“The emergence in Iran of a militant Islamic Republic caused
tremors among conservative monarchs and reformist dictators
alike, and Iran became isolated in the Middle East.”^59 Even
Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, which won Khome-
ini’s support after the revolution, became concerned with the
ayatollah’s vision for crushing Israel and taking over Jerusalem,
the city at the heart of Israeli-Arab tensions. The PLO long had
sought an independent Palestine along the River Jordan, with
Jerusalem as its capital. It feared that Khomeini had other plans
for the ancient holy city.
No one, regardless of how powerful, was truly secure during
the years of Khomeini’s leadership. Many of the best-educated
and most-skilled citizens, troubled by the actions of the new
regime, quietly departed the country. They left a void that was
difficult to fill. Even prominent Muslim clerics were held suspect
by the government if they showed less than enthusiastic support
for Khomeini and his lieutenants.
A tragic example was Ayatollah Shariatmadari. He was a
man who scorned politics but who had helped dissuade the
shah’s government from placing Khomeini on trial and possibly
executing him in the 1960s. Shariatmadari voiced support for
the Iranian revolution but opposed violence. He also questioned
the wisdom of having a Muslim-run government. He thus
became a target of the radical leadership.
When the government in April 1982 arrested some two
hundred people in the Qotbzadeh conspiracy plot against
Khomeini’s regime, Shariatmadari was implicated. Khomeini’s
henchmen built a case that Shariatmadari had known of the
alleged plot and refused to divulge it to authorities. They also
produced documents (of questionable veracity, according to
some historians) that suggested close ties between Shariatmadari,
Shah Pahlavi, and U.S. interests. They were afraid of dangerous
protests if they executed an ayatollah of Shariatmadari’s stature,
so they stripped him of his authority and placed him under
house arrest. Aging and feeble, he died in 1985. Some believe he
had been deprived of adequate medical care.
A Troubled Decade 77