• DEFENSE OF THE PROPHET OF ISLAM AND RELIGIOUS VALUES, IMAM KHOMEINI'S LAST CONFRONTATION WITH THE WEST:
On conclusion of the Iraq-iran war, the political leaders of the West began a new offence against Revolutionary Islam. In previous years, during the Iranian defense, and in confronting the Hizbullah of Lebanon, the Islamic Movement of Palestine, and Islamic Crusade of Afghanistan, and after the death of Anwar Sadat by the hands of the Muslim Revolutionaries of Egypt (14. 7. 1360=Oct. 4, 1981), they had realized that the advancing Islamic movement cannot be smashed by weapons and military action. The new front was one of psychologic, cultural and ideologic type. The dispute between the Sunnis and Shiites had faded away by the alertness of Imam Khomeini and the authorities of the Islamic Republic. They had to attack the religious fundamentals and sacred things, the love of which had generated the unity of objectives and modes of recent Islamic moves. The account of the book Satanic Verses, written by Salman Rushdi and officially supported by the Western governments for its publication, was a prelude to cultural attack. Had the Islamic society not resisted and protested against the publication of this book and its insult to the grand Prophet of Islam, the enemy would have won the first skirmishes. Next, the sanctities and fundamentals of faith that have produced, in Islamic societies, the belief in supernatural and moral values, would come under attack by subtle ruses. It is these sacred things that form the identity of religious thought, the identity of the Islamic unity, and by throwing doubt upon them, the world of Islam and Islamic movements would lose their identity from within and shall be disarmed when confronting Western cultural and ideologic invasion.
With due consideration of above proofs and realities, on 25.11.1367, in a few short lines, Imam Khomeini decreed a death sentence for Salman Rushdie and the publishers who were aware of the contents of this book, as atheists, and thus, he set off another revolution. The lines and files of Muslims, regardless of their beliefs, languages and countries, opposed the West in unison. The outcomes of this event established the existence of the Islamic Society as a single united Ummat. It showed that inspite of internal disputes and lateral differences, if properly led, the Muslims can, as pioneers in reviving religious values, assume a decisive role for the future of the world. Similarly, this decree destroyed the supposition of Westerners that, in accepting the 598 Resolution, Imam Khomeini has forsaken his revolutionary objectives.