Khomeini

For a decade, under Khomeini himself, the regime tried to make the rest of region like itself by "exporting revolution". The results were meagre. Tehran managed to influence part of the Shi'ite community in Lebanon and create a branch of Hezbollah in that country. Tehran also succeeded in turning Syria into a client state without, however, persuading the Baathist regime to adopt Walayat al-Faqih.

The recruiting tools of Velayat-e Faqih include addictive songs (known in Arabic as nadbiyahs), which are used as ear candy to attract new fans and recruits into the pack.

There are many ways to determine whether an "imam" or a "maulana" or a "syed" or a "sheikh," etc. (whichever way you want to spell these fancy and egotistic titles and there are countless ways to do so) has gone bad, very, very bad: