    17

    I ranians to overthrow the shah and usher in a government based on

    strict Islamic doctrine.

    What did the ayatollah's pronouncements say?  Among other

    things, that infidels are like dogs.  Their existence is an affront to Allah.

    Here's how the ayatollah himself put it:

    "...Moslems have no alternative... to an armed holy war against profane

    governments. ...Holy war means the conquest of all non-Moslem

    territories. ...It will ...be the duty of every able-bodied adult male to

    volunteer for this war of conquest, the final aim of which is to put

    Koranic law in power from one end of the earth to the other.41

    "The leaders of the USSR and of England and the president of the

    United States are ...infidels....42 ...Every part of the body of a

    non-Moslem individual is impure, even the hair on his head and his

    body hair, his nails, and all the secretions of his body.  Any man or

    woman who denies the existence of God, or believes in His partners

    [the Christian Trinity], or else does not believe in His Prophet

    Mohammed, is impure (in the same way as are excrement, urine, dog,

    and wine)[sic]."43

    Concluded the Ayatollah, "Islam does not allow peace between...

    a Moslem and an infidel."44

    Though many of us imagine that the promotion of harmony is a

    prime objective of every major world faith, the ayatollah disagreed.

    "The leaders of our religion were all soldiers, commanders and

    warriors," he wrote, "...they killed and they were killed."  The concept

    of a peaceful prophet was so alien to the ayatollah that he was

    convinced Christ's message had been deliberately distorted by

    Westerners.  Said Khomeini, "This idea of turning the other cheek has

    been wrongly attributed to Jesus (peace be unto him); it is those

    barbaric imperialists that have attributed it to him.  Jesus was a

    prophet, and no prophet can be so illogical."45

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