Founders and Characteristics
The party was formed by Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Mohammad Beheshti, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ali Khamenei, and Abdolkarim Mousavi-Ardabili, ayatollahs close to Khomeini in order to mobilize popular support for the Islamic Republic.
The party has been said to be distinguished by "its strong clerical component, its loyalty to Khomeini, its strong animosity to the liberal political movements, and its tendency to support the revolutionary organizations," such as the komiteh. Policies it supported included the state takeover of large capital enterprises, the establishment of an Islamic cultural and university system, and programs to assist the poor.
These revolutionary ayatollahs originally used the party to form a monopoly over the post revolutionary theocratic Iranian state.
In its struggle with civilian opponents the party made use of its ties to the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah
Read more about this topic: Islamic Republican Party
Famous quotes containing the word founders:
“A spot whereon the founders lived and died
Seemed once more dear than life; ancestral trees,
Or gardens rich in memory glorified
Marriages, alliances, and families,
And every bride’s ambition satisfied.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)