Purposes and Functions of Rumor in Imam Khomeini's Thought

Rumor is one of the means of psychological operations against the revolutionary movement of Imam Khomeini, before and after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, which has been designed with specific goals and has particular applications. This article attempts to study the purposes and functions of rumor in Imam Khomeini's thought, and seeks to answer the question that; what are the purposes and functions of rumors in Imam Khomeini's thoughts? To this end, his statements and writings since the beginning of 1322 to 1368 were selected as statistical society. In this applied research content analysis method was used. The reliability of the study was determined by Holsti as 98%, and its validity was approved by experts. The results indcate that rumors have both positive and negative aspects. Components like "Self-purification", "strengthening of Iran , Islam and other oppressed people of the world" and "the integrity and unity of the nation," are considered the most important positive functions of rumors, and factors such as "damage to the reputation of the Islamic Republic of Iran", "damage to the reputation of Imam Khomeini ", "undermining the clergy" "divisive", "weakening the nation", "undermining Islam", "weakening the armed forces" and "weakening the Islamic movement", are the most important negative functions of the rumor in Imam Khomeini's thoughts, respectively. Furthermore, in his view the ultimate goal of the enemy in spreading rumors , before the Islamic Revolution in Iran was" consolidating colonial rule in Islamic countries" and after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, is "to defeat Islam and Islamic Revolution stripping".