ABSTRACT
Ayatollah Khamenei codified the legacy of Khomeini into several maxims that he titled 'The Doctrines and Principles of the Government of the Imam of the Muslim Community'. Khamenei's theory of Islamic cultural superiority and trepidation of Western cultural invasion shaped his domestic and foreign policies and his rhetoric. He advocates an 'Islamic economy' based on Islamic thought, Islamic culture, and Khomeinism. In Khamenei's biography, he explains that the success of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution, before and after the victory, hinged on Khomeini's ongoing personal contact with the nation. For Khomeini and Khamenei, economic development in Muslim nations is directly linked to 'political freedom', that is, freedom from foreign domination. One of the important avenues to political and economic independence, according to Khamenei, is the achievement of an oil-free economy that does not rely on the sale of petroleum-based products. The Western prescription increases economic prosperity and brings about welfare for some social classes at the cost of impoverishing other social classes.
