Last Friday, Hadi Matar allegedly stabbed Salman Rushdie while the author was
lecturing in western New York. The attack came over 30 years after the I





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Khomeinism Continues To Influence Radical Islamic Thought



(New York, N.Y.) — Last Friday, Hadi Matar allegedly stabbed Salman Rushdie
while the author was lecturing in western New York. The attack came over 30
years after the Islamic Republic of Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini
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fatwa ordering Rushdie’s death for his novelThe Satanic Verses. Khomeini
declared the book ran counter to the tenets of Islam, the Islamic prophet
Muhammad, and the Quran, and Rushdie must therefore face death. Khomeini’s
teachings emphasized the necessity of defending against blasphemy against
Islam. Khomeini also set the tone for decades of failed U.S.-Iran relations and
mistrust by labeling the United States as Iran’s primary enemy. Though Khomeini
himself died in 1989, core components of Khomeini’s philosophies and
teachings—known as Khomeinism—continue to influence the actions of Iran and its
terrorist proxies today.



To read CEP’s resource Khomeinism, please click here
<[link removed]>.



Khomeinism promotes absolute religious authority in government and rejects
Western interference and influence. Khomeini’s attitudes have translated into
human rights violations both at home and abroad, as well as at least five
attacks against Rushdie and others involved in publishing, translating, and
distributing his book worldwide.



Khomeini cast the United States as the root cause of Iran’s socio-economic
problems and “the foremost enemy of Islam.” He further accused the United
States of leading an international anti-Islamic front. As a result,
Irani-sponsored terrorist groups and actors have frequently targeted U.S.
interests, beginning with the 1979 hostage crisis and continuing through the
present day.



Khomeini’s successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
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Khomeinist ideals to continue his authoritarian domestic policies and support
for terrorism abroad. The Counter Extremism Project (CEP)’s resource Khomeinism
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has directly spawned or influenced major violent extremist organizations,
including Iran’sIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
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(IRGC),Hezbollah <[link removed]>, and more
recently formedIraq-based Shiite militias
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To read CEP’s resource Ruhollah Khomeini, please click here
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To read CEP’s resource Ali Khamenei, please click here
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