Escalation could hardly have been avoided. In March 1963,
Twelver Shiites celebrated the anniversary of one of their
martyrs, Ja’far al-Sadiq, the Sixth Imam, who is said to have been
poisoned by Muslim enemies in 765. Khomeini took the occasion
to issue another denunciation of the shah’s regime. In response,
government security agents invaded the Madraseh Faizieh.
They destroyed property, took Khomeini and some of the other
teachers into custody, and beat students, killing one of them.
The clergy were soon released because of political pressure, but
the affair drew wider attention to the movement of the religious
protesters—particularly to Khomeini. Qom was becoming a
seedbed of revolution, and Khomeini its planter. Copies of his
speeches began to be widely read and quoted.
The “White Revolution” was changing the life and career of
Ayatollah Khomeini. It was lifting him from his position of
respect but relative obscurity to one of national notoriety. Until
then, wrote one historian, no one could have imagined the
stony-countenanced cleric from Khomein ever would amount
to “anything but a high-ranking ayatollah.”^19
With Khomeini emerging as a spearhead, the ulema organized
more demonstrations in June 1963. These coincided with the
commemoration of Husain’s historic martyrdom in 680.
Some of them called for a jihad, or holy war, against the
Pahlavi government.
At the Madraseh Faizieh, a major speech by the renegade
Khomeini was anticipated by students and government officials
alike. He did not disappoint them. Driven from his home to
the Madreseh Faizieh in a Volkswagen, with students walking in
procession in front and behind, he arrived to find a large audience
gathering in the courtyards. When he began his speech, govern-
ment agents cut off the power—not just to his microphone, but
to the whole city. His supporters connected the sound system to
an electrical generator. The ayatollah’s address was broadcast
outside the school premises over loudspeakers.
Khomeini spoke passionately of Husain’s death. He compared
the circumstances of 680 and those of 1963. Husain had done38 AYATOLLAH RUHOLLAH KHOMEINI
http://www.ebook3000.com