The Spirit of Allah

a musical about Ruhollah Khomeini and the Iranian Revolution

Posted by Jew from Jersey
15 July 2003

Scene9. “Nuephle-le-château, mon amour”

Ayatollah Khomeini, Bani-Sadr, Bazargan, journalists

[In the backgorund is a small mansion on a hill. A French flag flies in the distance. ARK, in full clerical regalia, stands on a small rug in front of an apple tree, flanked by ABS, who wears a sports jacket and slacks that are too big, and MB, who wears a very conservative suit. In the foreground are a herd of western journalists. Some are dressed in rugged safari getup and vests, others in Bermuda shorts and flowery shirts. All are draped in expensive photographic equipment.]

• Journalist: You're a leader of your people, so they say
• But what plans have you for when you win the day
• We could endorse a freedom fighter in fatigues or pajamas
• But we're suspicious of that outfit... whatever it was

• ARK: All the laws that we need have been made by God
• And they're found in the shari’a, or holy law
• So we have no need for men to make laws and decrees
• Parliaments and senates are not necessary

[Journalists look helplessly to ABS and MB for an explanation.]

• ABS: Imam Khomeini says all laws should be formed
• In the spirit of Islam and our national norms
• We have a whole corps of intellectuals, like me
• To make sure everything will be democratic and free

[Flash bulbs flash furiously on ARK.]

• Journalists [one at a time, as they take pictures]: He's got it! He's progressive! He's deep!

• Journalists: Here’s a real third world leader, bent on liberation
• He’s not bothered by bourgeois morality or hesitation
• He's a little bit rustic for Paris, but why not?
• That’s OK for Iranians and Hottentots

• ARK: I believe that justice is for the just and the righteous
• Criminals, on the other hand, have forfeited any right to it
• A criminal needs a trial like a fish needs a bed
• What he needs is the proverbial hole in the head

[Journalists look expectantly to ABS and MB.]

• MB: Ahem, Imam Khomeini says all defendants will be judged
• In the eyes of God and he’s surely no drudge
• We’ve suffered so long under tyranny and repressions
• There’s no way we would stand for any false confessions

[Flash bulbs flash furiously.]

• Journalists: He’s cool! He’s with it! He’s the rage!
• He’s the reigning revolutionary man of the age.
• In our own countries, such thinking might be called deranged.
• But for the third world he’s an angel and a sage!

• He’s spiritual! He’s exotic! He de man!
• And none of us are ever going to live in Iran
• He could have their whole country under bolt and latch
• But he’ll look so cute on the cover of Paris Match

• In the west, we might say this man is a vulture
• But we wouldn’t dream of judging their quaint little culture.