini’s insistence on the categorical exclusion of any reference to democracy w...