Ayatollah Khomeini became an idol

When Ayatollah Boroujerdi died in 1961, Khomeini took over as Iran's most important religious figure. He attracted the interest of many Shi'ite followers with his publications on Islamic beliefs. Ayatollah Khomeini became an idol, they called him Marja-e Taqlid in English which means a model of Iranians around the world.

The ideas of Muslims like Sheikh Fazlollah Noori and Abol-Ghasem Kashani are likewise respected by Khomeini. Fazlollah Noori was revered by Khomeini as a "heroic character," and Nuri's resistance to the 1907 constitution served as the inspiration for Khomeini's own stance against constitutionalism and a secular government.

The next year, he rallied Iran's religious authorities to oppose the Shah's most recent plan. A bill supported by the Shah would have removed the requirement for officials to swear on the Qur'an. This set off a series of events that would fundamentally alter Iranian politics. Midway through 1963, Khomeini publicly attacked the Shah, claiming that the Iranian people would be pleased to see him depart the country if he hadn't reformed the country's politics. However, following that charge, Khomeini was imprisoned, which led to turmoil and a significant public uproar. The protest, which lasted for a week, was suppressed by the strong military force of the Shah government.

Khomeini went back to Qom after his release from jail. The Shah maintained his diplomatic connections with the US, which at the time was also engaged in Israeli politics. As a result, Khomeini predicted that the Jews would seize control of Iran, while the US believed that Iranians were Western slaves. After that incident, he was detained, sent back to Turkey, and forbidden from donning his customary religious attire there. Unable to bear the bondage and oppression, he moved to Iraq and lived there for the next 12 years.