• POLITICAL PARTIES AND GROUPS (FROM THE 15TH OF KHORDAD UPRISING UNTIL THE VICTORY OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION):
The major active political movement and challenge of the Iranian people after the 15th of Khordad uprising, that lasted until the triumph of the Revolution, was the non-partisan, self-propelled movement of the clergy, who followed the path of Imam Khomeini, and conducted the challenge, by using its own religious among the masses, and, by the relation it had with various strata of the population, both in the cities and in rural areas, it carried on the challenge according to the modes and forms that Imam Khomeini had devised at each interval. The ban on preaching, repeated exile to far away places, frequent imprisonment followed by torture and martyrdom in the Shah’s prisons, was a fate that the dedicated Iranian clergy welcomed, in the years following the 15th Khordad uprising, rather than giving up their objectives. On the other hand, after the 15th of Khordad, 1342, a number of religious societies of Tehran (mainly religious personalities and business unions, who believed in the leadership and reference authoritativeness of Imam Khomeini, formed a group called Islamic coalition society. This organization’s military branch acted the way the (Fadaiyan Islam) did. The terror of Hasanali Mansur, the Prime minister, whom the passage of the capitulation bill had put to shame, was carried out by this coalition society.

the Shah’s Regime arrested and executed several highly effective elements of this society and other members of the group were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. The members of and adherents to this society had an effective role, throughout the challenge period, in printing and distribution of Imam Khomeini’s announcements, and in arrangeing the protests of the Bazaar and the guilds, and, toward the end of the Regime, they had a good share in arranging protest demonstrations and strikes. The Islamic Nations Party was formed, by university clergies and other layers, after the 15th of Khordad, with the motive to do armed fighting with the Regime, and began collecting arms and traning its men. However, after sometime, their organization was betrayed by the effort of the Savak. Some of the authorities of the party went into hiding in mountains north of Tehran, but with massive military siege, they were at last arrested and imprisoned.
Of the political groups whose organization dated to the years before 1342, mention can be made of the Tudeh Party, the National Front Organization and the Iranian Liberty Movement. The communist Tudeh Party that was accused by public opinion, of treason, had since sometime before the uprising of Khordad 15, actually, moved out of the scenes of challenging the Shah. It had transferred its organizations to a point abroad, and was constantly beset with inner party disputes, while some of the heads of this party, after their arrest, rolled over to the Shah’s side and advanced to highly sensitive posts within the organs of the Shah’s Regime. The Tudeh Party positions were direct and identical copies of the Moscow positions. In the last 25 years of the Shah’s reign, the Kremlin Pallace policy, was to preserve relations with the Shah’s Regime and maintain the economic positions it had gained. The activities of the Tudeh Party in this period, was confined to issuance of political statements and to having a radio station abroad, and these were utilized as a pressure lever, by moscow, to advance the Sovit Union’s aims. The National Front, inspite of the position it had gained in the movement of oil nationalization, after the Shah’s coup d’etat of the 28th Murdad, was drawn into isolation and became beset with schism and dispute. Scattered propaganda activities and the supporters of the National Front, were mainly confined to student groups abroad. The religious and university supporters of this Front, inspite of the positions of their heads, sided with Imam Khomeini’s uprising. The Iranian Liberty Movement, which enjoyed the support of such a challenging personality, like Ayatullah Taleqani, supported the uprising of Khordad 15. The base of the Liberty Movement was confined to religious and university elements inside the university and abroad. It laeked the political organization necessary to be able to organize the current or process of the challenge.
The Organization of People’s Combatants or Mujahedin was formed in the years 1344-46 (1965-67), with the aim to do armed fighting with the Shah’s Regime. This organization was trapped in eclecticism because of the superficial understanding of Islam by its leaders, and although it declared itself an Islamic organization, secretly, it taught Marxism as the science of economy, to its members.
Imam Khomeini declined to confirm this organization, while its ideological perversion was not yet very well known, and when the Organization’s delegate went to Najaf to request the Imam’s support, His Holiness, reiterating their mental perversion confirmed his own non-support position.
The Khalq Fedaii Guerrilla was another organization made up in 1350 by two smaller communist groups. This organization declared armed conflict as its policy. The forming of this group was due to the disillusionment and inferiority complex of the Iranian communists arising from the conditions of the Tudeh Party, and its betrayals on the one hand, and, the pioneering acts of clergy and Muslim elements, in the 15th Khordad Uprising, on the other.
Both organizations spent the first few years attracting some members and training them. Next, by undertaking several limited and scattered actions, they were identified by Savak and, with the arrest of their leaders, their organization collapsed. Except a few of the responsible members of this organization who were executed, the rest wrote letters of repentance and committed themselves to cooperation with the Savak, and thus, saved their lives. Although Savak, from its humiliating television interviews with the members of this group, somewhat succeeded in confusing the public opinion about the real challengers, yet, thses very interviewes, and the shocking confessions shown, revealed the ethical and religious perversions and the bloody in-group purges of this organization. Some of these elements were spying while in prison, for the benefit of Savak. Victims of such spying were political prisoners who had faith in Imam Khomeini’s Movement.
In addition to the Islamic Coalition group and the Islamic Nations Party, there were other Muslim groups who took to armed conflict in support of Imam Khomeini’s Movement. Among these, mention may be made of the Septempartite Groups who later, entered into a united organization, and the group of the challenging clergyman Shahid Seyyed Au Andarzgoo. (27)
In the years following the Khordad 15, 1342 Uprising, another group by the name of Hojjatiyya Society (= Anjoman Hojjatiyya) whose establishment record dates back to years before, was also active. Activities of this group centered around intellectual opposition to Bahaism in Iran. Although, on the surface, the objectives of this group conflicted with the aims of the Shah’s regime who supported the Bahaism yet, it was not so in practice, because the nature of the organization of the Hojjatiyeh Society, and of its leaders demanded, as a pre-condition, non-interference in politics, and this created favorable conditions for the Regime, by which, a large number of zealous religious forces were deprived of challenging the essential cause of corruption, that is, the puppet monarchy, and became busy with the effect in a non-effective manner. For this reason the Hojjatiyya Society was able to expand its organization, without trouble by Savak, rather, in some cases, even supported by Savak. Many members of this Society following revelations by Imam Khomeini, especially on the eve of the victory of the Revolution, severed their ties with the said Society, and joined Imam’s movement. The said society followed its opposition to Bahaism by means of educational and training courses, while, in recent decades, both in Iran and abroad, Bahaism had come to be known as a political party affiliated with Israel, and under protection by the zionists residing in America, and, naturally, a real challenge to them should be conducted via the same channel.
In the years following 1348, the series of lessons and lectures given by persons such as Professor Mutahhari, Dr. Mufatteh, Dr. Bahonar, Engineer Bazargan and Dr. Ali Shariati had focused the attention of many religious intellectuals and Muslim university elements on the religious centers of Tehran, such as the Qoba, Mosque, The Hedayat Mosque, the Tohid Center and especially the Hoseinia Ershad. Professor Mutahhari, as an outstanding philosopher and jurisconsult, (religious jurist) who, for years had received Lessons and instructions from Imam Khomeini and Allama Tabatabai, when migrated to Tehran, devoted his essential efforts to explaining the fundamentals of Islamic faith, in the language of the day, and to enlightening the young generation about the perversions of eclectic and atheistic schools. The efforts of Dr. Mufatteh and Dr. Bahonar, as, Spiritual and University features were along the same line. After the martyrdom of Prof. Mutahhari, Imam Khomeini termed his entire works invariably useful, and adequately praised his long and valuable services.
The attractability of Dr. Ali Shariati’s works at time, was, apart from his literary style of writing and diction, in the fact that, as an educated intellectual, he viewed and presented the religious, historic, and social accounts of the Iranian religious society critically and radically. In those conditions, the young generation of Iranians was badly missing such arguments.
An impartial study of the documents, letters and arguments that Dr. Shariati had exchanged with the Savak, and were recently published, yield the conclusion that the Savak, realizing Dr. Shariati’s works prevented leftist, communistic tendencies from developing among the young generation, and imagining that, his regular, vehement attacks on the traditionist clergy of Iran, provides grounds for casting disputes in the front of religious elements, did not control his (Dr Shariati’s) activities for several years. However, in 1352 (1973), the Shah’s Savak was compelled to close the Hosieniyya Ershad and arrest Dr. shariati.
The letters and works of Prof. Mutahhari explaining the cause of his withdrawal from the Hosieniyya Ershad activities, indicate that he was of the opinion that the socio-cultural revolutions must be based and followed on pure religious thought basis and the essentiality of Divine Inspiration. Thus Prof. Mutahhari believed that, any novel work and revolutionary interpretations of religious issues not based on said fundamentals and, lacking in intellectual expertise and comprehension, is short-lived and, in the long run, will pave the road for eclecticism, and mixup of religious accounts with disharmonious and non-inspirational views, giving way to the admission of Western philosophic and sociologic views.
After the triumph of the Revolution, cardinal elements, pretending to defend Dr. Shariati, stayed vis-a-vis the clergy and the leadership of the Revolution, though, on the other side, many persons who had leaned toward Islamic-political issues played parts among the defenders of the Islamic Revolution, a truism that cannot be denied, regardless of how his works be interpreted or judged. In view of the said reasons, differing judgements have been made of Dr. Shariati’s role and personality. Some see him, to a practical extent, as having served the cultural objectives of the Regime and many others regard him as a muslim revolutionary thinker, and on the basis of his recent writings, maintain that, Dr. Ali Shariati, himself, had declared the necessity of editing his writings, and removing or deleting superficial and incorrect interpretations and statements. At any rate Imam Khomeini’s position in this connection was very wisely chosen, and it lasted until his ascension.
His Holiness the Imam undertook, in many of his speeches and messages in those days, to defend the historic pioneering role of the Shiite clergy, and to support the great faces of the Ulema and clergy, and he has answered doubts that had emerged. In his letters to the Muslim students Associations in foreign lands, Imam Khomeini has frequently warned them off superficial, non-expertise and unsound approaches to Islam. Meanwhile the Imam has expressed his appreciation and praise for the services of enlightened muslim scholars and has warned them against pseudo-clergies and petrification. He has deemed the posing issues, that lead to disputes and factionalism, under any name could be, as detrimental to the Revolution.