YOU WON'T FOOL THE CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION

Grandson rejects Iran's revolution: A younger Khomeini admires US (Vivienne Walt, 8/5/2003, Boston Globe)

The name is the same, and the bearing is strikingly similar to his famous grandfather. The words from the younger Ayatollah Khomeini's mouth, however, could hardly be more jolting, especially for those who remember Iran's explosive revolution, with its chants of ''Death to America.''

''America is the symbol of freedom,'' said Ayatollah Seyed Hassan Khomeini. ''The best example of freedom in our life now is America, especially its Constitution,'' he said, seated in the sprawling living room of his temporary Baghdad home, where he lives under armed protection.

Having slipped discreetly out of Iran in early July, Khomeini, 45, made his way to Baghdad, where he said he is continually at risk of assassination by Iranian security agents.

As Iraq's 16 million or so Shi'ite Muslims scramble for their first shot of power, Khomeini's words could have a major impact on their views. In interviews, many Shi'ites say they envision for the new Iraq an Islamic state similar to the one Ayatollah Khomeini brought to power with his 1979 revolution. Some of the Shi'ite leaders heading Iraq's new political parties have close ties to Iran's clerics.

The younger Ayatollah's arrival on the scene is already causing a stir in the Shi'ite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. The younger Khomeini is
determined that Iraq does not relive his grandfather's revolution.

''Religion has got to be separated from regimes, such as it is in America,'' said the younger Khomeini, smoking cigarettes through the
interview.

This is the crux of the matter (pun intended) in the Islamic world--whether each state has to suffer through its own inevitably failed theocracy or whether the Iranian experiment can stand as an object lesson for all. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 5, 2003 12:54 PM