...''America is the symbol of freedom,'' said Ayatollah Seyed Hassan Khomeini. ''The best example of freedom in our life now is America, especially its Constitution,'' he said, seated in the sprawling living room of his temporary Baghdad home, where he lives under armed protection...

The younger Ayatollah's arrival on the scene is already causing a stir in the Shi'ite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. The younger Khomeini is determined that Iraq does not relive his grandfather's revolution.

''Religion has got to be separated from regimes, such as it is in America,'' said the younger Khomeini, smoking cigarettes through the interview. Since the revolution, Iran's Muslim clerics have ruled Iran, requiring women to cover everything but their face and banning alcohol. About 4,000 people have been arrested since student protests against the government erupted in May.

As the oldest grandson of Iran's revolutionary Ruhollah Khomeini, this Ayatollah learned his political lessons at his grandfather's feet. Three decades on, the protege who was supposed to inherit the legacy rejects the most basic revolutionary beliefs of his grandfather, who dubbed America ''The Great Satan.''

''It is clear to Iranians that they have suffered from the tyranny of that country,'' Khomeini said. ''Iranians want freedom and democracy.''[...]