Opposition to the Revolution

Iranian Dissent and Its Suppression:

• Senior generals were executed and then a couple of months later 200 of the Shah’s senior civilian officials were executed after the revolution; those who escaped Iran were not immune
  


• Several dozen newspaper criticized Khomeini’s idea of Islamic government and they soon were all shut down
  


• Opposition Muslim People's Republican Party being suppressed – the Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari placed under house arrest

• March 1980 the "Cultural Revolution" began universities began to close to cleanse from the opponents of theocratic rule
  


• Khomeini used takfir against his opponents sometimes
  


• People's Mujahideen Organization – a guerilla group armed and familiar to using violence
  


• Hezbollah toughs began on the meeting places, bookstores, newsstands of Mujahideen and other leftists
  

• June 28, 1981 – People’s Mujahideen reacted with a campaign of assassination at the Islamic Republican Party headquarters
  
  
• Measures to execute the Shah was unsuccessful and his death in Egypt did not end the conflict
  
  
• Instead the focus was turned to the American embassy – accused of having spies
  
  
• Ended in 1981; helped radicalize the government but greatly weaken Iran’s economy caused by the economic sanctions