Word: itely
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...religious rioting, culminating with the burning of an Abadan moviehouse last month in which 377 people were killed. Last week violence continued: Muslim youths battled police in 15 cities, leaving eleven persons dead. The trouble was fomented by the leaders of Iran's 32 million Shi'ite Muslims, who have grown increasingly restive as the Shah has pursued a rigorous modernization campaign for his ancient country. The motive power of the mullahs (religious leaders) is Islamic puritanism, but in their discontent they have been encouraged by both the Soviet Union and George Habash's radical Popular Front...
...Western-educated elite were predictably appalled at the latest turn of events. "The Shah's concessions will only make the opposition demand more," complained one Iranian businessman. "Mark my words: we are headed for civil war." Fortunately it was much too early to tell how the Shi'ite Muslim majority would react to the Shah's about-face...
Commemorating the death of Caliph Ali (A.D. 600-661), who is revered by Iran's 34 million Shi'ite Muslims as the only true successor to Muhammad, is always a solemn occasion. But last week's observances were especially subdued. Tehran was tense and quiet. The Club Discotheque, normally a place of frenzied activity for Iran's newly rich upper middle class, was shuttered. Hotels and restaurants decreed a four-day prohibition of alcoholic beverages. Television stations broadcast readings from the Koran and Islamic sermons in place of Cannon and Police Story...
...having ordered his employees to lock the exits to prevent terrorists from entering the theater. But opposition groups outside Iran accused SAVAK, the Shah's secret police, of setting the blaze in order to provoke a backlash against dissident groups. Many Iranians, however, blamed Ayatullah Khomeini, a Shi'ite mullah (religious leader) who has lived in exile in Iraq since 1963. Khomeini swore unrelenting enmity to the Shah after hundreds of his followers were killed while protesting the monarch's land-reform program. Alone among Shi'ite leaders, Khomeini failed to condemn the Abadan atrocity...
...division among the Shi'ites could provide the Shah with a chance to isolate the extremists. That would allow him to pursue his plan to hold free parliamentary elections next year. So far, however, the otherwise efficient Iranian regime has not been able to take advantage of its opportunities. The Shah's forward-looking Premier, Jamshid Amouzegar, had better luck coping with the problems of industrialization than negotiating with Shi'ite mullahs. Unable to bridge the gap between mullahs and modernists, the otherwise able Amouzegar resigned early this week, and the Shah quickly replaced him with Jaafar Sharif-Emami, chairman...