The World - News from Nov. 9, 1988

Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has declared that free social expression is the best way to settle disputes. Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Khomeini said “academic argument should . . . be encouraged rather than suppressed in the interest of dogmatic interpretation and authoritarian outlooks.” IRNA said Khomeini’s comments came in an open letter published in Jomhuri Islami, a newspaper that is usually the mouthpiece for hard-line Islamic revolutionary factions. IRNA, monitored in Cyprus, said Khomeini’s letter was a reply to a prominent Muslim cleric, Hojatoleslam Ansari, who asked for his “conclusive judgment” on the divergent ideological orientations among Iran’s leaders.