Ayatollah Returns from Exile and Calls for an Islamic State for his Homeland

Same event and same call made in 1979 and in 2003 except for a different homeland

Year: 1979. (1st February)
Country: Iran: Location: At Tehran's Mehrabad airport: Ayatollah Khomeini returns from exile. ( What happened next, as they say, is history)


Ayatollah Khomeini returns from exile in Paris in 1979


Supporters meeting Ayatollah Khomeini at Teheran Airport in 1979

FAST FORWARD TO:

Year: 2003 (10th MAY)
Country: Iraq: Location: Basra: Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim returns from exile


Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim preparing to return to Iraq from exile


Ayatollah Hakim was mobbed by followers in Basra

Will US liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein's secular dictatorship to achieve western-style democracy in Iraq lead to the creation of an Islamic State of Iraq?

Events unfolding seem to point in that direction.

Ali Akbar Dareni reports for AP News on the return of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim to Iraq :

Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim , the leader of the largest Shiite Muslim group, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, said that Iraq's future belongs in the hands of Islam, on the eve of his return from exile.

Al-Hakim and his delegation are due to enter Iraq on Saturday, stopping first at the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a Shiite stronghold.

Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim followers compared him to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who returned from 14 years in exile in France to lead Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

At a gathering at Tehran University, he said: " We were Iran's guests for 23 years. Now, we thank the Iranian nation and its elite revolutionary guards for their hospitality. The future of Iraq belongs to Islam. And making efforts to preserve Iraq's independence is our key challenge.''

Some analysts see few comparisons between Iraq and Iran, or between al-Hakim and Khomeini. "Khomeini was Iran's unrivaled figure and a charismatic leader loved by all Iranians, but al-Hakim is not Iraq's only leader. There are several key figures representing Iraq's population and al-Hakim is only one of them,'' said leading cleric Taha Hashemi.

But Mohsen Hakim, a spokesman for al-Hakim's Supreme Council, said his leader `"could be a new Ayatollah Khomeini but it largely depends on how the Iraqi people will welcome him.''

BBC reports from Basra, Iraq:

Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim addressed a crowd in the southern city of Basra, after returning from exile in Iran on Saturday.

He told thousands of supporters that Iraqis would not accept a government imposed by foreigners. " "We Muslims have to live together... We have to help each other stand together against imperialism. We want an independent government. We refuse imposed government." he said.

Many of his supporters carried his portrait and chanted their loyalty to him. "Hakim has had many martyrs in his family," one follower, Mohammad Lamrayani, told Reuters news agency. "He deserves our welcome after 23 years abroad. It is the right of every Iraqi to come back now after the fall of Saddam Hussein."

The Ayatollah's movements in Iraq are likely to be closely watched by United States and British officials, who are concerned that he might push for an Islamic state in Iraq.

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