Islamic Rule Quotes
Khomeini was a politician as well as a cleric. He was not always consistent depending on his audience. This book was the publication of 17 different speeches with different audiences. Here he opposes all monarchy, but there is little doubt that his main target was the monarchy of Saudi Arabia. In {620335} he suggests that monarchy would be acceptable if the monarch followed Islamic law. Here he leaves no room for monarchies of which there were and are a number in the Muslim world. And at the height of Islam there was a Caliph who not only had absolute rule of ALL Muslim countries, but he was the absolute ruler of the religion. The Caliph and later the Islamic Sultan held more absolute power than any king or Pope ever had. Most of the Islamic fundamentalists claim that they want a return to having a Caliph with absolute power. And even in Iraq today, the “Supreme Leader” exercises more autonomous power, than any monarch or dictator does in his own country.
While not in the Koran, this attributed statement is the basis for the ban on non-Muslims going on a Hajj and going to the most holy Muslim places—Mecca, Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat as well as the anti-religious hostility to all religions but Islam which is present in some Muslim countries.
Despite the fact that the statues were holy symbols to Buddhists, they were offensive to Muslims who say statues as “graven images” prohibited by the Koran. See Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil {608419} and Jamal’s other quotation {604665}.
Here Khomeini takes the classic Islamic view of the Koran that leaders should be obeyed unless they do not follow Islam. To the leaders of Islamic nations, this means that even if the state is not a theocracy, the Muslim clergy has the final say as to whether a ruler may justly remain in power since they are the ones who determine if a ruler is properly following Islam.
This sura has unfortunately been used by some Serbians and other Christians to justify ethnic cleansing against Muslims.
While the vast majority of Muslims had little or no thought of Islam ruling or even dominating the non-Muslim part of the world. But of the minority of the Islamic Religious Extremists, most saw a struggle with the Christians, Jews, and other religions of the world until Islam ruled the world—an outcome which most saw as inevitable.
Ethnic cleansing was a basic component of early Islam. The contemporary seeming hysteria over American troops in Arab nations, has in addition to the usual problems of soldiers from another land this background. The same is true about the presence of Israel. From some points of view, the presence of Christians and Jew in the Middle East is wrong per se because it undermines the work and intention of the Prophet.
This principle explains why so many Islamic governments are monarchies and dictatorships. Islamic legitimacy requires the ruler to be sure that the society functions according to Sharia (Islamic Law). It is better if the ruler is selected by the senior and responsible members of society but that is not required. He could be a king or a dictator. And it is irrelevant how he comes to power under this interpretation so long as he rules following Islamic law. Saudi Arabia is an excellent example of a dictatorial monarchy which is considered legitimate since it follows Islamic law. Some modern Muslims do not support this traditional view and believe that a legitimate ruler must be selected by the will of the people.
He repudiated all cases in which a Muslim sold land to a non-Muslim, even though in the Holy Land, Christians, Jews and Muslims have been buying and selling land there to each other for centuries. This has been going on from the time of Christ for the Christians and Jews, and the Muslims from the time of the founding of Islam in the 7th Century. Even Caliph Omar, the authority he cited, allowed and recognized sales of land to Christians and Jews and purchases from them. Rantisi and his followers have actually killed Palestinians who have sold land to Jews.
The People of Basra were not Christians or Jews. Most were then Zoroastrians who the Prophet also allowed to maintain their religion if they paid the special tax.
