Does the new leader of Iran, President Ahmadinejad, follows Khomeini’s interpretation?
Is that what he believes? A: To some extent. There are many things in Khomeini and Shariati, particularly Khomeini’s reading of Shiism. First of all, Khomeini was a populist revolutionary. Ahmadinejad is also a populist revolutionary. Khomeini, though, was not interested in playing folk Shia practices. He never participated in an Ashura. He never went to a shrine. Even though he used the title “imam” and appealed to messianism, he did not like folk-level messianism, whereas Ahmadinejad does play to the folk-level messianism by claiming to have seen light at the United Nations and that the hidden imam appeared to him there and the like. So there is a difference. But one of the very interesting breaks is that Ahmadinejad represents an anti-clerical trend in the Iranian revolution. This was a revolution that brought the clergy to power. The entire doctrine that Khomeini had was premised on the rule of the clergy, whereas Ahmadinejad very subtly is asserting the role and power of the revol
