    74

    whose passages say, "slay them wherever ye catch them and turn

    them out from where they have turned you out; for tumult and

    oppression are worse than slaughter; ...  Such is the reward of those

    who suppress faith. ...And fight them on until there is no more tumult

    or oppression and there prevail justice and faith in Allah."  "Justice,"

    in the eyes of many ancient and modern Moslems, means the

    imposition of Koranic law.  "Faith" is understood to be faith in Islam.

    Hence the passage, in the eyes of many, instructs the pious to use

    slaughter to impose Koranic law and Islam, since slaughter is

    preferable to the continuance of non-Islamic codes and beliefs

    ("tumult and oppression").

    36.  Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power, pp. 141-142.

    37.  The Qu'ran, "Al-Baqara"--sura 25.

    38.  The Qu'ran, "Al-Baqara"--sura 42.

    39.  The Qu'ran, "Al-Baqara"--sura 83.

    40.  A Moslem cleric rises through five grades of rank in his career.  He starts out

    as a talib ilm--a student.  He moves on to mujitahid--a person capable of arriving at

    an opinion.  Then a mubelleg al-risala--"a carrier of the message;" a hojat

    al-Islam--an "authority on Islam;" and ayatollah--a "sign of God."  The final, and

    ultimate level of authority is ayatollah al-uzma-- "great sign of god."  (Mohammed

    Heikal, The Return of the Ayatollah, p. 83.)

    41. Ayatollah Khomeini, Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini, p. 4.  For similar

    statements to this and to those that follow, see Ruhollah Khomeini, Islam and

    Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Hamid Algar, trans., pp.

    327, 34, 48, 286, 287.  See also Shaul Bakash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran

    and the Islamic Revolution, p. 234.

    42. Ayatollah Khomeini, Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini, p. 26.

    43. Ayatollah Khomeini, Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini, p. 51.  Some western

    Islamic scholars are intent on "correcting" what they perceive as an undeserved

    negative image of Islam.  They claim that the "believers in God's partners" so often

    accursed by Mohammed are "pagans" and not Christians.  These savants point out

    quite validly that the Koran says: "Those who believe (in the Qur'an) and those who

    follow the Jewish (Scriptures) and the Christians and the Sabeans and who believe

    in Allah and the last day and work righteousness shall have their reward with their

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