"I will tell the government what kind of people they are. I will punch them in the mouth. I will determine the government. I have a duty to do this. The people support me. This is not a personal matter. The issue is Islam, the issue is a divine government. Those who oppose a divine government oppose God. Those who oppose the rule of the jurisprudent oppose the Prophet. With God's help, we will succeed. This movement will not stop. The people will not return home. This government must go."

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, address to crowds at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, Tehran, 1 February 1979. Khomeini had returned from fourteen years of exile in Iraq and France hours earlier, landing at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport before a crowd estimated at several million people.