Qum is a city of 250,000 people that is drenched in dust, swept by howling, bitter-cold winds in winter and scorched by an angry sun in summer. A 19th century British traveler, James Morier, described Iran's religious center as a place in which, "excepting on the subject of religion, and settling who are worthy of salvation, and who are to be damned, no one opens his lips. Every man you meet is either a descendant of the Prophet or a man of the law. All wear long and mortified faces ... These priests will harken to no medium—either you are a true believer or you are not."
Blessed with 18 seminaries, as well as a 1,100-year-old shrine, Qum, appropriately, is the Ayatullah Khomeini's home. Three days before being expelled from Iran, TIME Middle East Bureau Chief Bruce van Voorst went to Qum for an exclusive interview with the Ayatullah. It was the first such interview Khomeini had granted to a U.S. magazine since the fall of the Shah. The interview is greatly revealing, first as to how implacable is Khomeini's hate for all things American, and second for how strikingly it shows the vast gulf that separates Islamic and Western perceptions of the same events.
The interview took place at Khomeini's residence, a modest, single-story four-room house on a side street that is blockaded at either end and guarded by soldiers carrying German-designed G3 automatic weapons. The Ayatullah receives visitors in what was once his living room, a bare 15-ft. by 20-ft. chamber with six clusters of tungsten spotlights along one wall; cameras of the National Iranian Radio and Television network record every audience.
"Khomeini's entrance for the interview was almost regal," reported Van Voorst. "His black turban was carefully drawn over his forehead, and a well-cut dark gray cape, obviously his only self-indulgence, covered a light gray vest and a simple, collarless white shirt. Khomeini showed neither comprehension of nor interest in the brief introduction. There was no handshaking, merely a nod. He sat down, crosslegged, to take the first question—which, as usual, he ignored. Instead, he launched into an unbroken 20-minute monologue. He spoke in a soft voice, difficult to hear even from a foot or two away, and stared steadfastly at the floor all the while. Occasionally, his sensitive hands trembled. The interview was terminated when Khomeini abruptly rose. As the translator repeated a final question, the Ayatullah, eyes unblinking, left the room, pausing only to autograph Koransfor his guests." Excerpts from the interview:
Q. Anti-American feelings in Iran are intense. Americans, in turn, are angry with Iran. How do you assess prospects for bilateral relations after the resolution—whatever form it might take—of the current crisis?