Khomeini’s vision: Nationalism or world order?

Iran’s Islamic revolution presents a new kind of power seizure in the Middle East’s modern history. The many coups in this region in the last generation were typically the work of small groups, usually led by army officers, who only after their takeover began to mobilize popular support for themselves and their new ideology. The concept of territorial nationalism is relatively new in the Middle East. But in the twentieth century, as Majid Khadduri has stressed, “second to Islam, the idea of nationalism has dominated the minds of the Arabs to a greater extent than any other ideology,” despite “Islam’s tacit or expressed disapproval.” By the nature of things, revolutionary movements, once in power often deviate from their original radical doctrines. As long as he headed an opposition movement, Ruhollah Khomeini had depicted “new Iran” modeled on early Islam. Khomeini had declared all governments anywhere, and in Muslim countries most particularly, to be illegitimate in principle.