As the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran approaches, an examination of the philosophy of the father of the Islamic Republic comes to us from an unlikely source: The Herald in Zimbabwe.
This article is surprisingly detailed about Khomeini’s philosophy, which seems founded partly in economics. Khomeini believed that Muslims needed to be aware of the West, but not admire the West. Their awareness was necessary to reject Western values.
“Our industry is an industry that is dependent on the West and has transformed Iran into an assembly-line country. It has destroyed our agriculture. It has placed all our underground resources and human resources such as our youth at the disposal of the West.”
Among the objections that Khomeini expressed to Western influences in Islamic societies were objections to capitalism:
Spreading capitalism in Islamic countries
Spreading the material, profit motive and secularist outlook
These seem eerily similar to the thoughts expressed by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi a few months ago:
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1463/pub_detail.asp
The rest of the examination of Khomeini’s thoughts can be found here:
