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Khomeini and Nationalism

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Ayatollah Khomeini Through the Lens of the Iran-Iraq War

Part of the book series: Studies in Iranian Politics ((STIRPO))

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Abstract

By analysing Khomeini’s words during the war, this chapter focuses on Khomeini’s views on nationalism. This chapter, first, analyses the use of journey metaphors in Khomeini’s discourse during the war and then it argues why the Ayatollah’s usage of these metaphors demonstrates that he was neither a nationalist nor a religious nationalist. Then, it looks at the labels that Khomeini used during the Iran-Iraq war. To this end, first, this chapter reflects on what Khomeini meant by millat (nation) because Khomeini’s usage of the term millat is the reason that authors like Grinberg (in: Litvak (ed) Constructing nationalism in Iran from the Qajars to the Islamic Republic, Routledge, London, 2017) and Gieling (Religion and war in revolutionary Iran, I.B. Tauris, 1999) wrongly conclude that nationalism is part of Khomeini’s ideology. Second, this chapter reveals how other labels that Khomeini used during the war (For instance, country of Islam, the warriors of Islam and the children of Quran.) reinforced the idea that Khomeini’s main concern was not nationalism. Finally, This chapter discusses why Khomeini’s interdiscursive and intertextual use of Islamic sources illustrates that he was not a nationalist.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a discussion of the Iranian nationalist on this matter, see Delgosha and Imanpour (2016).

  2. 2.

    See Chapter 1.

  3. 3.

    Nation Party of Iran.

  4. 4.

    This will be explored further in the next section.

  5. 5.

    See Chapter 1.

  6. 6.

    Centre for Human Right in Iran (2018) warns that such a chart is a harmful distraction from the infraction of human’s right in Iran.

  7. 7.

    See This Chapter.

  8. 8.

    Khomeini did not directly mention how the UK should exactly change its behaviour towards Iran.

  9. 9.

    See Chapter 1.

  10. 10.

    By analysing journey metaphors in Khomeini’s discourse, Chapter 6 will also help us understand how the Ayatollah prolonged the war.

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  1. Wrexham, UK

    Meysam Tayebipour

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Tayebipour, M. (2023). Khomeini and Nationalism. In: Ayatollah Khomeini Through the Lens of the Iran-Iraq War. Studies in Iranian Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14907-8_5

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