Al-Nafisi & Ayatollah Khomeini
FBy Ahmad alsarraf
ormer academician and politician Abdullah Al-Nafisi says in an interview with Ammar Taqi in the Black Box program, he met Mr Muhsin al-Hakim, the late Shiite cleric, in Najaf, Iraq, and sought permission to meet Ayatollah Khomeini, who was exiled in Najaf by the corrupt regime of Reza Shah Pahlavi.
The request took Al-Hakim by surprise. He told Al-Nafisi that Khomeini was a confused man, and that he had caused him problems with the Baath regime in Iraq and the Shah of Iran, and therefore advised him not to meet the man. Mr Al-Nafisi had no choice but listen to the advice because he and AlKhomeini were guests of Al-Hakim.
Al-Nafisi also mentioned in another episode that he met Mr Musa alSadr in the Shiite community office in Hazmieh, Lebanon, and discussed with him the issue with Muhsin alHakim and that he had turned down his request to meet Khomeini and how Musa al-Sadr praised Mr Hakim’s decision, and his decision too was admired for not insisting to meet Al-Khomeini.
Al-Sadr also described Khomeini as confused personality and that he knows nothing about politics except understands clashes among people. I really doubt the description of AlHakim and Al-Sadr against Khomeini at that time, but no one will know the exact truth since they have become part of history.
During a meeting of Mr Abdullah Al-Nafisi with Ali Al-Dhafiri, AlNafisi confirmed for the third time that he had not met with Khomeini. He said he just happened to meet Khomeini at a lunch table and did not talk to him.
Referring to the archive, we find a relatively old meeting between the Saudi media man Abdullah al-Mudayfir and al-Nafisi, and in response to a question asked by the interviewer whether Al-Nafisi had met Ayatollah Khomeini he replied by saying: “Yes, I met him ten years before the revolution in Najaf. What can we understand from this article, especially since he says he met Khomeini in the house of Mr Muhsin Al-Hakim? I leave it to the reader to figure it out.
I do not know how he met Khomeini in the house of Muhsin AlHakim since the latter hated him, and did not stand meeting him. Al-Nafisi has mentioned earlier that Muhsin Al-Hakim advised him not to meet Ayatollah Khomeini, and described him as confused.
Who do we believe: What AlNafisi told Ammar Taqi or what he told Ali al-Dhafiri? Or his earlier talk with the anchor Mudayfir? I leave the reader at that.