Speech [Migration to Paris; the Shah's crimes; objectives of the Revolution]

 [In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful]

Then the head of Iraqi intelligence came to me saying that it was best for me not to incite the people of Iran and not to continue with my activities. He said that Iraq had a certain commitment toward the Iranian government to which I said that they may well have a certain obligation toward the Iranian government, but that I am under no obligation toward it. I said that we too have certain obligations to fulfill but these are toward Islam and toward our nation, so we shall carry on with what we are doing, and they too are to do whatever they will. Then he said:" But every day you issue statements and send recorded messages and so on. At least scale this down." I said:" No! I shall continue to issue statements and also to record messages and send them abroad; and should I ascend the pulpit, then I shall speak out. When it comes to these things, I cannot do otherwise." He then left and things worsened whereby I could tell they were at the end of their tether. Since the head of Intelligence had previously said that for the time being they would leave so-and-so alone but that they intended to do some-thing about our friends, I thought that our friends may possibly be harmed by them. Hence, because it makes no difference to me where I actually reside as long as I can continue with my mission, I decided to go to Kuwait from where I could later travel to one of the Islamic countries. Even though we had visas, the Kuwaiti government prevented us from crossing its national frontier and entering the country. They did not even allow us to use their airport from where we could fly elsewhere. We returned to Iraq again. It became clear that those in Iraq also knew what was going on for they were expecting us on our return. The same group of people who had escorted us from Iraq were again standing there waiting for us! Thus, having returned to Iraq they at first took us to Basrah and then, several hours later, to Baghdad. While in Baghdad we made the decision to come here where we could choose some place or other from where to continue our activities. Hence, for the time being we have come to France. «1»

I consider myself duty-bound. That is, I believe I have a religious and moral duty toward the nation of Iran at a time when the Iranian people have risen up and are sacrificing lives; when their youngsters have been arrested- some having been killed by the regime and others having been incarcerated; when some of our `ulama' are in prison and a large number of them are in exile; and when all of the people, small children and old men alike, are standing up to the Shah's regime crying out in unison:" We don't want the Shah." At such a time we all become answerable to this nation. And this nation, or indeed any other nation, has the right to determine its own destiny. This is a human right; a right which is stipulated in the Declaration of Human Rights. Any person, any nation, must determine his or its own destiny; it must not be determined by others. And so too our nation has now risen up to demand that it determine its own destiny.

This is why we who are abroad have a duty to cry out in unison with these people- people who are sacrificing lives to this end and who have risen up against this man «2» who has betrayed us and our religion of Islam; this man who is giving our national resources away to foreigners and who, in return, procures arms with which to kill the people, or who receives a sum of money which in part he spends on the procurement of arms and the suchlike while the remainder is used up by himself and his friends. Have no doubt that right now, even as we sit here, Iran is in an explosive state. Right now people are being killed, as they were a few days ago in many different Iranian cities when the resultant death toll was extremely high! Even as we sit here I wonder whether such outbursts are occurring in Iran, and I feel sure that they are. But as to whether people are now being killed or not we don't yet know. And why don't we know? Because we are too far away. Such incidents occur on a daily basis. But while they, the people of Iran, are at the battlefield engaged in battle, are we here to remain unconcerned and to carry on living our normal everyday lives?! To do this would be totally unfair and inhuman, and it would be against the canons of Islam.

Everyone is obliged to do their utmost to help these people in whatever way they can. Right now, I am able to speak to you and to urge you to offer your support irrespective of which front you may belong to abroad. I can appeal to you to join hands with your own people who have risen up in the interests of us all, including yourselves. I shall speak as much as I can regardless of the size of the audience present; and I shall write material and have it circulated, again, as much as I am able. You too must play your part and do whatever is within your power- demonstrating whenever it is called for and opportune; writing; speaking; talking to press reporters; doing anything that is within your power. Everyone must contribute as much as he can and help this oppressed nation which is now being trodden underfoot by these merciless beings.

I believe history has never before witnessed an uprising like the one currently in Iran where there is such unity of purpose. Now everyone, including those children who are not yet themselves aware of what they are saying, cries out:" We don't want the Shah!" Or maybe these children do so in imitation of what everyone else is saying; a five- or six-year-old child- just imagine! Even those who have just learned how to speak now cry:" Death to the Shah" in imitating what everyone else is crying. Everybody is saying the same thing. Everybody is making the same argument. There has probably never been another time in history when everybody has united to make the same cry- when the claims raised in the farthest reaches of Iran, in the most distant Iranian cities, have been the same as those raised in the country's capital. But this is exactly the case now; and it is when a nation reaches this stage that it is sure to succeed. There is no way that this nation can now be defeated when it is standing up to oppression, confronting the tyrants and those with tanks and cannons with its bare hands and refusing to give in.

Various propaganda campaigns have now got under way. In fact these campaigns were already under way before but they have now been stepped up in an effort to break this unity between the people, to disband the various fronts, and to make certain people knuckle under. It has even been said that they intend to arrange for a group of SAVAK agents disguised as students to shout communist slogans in the university, when the university opens; that is in order to give the impression that if the Shah were to go then communist rule would take his place! But this Shah is even worse than the communists. Anybody would be better than this person, this Shah! What has this man ever done for our country? Has he done anything other than churn out false propaganda? What vast sums of money go toward propaganda, both at home and abroad, so that the foreign and national press will write lies for him. These are the kinds of things he gets up to, as well as being engaged in the accumulation of wealth and the acquisition of land and luxury for himself throughout the world. This is all he does! Other than this, what else does he do?... He is either busy killing and beating the people or busy using them for his own gain! He is taking advantage and is squandering this nation's wealth.

We have one thing to say and that is that those who are seated at the head of this table of spoils called Iran, along with the people and countries who have come from all over to join them, are feeding from this table of spoils while this nation of ours goes hungry. We argue that this must not be so. We say that this country of ours which is rich in oil and other resources must be left to us. We will run it ourselves. And should we want to enlist the help of experts, we will do the enlisting. Why should you do the enlisting, paying God knows how many hundreds of thousands of tumans per month to those enlisted?! We shall recruit experts without the need to resort to such measures. We shall recruit a different kind of expert, ones that we have trained ourselves.

From the time when Amir Kabir founded Iran's first university some seventy years ago «3» right up to the present, they prevented our youth from receiving adequate education and training, and from being able to perform a job of work competently. They impeded the progress of our youth. They ensured that no one could receive adequate education in our universities. They prevented those in the armed forces from receiving proper military training. American supervisors mislead these servicemen, that is, they instruct them in a way beneficial to themselves! Our culture has become that of the imperialists. We must have our own indigenous culture. These foreign cultures are ones which prevent our children from being properly educated. Now, even when he (the Shah) needs a tonsillectomy, he has someone brought in from Europe to perform the operation! «4» You are the one who talks of how you took the country to a great civilization and yet even your tonsillectomy is performed by someone from abroad. So evidently you can't do anything for yourselves! They want to lay a railway track from `a' to `b', so they bring someone from abroad to do it! Then they sign a contract with a company like the one which laid so many meters of track and then made off with the money leaving the job uncompleted! This is the kind of havoc they play with this country. The Soviet Union takes its gas «5» and America takes its oil! «6» When we say we want an Islamic government, we want a stop to be put to these libertines. It is not that we want to return to the kind of life lived 1,400 years ago, as the Shah alleges. It is the judicial laws of 1,400 years ago to which we want to return and not the lives of those who lived then. No indeed, we gladly welcome and accept any signs of civilization; but what they have to offer are not such signs. Are all of these murders a sign of civilization?! Enforcing martial law and attacking the people tooth and nail, are these signs of civilization?! Is giving away our oil to others in return for arms which we are incapable of using a sign of civilization? We don't have the trained personnel who know how to use these arms they bring to Iran! Foreign consultants have to supervise the use of these weapons themselves! «7» They have formed a military base here- an American military base under the pretext of wanting to do this and that for our country! An American military base, here, in Iran! We argue that we don't want our country to be in the shambles that this man, this servant, has created for the sake of his masters.

You who are young cannot remember, but I (who am older) can recall that from the very beginning, from the very first day of Rida Khan's coup d'etat, it was the British who actually conducted the coup! And once Rida Shah had gone, having been taken to some island or other, «8» I myself heard the British state over Delhi Radio that they had placed Rida Shah on the throne, but that they had later got rid of him because he had betrayed them! «9» Mr. Muhammad Rida Khan himself also attested to this in something he wrote- it may have been in that book" Serving My Country" «10»- but realizing that this was an improper thing to say, they later had it erased from the text! He had written that:" The Allies, after occupying Iran, thought it fitting that I should remain, and they agreed to my accession to the throne." But be that as it may, it is you, your eminence, who is the puppet! To say that:" They saw it fitting that I should remain," is to say:" They placed me on the throne," «11» We argue that we don't want that person who the Allies have seen fit to bring here, and who is now working for them and doing all he can for them, pouring whatever we have down the drain. We have no independence; we have no freedom of speech; we have no freedom of the pen. We have nothing.

In an agricultural country such as this, which should be exporting its agricultural produce on a grand scale, an official report stated that there were only enough crops in Iran to suffice for something like thirty-three or thirty-four days' consumption, the remaining food requirements of the country having to be imported from abroad. Everyone can see how heaps of wheat, barley, eggs and so on are now continually brought in from abroad as well as all other kinds of things. They ruined Iran's agriculture in the name of `land reforms'; that is to say they rendered the poor farmers and peasants helpless whereby they were no longer able to continue working their own fields. These poor farmers thus migrated and came to the outskirts of Tehran where they now live under miserable conditions; in a truly deplorable state. According to an account given to me in Najaf listing the number of people who live under such conditions and their whereabouts, a large number of people are scattered throughout Tehran in something like forty different areas where they live in small hovels and tents. In Tehran, the country's capital city, things are such that these people are living in hovels and tents! The report stated that in order to obtain a pitcher of water for their children, these people have to ascend a hundred steps or more from the deep hole in the ground in which they live, to reach this water tap which has been put there. In the bitter cold of winter, a woman has to carry her water pitcher all the way up those steps and then carry it back down again so as to take a jug of water to her children!

We say that this distressing situation must be rectified. Meanwhile however, the amount of money that they spend on themselves reaches exorbitant levels. The latest example of such expenditure about which I read concerned a certain villa which was bought for one of the Shah's sisters at heaven knows what price. I can't now recall exactly how much it cost but I know that it was a great amount of money. Five million dollars! Five million dollars on flower beds and floral displays! «12» And so we see the kind of lives they live. They are in fact much better off than this, so much so that it surpasses the imagination. Yet we also see how, even in the city of Tehran, a great number of people are living in a tent or a hovel, without any facilities. They have neither electricity for lighting nor water. As for tarmacked surfaces and the like, these poor people don't know the meaning of such things! When we say we want an Islamic government, we are saying that this situation must be done away with. The Shah says:" They say we must return to the time when donkeys were the means of transport!" «13» But when we talk of an Islamic government this is not what we mean at all. Who has ever said that you must travel by donkey?! What we do say is that this situation must come to an end; and while Muhammad Rida and the Pahlavi dynasty remain in power we don't see how our country can enjoy any kind of freedom or independence. This man is a puppet who has been put here by the imperialists. He is a man with a `mission' for his country! He himself talks of having a" Mission for My Country"! And he is right in this; but it is a mission which has been assigned to him by America! He is commissioned by America to accomplish a mission for his country- a mission which requires that he prevent this poor country both from growing spiritually and from benefiting from its own wealth and resources. The wealth of this country is to go to America.

When we speak of an Islamic government, we are speaking of a government based on social justice. We maintain that we must have a ruler who will not fraudulently take from the treasury of the Muslims; who will not transgress by dipping into the treasury of the Muslims. This is the one argument by which we firmly stand. It is a reasonable argument which is acceptable to anyone no matter in which part of the world it may be raised. Today, the people of our country have risen up in revolt due to this person's betrayal of us. This person has misappropriated our wealth; he has taken our wealth from this country and bought villas «14» for himself elsewhere, his family and devoted followers thereby living in grand style while we here remain hungry. But now those who are hungry have united to say that they don't want this person to remain; so now what do you (the Shah) have to say for yourself? This is all we are arguing; this is all we have to say and nothing more.

Let me also now add that the press here can write whatever they like. Let them write that Islam is reactionary if they so wish, but let both them and yourself (the Shah) answer me this- let the entire newspapers of the world join together to explain why, when we have oil reserves, copper reserves, and other kinds of reserves, when we have everything we could need, why are they taking it all from us? Why are they plundering our wealth? We, a weak, backward nation don't wish to be plundered! You yourself say we are a backward nation, that may be the case, but we don't want to be backward for God's sake! You, the one who commits plunder are ahead of the times while we, the ones who are being plundered are behind the times! You are plundering the people because you have reached the gateway to civilization! Perhaps others have not yet reached that stage whereby you can grant them freedom! This good-for-nothing says that these people are not yet ready for freedom! They have not yet reached that stage! Just what is this supposed to mean?! How come they have not reached the stage whereby they can be granted freedom?! «15» Is it because they cry out and question your wrongdoings? Does this mean they have not yet reached the required stage? Must they indeed remain silent in order to reach that stage?! Are they to say nothing from now on no matter how much they are beaten and ill-treated, until they have reached that stage which permits them to be granted freedom?!

Today, our country is up in arms; and this uprising is one in which we all have a duty to play a part. That is to say, anyone who belongs to this country (of Iran) - from myself, a mere talabah (student of religious sciences), to you who are students, or to he who is a merchant or a businessman- each one of us must support his fellow countrymen in order to bring about a success, since reason dictates that one should involve oneself in such an affair. The Iranian people are laying claim to the most basic of human rights. To say: `I want to be free, I want freedom of speech, I want to be independent, I want to stand on my own two feet' is to ask for the most basic of human rights; and this is what we argue. It is an argument which would be accepted by anyone no matter where it were to be voiced. We all have a duty to fight for this cause. We are to give help in whatever way possible to those of our brothers who are making sacrifices. We are to send whatever we can to help those who are now at the battlefront so to speak. We are to do whatever we can: by way of writing, speaking, making statements, demonstrating, or by any other means. This is our stand.

May God, Exalted and Mighty, grant all of you success. I pray that you may be among the rightly guided in this struggle; that you may be among those who fight against corruption. I pray for you to be granted a favorable result in this struggle, while also attaining the favor of Almighty God. The objective is for the Muslim nations to be strong, to be powerful and to be prosperous. May God help you to successfully attain this objective.