Battle of Two Islams

An Ayatullah explains why he now opposes Khomeini

For the past ten years, the Ayatullah Jalal Ganje'i, 40, has been a professor of Islamic theology in Iran and Iraq. In the early 1960s he was a student of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Iranian revolution. In those days, both men were opposed to the repressive rule of the Shah of Iran, and Ganje'i spent several years in jail for his dissident activities. After the Shah's fall, Ganje'i sided with what he calls the "progressive" Islam of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, a guerrilla organization that is now trying to overthrow the Tehran government. In early February he fled to Paris to join Mujahedin Leader Massoud Rajavi in exile. Excerpts from an interview with TIME Correspondent Raji Samghabadi:

Q. Why didn't you and your comrades criticize Khomeini earlier?

A. Within the seminaries, clergymen of different schools did criticize Khomeini's views, but we had to postpone this battle until after the collapse of the Shah. On the eve of the post-Shah era, the Mujahedin wasted no time demanding a program of change that sharply contradicted Khomeini's avowed views and intentions. The monarchy was still in its death throes when the single most vital issue of the revolution surfaced: the battle between two Islams, the Islam of progress vs. the Islam of backwardness, the Islam of freedom and human dignity vs. the Islam of torture and tyranny, the Islam of social justice vs. the Islam of a privileged, ruling priestly class.

Q. But aren't the Mujahedin simply Marxists in Islamic clothing?

A. This is an epithet dreamed up by the Shah and later propagated by Khomeini and company. To answer your question, we must first establish what Marxism is. If it is dialectic materialism and historical determinism and, by later additions, the dictatorship of the proletariat, it is certainly not the Mujahedin's Islam. If dedication to social justice is Marxism, then the Mujahedin are Marxists. If opposition to class privilege and exploitation is Marxism, then the Mujahedin are Marxists. Of course, in this case, you have to say that Moses, Jesus Christ and Muhammad were Marxists too.

Q. If the Mujahedin are true Muslims, what is Khomeini?

A. He is a power-hungry reactionary and an archopportunist. He has proved to be a great master of deception. I must admit that even I had doubts at times when Khomeini issued decidedly enlightened and progressive statements from Paris. I used to wonder whether the man who had penned works fit for the stone age could be the same one under the apple tree in Paris.

Q. Critics of Islam as an ideology of government say it is intolerant and will reduce non-Muslims to second-class citizenship.

A. This is Khomeini's Islam. Ours says that all power comes from the people, no matter what their religion.

Q. Some observers believe the situation is ripe for the rise of a military dictator, aided by the army or the middle class.

A. Hundreds of armed forces personnel have so far joined us. We have yet to see a single one join a putative military dictator. As for a so-called middle class, it seems to exist only in the imagination of Western analysts. If this dictator-loving middle class were there, why did it let the Shah fall to begin with? The middle class they refer to escaped from the revolution even before the Shah. If that's all it could do then, what can it do now? This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.