15 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
He was the religious leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989. He was also the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which killed 3,000 to 60,000 people. The Shia Islamic Law had a lot of harsh rules for the normal people. Men and women had strict dress codes, citizens lost equal rights and met with very harsh punishments, were brutalized, tortured and killed. People were imprisoned and tortured for listening to music. People were lashed 100 times for kissing in public. People were tortured and killed if they did not believe in Allah. People were shot, hanged, blinded, gassed, stabbed in the chest, stoned to death and burned alive. People had their hands cut off for stealing. Women had their faces slashed or burnt by acid. People were killed by machine guns, knives, clubs, cutters, and acid. In the 1988 Iranian Massacres, Khomeini ordered that every prisoner that did not repent anti-regime activities should be killed. About 30,000 people were killed in 5 months while thousands of others were killed for other reasons including children that were hanged from cranes. His followers held 52 Americans captive for 444 days, but there were others there for 6 years. They were blindfolded most of the time. They might have suffered a fate worse than death. He spread his ways across the Middle East. Saddam Hussein feared the spread of Khomeini’s militant brand of Shiism so he attacked Iran, which started the Iran-Iraq War, which caused the deaths of 1 to 2 million people. During the war, Khomeini sent young boys to fight and refused to make peace with Iraq even though there was at least one moment when Saddam offered peace for Iran. Because Khomeini refused to settle peace, Iran’s economy was ruined and 500,000 to 1 million Iranians were killed. His hatred of America and Western society inspired and paved the way for terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda. He paved the way for the Islamic Holy War, which has killed more than 2 million people. Khomeini died from cancer in 1989.
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