Khalil Tahmasebi
Khalil Tahmasebi (14 February 1924 – 1955) was a carpenter and member of the Iranian fundamentalist group[1] Fadayan-e Islam ("Self-Sacrificers of Islam"[2]), which has been described as "the first Shiite Islamist organization to employ terrorism as a primary method of political activism."[3] On behalf of this group, Tahmasebi assassinated the Iranian Prime Minister, Ali Razmara, on 7 March 1951.[4] and was described as a "religious fanatic" by The New York Times.[5] In 1952, he was freed by the Iranian Parliament during the premiership of Mosaddegh,[6] his pending death sentence was quashed, and he was declared a "Soldier of Islam."[7] According to Time, Tahmasebi "promptly rushed to the Hazrat Abdolazim shrine, wept joyously and said: 'When I killed Razmara, I was sure that his people would kill me.'"[8] Following the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Tahmasebi was re-arrested and tried for the assassination of Razmara; he was executed in 1955.[6]
References
- Denoeux, Guilain (1993). "Religious Networks and Urban Unrest". Urban Unrest in the Middle East: A Comparative Study of Informal Networks in Egypt, Iran, and Lebanon. SUNY series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East. SUNY Press. p. 177. ISBN 9781438400846.
- "Ali Razmara – Prime Minister of Iran". Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- Ostovar, Afshon P. (2009). Guardians of the Islamic Revolution: Ideology, Politics, and the Development of Military Power in Iran (1979–2009) (PDF) (Ph.D.). The University of Michigan. p. 35.
The Fada'iyan-e Islam were the first Shiite Islamist organization to employ terrorism as a primary method of political activism.
- Clark, Michael (21 April 1951). "Iranian fanatics threaten Premier". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
- Associated Press (8 March 1951). "Premier of Iran Is Shot to Death In a Mosque by a Religious Fanatic; PREMIER OF IRAN SLAIN IN MOSQUE Cabinet in Emergency Session VICTIM OF ASSASSIN". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- Zabih, Sepehr (1982). "Aspects of Terrorism in Iran". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 463 (1): 84–94. doi:10.1177/0002716282463001007. JSTOR 1043613.
- Taheri, Amir (1986). The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic revolution. Adler & Adler. p. 109. ISBN 9780917561047.
- "IRAN: Time of the Assassin". Time. 1 December 1952. Retrieved 12 December 2016.