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Newspaper article
The growing anger over the exile of Ayatollah Khomeini and the expensive celebrations of 1971 reached a new high when in January 1978 the government linked newspaper "Ettelaat" tried to belittle Khomeini's reputation by describing him as an Indian instead of a Persian and a "British agent who serves colonialism". The article angered the clerical supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini who organized protests in the Iranian city of Qom. When the protestors refused to end their protests, government forces opened fire, resulting in the death of at least 20 protestors.

Nationwide protests
Anger over these violent methods now spread throughout the country, where several other forces that opposed the Shah were also gaining large scale recognition. Several organizations and figures with Marxist leanings, such as Ali Shariati and the Tudeh Party started to call for protests against the Pahlavi regime. Although Khomeini's goals and those of the Marxists were seemingly contradictory, their shared hostility towards the Shah's regime led to a wide opposition movement that adopted both Khomeini's Islamic as well as Marxist slogans. Protests against the Pahlavi regime, and in support of Khomeini and Shariati started to erupt all over the country.

Khomeini's resistance from France
Meanwhile, Khomeini who was in exile in France, kept communicating with his supporters in Iran. Living in a small village called Neauphle-le-Chateau he continued to call for revolution, telling his supporters that there was no way forward besides the overthrowal of the Pahlavi regime. While the government had planned to exile Khomeini to decrease his influence. The fact that Khomeini was now out of reach for the Pahlavi regime gave him more opportunity to plot the revolution and to reach Iranians in Iran as well as all over the globe.

Former allies
Although they were allies in the revolution, the different views of how the country should be governed now that the Shah was deposed of created tension between the Islamists loyal to Khomeini on the one hand, and the more moderate followers of the secular and Marxist organizations on the other hand.

Khomeini and his supporters, who are often seen as Islamists, had a large part in the revolution. But other organizations such as the secular Liberation movement and the Marxist Fadayeen-I-Khalq also played a role.

The constitution
Throughout the revolution there had been calls for the establishment of an Islamic Republic, both by Khomeini's supporters as well as by others. But what exactly this Islamic Republic would entail was not yet clear. In this confused situation their arose roughly two dominating camps among the many parties that participated in the revolution. On the one hand Khomeini and his supporters wanted the constitution to be largely based around Islamic ideals and Khomeini's idea of "vilayat-e-faqih", on the other hand the liberal minded Mehdi Bazargan, a member of the Liberation movement, and his supporters wanted constitution that was largely based on secular ideals. (abrahamian 162-163).

Bazargan himself was made prime minister by Khomeini, who wanted to set up a provisional government to keep in tact those governmental structures that were seen as working perfectly fine. Because of this difference of opinion, Khomeini set up several councils and institutions headed by the clergy and their supporters, which came to hold a large amount of power, effectively creating a shadow government (Abrahamian 162-163).

In March 1979 Khomeini called for a referendum where the Iranian government was asked if they wanted an "Islamic republic". Because the call for an Islamic republic was such a large part of the revolution, a overwhelming majority of 98.2% of Iranians voted in favor. .

And so the constitution for the Islamic Republic was drafted, in which it was Khomeini's vision that was heavily favored (abrahamian 162-163). While Bazargan, his followers and other more moderate minorities opposed elements of the constitution, at this point Khomeini's position and support in the country, especially among the mass of lower class people, was so strong that opposition against Khomeini's vision of the constitution was not likely to be achieved.