Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian Islamic revolutionary, politician and religious leader who served as the first Supreme Leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian Revolution, which overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and ended the Iranian monarchy. Ideologically a Shia Islamist, Khomeini's religious and political ideas are known as Khomeinism.
The Iranian revolution, also known as the 1979 revolution, or the Islamic revolution of 1979 was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran, as the monarchical government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was superseded by the theocratic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a religious cleric who had headed one of the rebel factions. The ousting of Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, formally marked the end of Iran's historical monarchy.
Ali Hosseini Khamenei is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's 35-year-long rule makes him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest-serving Iranian leader of the last century after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Khamenei is a marja', a title given to the highest level of religious cleric in Twelver Shi'ism.
Presidential elections were held in Iran 17 June 2005, with a second round run-off on 24 June. Mohammad Khatami, the outgoing president of Iran, stepped down on 2 August 2005, after serving his maximum two consecutive four-year terms according to the Islamic republic's constitution.
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi was an Iranian-Iraqi Twelver Shia cleric and conservative politician who was the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council from 14 August 2017 until his death on 24 December 2018. He was previously the Chief Justice of Iran from 1999 to 2009.
The Tudeh Party of Iran is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in its early years and played an important role during Mohammad Mosaddegh's campaign to nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and his term as prime minister. From the Iran crisis of 1946 onwards, Tudeh became a pro-Soviet organization and remained prepared to carry out the dictates of the Kremlin, even if it meant sacrificing Iranian political independence and sovereignty. The crackdown that followed the 1953 coup against Mosaddegh is said to have "destroyed" the party, although a remnant persisted. The party still exists but has remained much weaker as a result of its banning in Iran and mass arrests by the Islamic Republic in 1982, as well as the executions of political prisoners in 1988. Tudeh identified itself as the historical offshoot of the Communist Party of Persia.
Ayatollah Mohammad Mofatteh was an Iranian philosopher, theologian, and political activist, born in Famenin, Hamadan, Iran. After he finished his primary education in Hamadan, he left for the Islamic Seminary in Qom, where he was taught by reputable teachers such as Ayatollah Muhammad Hujjat Kuh-Kamari, Ayatollah Sayyed Hossein Tabatabei Borujerdi, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini, Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani, Ayatollah Marashi, and Allameh Tabatabie. He continued his studies at seminary and at the same time studied philosophy at Tehran University, where he earned his PhD and became a professor and a dean of colleague.
Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Hadi Khamenei is an Iranian reformist politician, mujtahid and linguist. He is a key member of the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics, and a former deputy of the Majlis of Iran representing a district in Tehran.
A referendum on creating an Islamic Republic was held in Iran on 30 and 31 March 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini did not allow an open referendum, insisting that the Iranian population had chosen an "Islamic Republic" already by demonstrating against the Shah. In response, political parties such as the National Democratic Front and the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas boycotted the referendum.
The Council of the Islamic Revolution was a group formed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to manage the Iranian Revolution on 10 January 1979, shortly before he returned to Iran. "Over the next few months there issued from the council hundreds of rulings and laws, dealing with everything from bank nationalization to nurses' salaries." Its existence was kept a secret during the early, less secure time of the revolution, and its members and the exact nature of what the council did remained undisclosed to the public until early 1980. Some of the council's members like Motahhari, Taleqani, Bahonar, Beheshti, Qarani died during Iran–Iraq War or were assassinated by the MKO during the consolidation of the Iranian Revolution. Most of those who remained were put aside by the regime.
Many organizations, parties and guerrilla groups were involved in the Iranian revolution. Some were part of Ayatollah Khomeini's network and supported the theocratic Islamic Republic movement, while others did not and were suppressed when Khomeini took power. Some groups were created after the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty and still survive; others helped overthrow the Shah but no longer exist.
Iranians in the Netherlands form one of the newer and larger populations of the Iranian diaspora in Europe.
Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Azari-Qomi-Bigdeli was an Iranian cleric. Born in 1925 in Qom, after the 1979 Iranian Revolution he served on the Special Clerical Court, and Assembly of Experts, founded the conservative Resalat Newspaper. He was arrested in November 1997 after an open letter by him was published in Britain criticizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for allowing torture and "moral corruption" among officials and clerics. Shortly after Khamenei denounced him in a televised speech for allegedly committing "treason against the people, the revolution and the country." His renewed candidacy for the Assembly of Experts was rejected by the Guardian Council the next year and he died in 1999.
Multiculturalism in the Netherlands began with major increases in immigration during the 1950s and 1960s. As a consequence, an official national policy of multiculturalism was adopted in the early 1980s. This policy subsequently gave way to more assimilationist policies in the 1990s and post-electoral surveys uniformly showed from 1994 onwards that a majority preferred that immigrants assimilated rather than retained the culture of their country of origin. Even though the general acceptance of immigrants increased, opinion polls from the early 1980s and after showed that many were critical of immigration. Following the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh the political debate on the role of multiculturalism in the Netherlands reached new heights.
The trial of Geert Wilders, a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, took place in the Netherlands in 2010 and 2011. Wilders was accused of criminally insulting religious and ethnic groups and inciting hatred and discrimination. He was found not guilty in June 2011.
Hedayatollah Hatami was an Iranian man who was allegedly hanged during the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners. He was one of at 1,000 people identified in a United Nations Human Rights Commission Special Representative's Report entitled "Names and Particulars of Persons Allegedly Executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran from July–December 1988", published on January 26, 1989. Although information about Hatami's arrest and trial was never released, the U.N. report noted that political prisoners of all types were included in the executions: "Most of the alleged victims were members of the Mojahedin. However, members of the Tudeh Party, People's Fedaiyan Organization, Rahe Kargar, and Komala Organization and 11 mollahs were also said to be among the alleged victims." Hatami had been an active member of the Tudeh Party.
The supreme leader of Iran, also referred to as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, but officially called the Supreme Leadership Authority, is the head of state and the highest political and religious authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The armed forces, judiciary, state radio and television, and other key government organizations such as the Guardian Council and Expediency Discernment Council are subject to the Supreme Leader. According to the constitution, the Supreme Leader delineates the general policies of the Islamic Republic, supervising the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive branches. The current lifetime officeholder, Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khameneh known as Ali Khamenei, has issued decrees and made the final decisions on the economy, the environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and other aspects of governance in Iran. Khamenei also makes the final decisions on the amount of transparency in elections, and has dismissed and reinstated presidential cabinet appointees.
On 27 June 1981, in the Abuzar Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Ali Khamenei was injured after he gave a speech for prayers, when a bomb placed on the tape recorder in front of him exploded, damaging his arm, vocal cords and lungs.
Ruhollah Khomeini's life in exile was the period that Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini spent from 1964 to 1979 in Turkey, Iraq and France, after Mohamed Reza Shah Pahlavi had arrested him twice for dissent from his “White Revolution” announced in 1963. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and returned to Tehran from exile in 1979.
Ulysse Ellian is an Afghan-born Dutch lawyer and politician. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2021 general election on behalf of the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Ellian also served as a municipal councilor in Almere between 2018 and 2021.
