i) The jihad Continues
Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world."
The goal of this conquest would be to establis h the hegemony of Islamic
law. As Khomeini proclaimed: "What is the good of us [i.e.. the mullahs)
asking for the hand of a thief to be severed or an adulte ress to be stoned
todeath when all we can do is recommend such punishments. hawing no
power to implement them?"
He then delivered a notorio us rebuke to theIslam-is-a-religio n-of-peace
crowd: 'Thos e who know noth ing of Isla m prete nd tha t Isla m
couns els against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill
all the unbeliever s ju st asthe y wou ld kil l you all ' Doe s thi s mea n
tha t Mus lim s sho uld sit back until they are devoure d by [the
unbelie vers]? Islam says: Killthem. put them to the sword and scatter
[their armies!.... Islam says:Whate ver good there is exist s thank s to
the sword and in the shadow of sword! Peopl e canno t he made
obedi ent excep t with the sword! The swordisthe key to Paradise,
which can he opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of
other [Qur'anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging
Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all thismean that Islam is a
religionthat prevents men from waging war? I spitupon those foolish
souls who make such a claim.'
The sha ria sta te Kho mei ni env isi one d was not one tha t gua ran tee d
equal right s for all. In1985,Sa'id Raja 'i-Khora ssani , the perman ent
deleg ate to the Unite d Natio ns from the Islami c Repub lic of Iran,
decla red that"the veryconceptof human rights was 'a Judeo-Christian
invention' and inadmi ssib le in Isla m.... Accor ding to Ayato llah
Khome ini, one of theshah's 'most despicable sins' was the fact, that
Iran was one of the original grou p of nati ons that draf ted and
appr oved the Univ ersa l Decl arat ionof Human Rights." "
Th e De ar bo rn an d Da ll as pr o-Kh om ei ni di sp la ys in di ca te d th at
Khome ini 's vis ionfor so ciet yis ali veinAme ric a tod ay—and tha t it is
dan gerous ly naive to assume that all Musli ms immedi ately and unque stioningly
accept Americanpluralismand the idea of a state not governed