Seyyed is Totally Islamic!Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei is the supreme leader of Iran, and previously served as president of Iran (1981-1989). Khamenei wears a black turban signaling that he is a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
Khamanei began studying religion as a young child. He attended classes in Mashhad where he studied "Sat'h" and "Kharej." He settled in Qom in 1958 where he attended classes taught by Ayatollah Boroojerdi and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamanei, who would become the father of the Islamic Republic of Iran after the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was deposed in 1977.
He soon became a teacher of religion in Mashhad and held Nahaj-ul-Balagheh lesson sessions in various mosques.
Khamenei was one of the key figures in the Islamic revolution and a confidante of Ayatollah Khamanei. In 1979 he was appointed to the high position of Tehran's Friday prayer leader by Khamanei. He was almost assassinated in June of 1981, but narrowly escaped a bomb that was hidden in a tape recorder at a press conference. The tape exploded next to him, and permanently injured him. As a result, he affirmed his reputation; his followers believed it was proof he is a "living martyr."
Before he was chosen supreme leader of Iran, Khamenei was a mid-ranking cleric. In 1981, after the assassintation of Mohammad Ali Rajai, Khamenei was elected president of Iran by a landslide majority vote.
Khamenei originally believed in keeping clerics out of the presidency. Many of his supporters saw his presidency as a sign that Iran was becoming more religious, letting go of secular policy. In 1985, he was re-elected to serve a second term.
Khamenei was a close ally of to Ayatollah Khamanei, the first supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. When Khamanei died in 1989, Khamenei replaced him as the supreme and became the most powerful religious and political leader in Iran.
As supreme leader, Khamenei has promoted conservative Islamic policies, backed by the conservative Guardian Council.
Khamenei is known for his radical anti-Western policies. He says that American administration is full of crimes and misbehaviors, and is not authorized to judge the human rights of Iran. In June 2006 he said Iran would not receive energy shipments from the Persian Gulf if the country should come under attack by the US, insisting that Teheran will not give up its right to produce nuclear fuel.
Khamenei has four sons and two daughters, and is said to live an austere life in an unadorned household. | 
