Speech [The extent of the Shah's crimes and the different dimensions of his treachery]

The loftier the aim, the more patiently man must endure the hardship involved in achieving it, however great that may be, until it becomes easier. If the aim of you gentlemen is material, your suffering will all be in vain, but if your aim is for God, if it is the deliverance of God's creatures, the deliverance of a weak, oppressed nation, then no matter how great the hardships you have to bear, they will not be borne in vain. Something which is done for God is not a futile action. Do not suppose that these energies which are expended and have been expended up till now for the sake of this oppressed nation; for the deliverance of God's creatures; for the elimination of oppression; for severing the hands of foreigners from Muslim land are and have been in vain. They are all taken into account.

You all, the nation of Iran and the nation of Islam are currently confronting a satanic power which for years has determined your destiny. Gradually, the Muslim lands have begun to think about freeing themselves from this power, and this includes Iran, which for some time now has been thinking about liberating itself from the hands of foreigners and from the grasp of this satanic power. Indeed, it has suffered much hardship in the course of pursuing this goal, for the aim is a very great one. The aim is the deliverance of a nation; it is to deliver these poor people, who have suffered pain and torment under the injustice and oppression of foreigners meted out to them through unjust governments and the despotic Pahlavi dynasty, and to free the country from the hands of unbelievers, from the hands of the foreigners. The aim is to create a country which is in your hands, a country whose resources are in your hands.

When you hear them harping on about how low the budget is, how there is a deficit, «1» it doesn't mean that Iran's earnings are low. Iran's income is very high; however, hands are at work to make sure that its budget is not secure. There are many devourers! At present, the income from oil provides for a great chunk of the budget, and one of the crimes currently being perpetrated by the Shah against our nation is that he is intent on pouring all of this reserve, which should last for many years to come and be safeguarded for future generations to live on, down America's throat within the space of the next twenty or thirty years and in return get nothing which is in the interests of the nation.

One of the reasons why there is a budget deficit is that the money is being stolen. As you know, they have bought weapons with eighteen billion dollars of the oil money! They have bought eighteen billion dollars worth of weapons and still they buy more. If you give them half the chance they will buy even more in the future. And what kind of weapons have they bought? Do you think we need eighteen billion dollars worth of weapons to administer our affairs? No, this is not the heart of the matter. The arms are important because of the rivalry that exists between America and Russia. With the excuse of paying for the oil, they (the Americans) bring these weapons into Iran, weapons I might add that are of no use to Iran, and create bases for themselves. In other words, they take our oil and in return build bases for themselves! In the name of paying for the oil, they build bases for themselves. If they gave us hard currency for the oil, if they actually paid us money for it, it would be more than was needed for running the government and running the country. This money would be enough for our people; but so much of it is stolen. America takes some of the oil and gives us iron in return! But the iron is not for our use, rather their own. Of the money it does pay for the oil, most of this goes down the throats of Muhammad Rida Khan, his family- those who are related to him in some way- and those who want to serve him and who kill the people in order to preserve his rule. It is said that in all there are sixty thousand people who are related to the royal family! Related in the sense that they too should banquet at the Shah's table! They too should take the money and do nothing apart from satiate themselves and act wantonly. It is not that there is not enough income; rather there are too many takers.

This oil revenue which should be spent on the country, on the poor people of the country, has not been used on tarmacking the roads or providing electricity even in Tehran. Even Tehran today does not enjoy some of the basic amenities such as electricity, tarmacked roads and piped water! Some areas of Tehran have none of these things; there is no piped water which means that people have to go to taps that have been erected in the streets for their water. In Tehran at present there are about twenty or thirty areas, the particulars of which have been sent to me but are not with me at the moment, where people live in hovels or tents. As I have been told in the letters I have received, it is quite surprising how some of these people live. These are the peasants whom the Shah claimed to have freed from the control of the landlords when he carried out his plans to transform the rural system and everyone was supposed to become simply villagers and whatever!

These peasants are now the slum dwellers who live on the outskirts of Tehran or in the city itself. The most fortunate of them has been able to build a mud hut for himself and the rest of his family which may range from anywhere between five to fifteen people! The others build homes out of pieces of wood, reeds and such like! Some people have written to me with details about these slum areas and they name twenty or thirty areas where people live in hovels, in tents or some other makeshift shelter. They wrote that their living conditions are such that some of them have made their homes out of holes in the ground. In order to get water they have to climb fifty or a hundred steps- I can't remember the exact number but it is a lot- in order to reach the street where a water tap has been installed. The poor women have to take their pitchers and climb up those steps to the water tap in the street then climb down them again so as to take a jug of water to their children. Imagine what that must be like in the middle of a biting winter, in the snow! Is this called living?

Don't think that the Iranians now have an easy life as they (the Shah and his regime) like to trumpet over their propaganda loudspeakers. Those who do enjoy a comfortable life are a privileged group of people who are either favored by him or related to him in some way; they are the ones having an easy life; the rest of the people aren't. Tehran itself has these twenty to thirty areas where people live in abject poverty. These people were once in the villages busy tilling their fields, but then, in the name of `land reforms', the whole system was turned upside down and because they saw they could no longer make a living in the village, these poor, unfortunate people migrated to the cities. Many of them went to Tehran and its surrounding areas hoping to eke out a living by working, selling things or carrying things around for people; anything just to keep their children alive. This was the result of the `land reforms' which he carried out.

This is what America wanted. This was a plan that America devised for the countries of this region, Iran being just one of them. It was a plan devised to create a market for America, because America had a surplus of wheat which at times it burned and at others it threw into the sea. A better alternative was to turn the life of the Iranians upside down, disrupt Iran's cultivation system and completely destroy farming in the country, so that a country whose needs were once met by the produce of just one of it provinces, the surplus being exported, now had to import goods from abroad. If farming were carried out in the province of Azerbaijan like it used to be, then its produce alone would be sufficient to meet the needs of the whole of Iran. «2» Indeed there would be a surplus which would have to be exported abroad. But now as you see, Iran has to import all of its needs!

Animal husbandry has been destroyed, farming has been destroyed; everything has been destroyed. Our pasturelands, our lush, verdurous pasturelands- which some experts from abroad have described as the best in the world for raising cattle- have been given to one group of people which includes the Queen of England, as I have been told in the letters I have received, and to some other people who are spongers just like the Shah and his regime. They have" rented" the land as they put it! So our animal husbandry has been destroyed and now the nation of Iran has to make do with frozen meat brought in for it from other countries and which is unclean according to religious law. The people have to eat frozen carcasses, meat which is bad and rotten and which they are forbidden by their religion to eat, whereas when animal husbandry thrived in Iran, the produce of just one province was sufficient to meet the needs of the whole country, the surplus being exported. «3»

Now, however, he (the Shah) imports everything from abroad. And whatever is brought into the country comes either from Israel Israel the enemy of Islam! God only knows what treason this man has committed against Islam. Israel is the enemy of Islam; it is currently at war with the Muslims. From the very beginning this regime gave it official recognition. Twenty-five or thirty years ago when it was actually at war with the Muslims, «4» these people officially recognized Israel! «5» Then however, they did not make this known to the public. And today, as the end draws nigh, you can all see how one of Muhammad Rida Khan's strongest advocates, one of the keenest proponents for the continuation of his rule, is Israel. For the Israelis argue that if he goes they will lose their supply of oil, because this regime is supplying Israel with its oil. «6» In other words, they give the oil of a Muslim land to the enemy of Muslims to help it wage war against the Muslims! This is the kind of traitor this wretch is! He sends our oil to them in his tankers, he gets it to them by his own means, to the Israelis who with this oil wage war against the Muslims and who have usurped the Muslims' land destroying everything they have. Look what they have done to Palestine, look how they have usurped Jerusalem. This is just one of the treacherous acts this man has committed against Islam and the Muslims. Within Iran itself he has betrayed the Muslims for the sake of the Israelis. As I have been told, the best land of Iran has been given to the Israelis. «7» The best land of Iran has been handed over to these Israeli Jews for them to work on and reap the benefit of.

Our villagers are forced into Tehran to live the life we have been told about. Until one goes there and sees for oneself, one cannot perceive the reality of their life, one cannot fully understand just what this regime has done to these people. God only knows what state the provincial towns and villages are in when this is the state of Tehran, the capital! There is no water, there are no clinics. In their own newspapers they speak of areas where groups of twenty villages are without clinics, doctors and water. «8» A few years ago, in the Ittila`at or Kayhan newspaper, they wrote that in one part of the country there is such a shortage of water that when the people wake up in the morning, the mothers have to wash the trachoma-infected eyes of their children with urine so they can open their eyes! They have to rub urine onto their eyes so they can open them! This is the life our nation has to lead because of this man, while he, his family and his friends take the money and build villas for themselves abroad. «9»

I have spoken about this matter before on many occasions, but I wish to mention it again. I either read somewhere in a magazine or in a letter sent to me or it was read out to me from somewhere- I can't remember which- that a villa was purchased for one of the Shah's sisters at heaven knows what price. I can't remember how much it said it cost, but I do recall it being stated that six million dollars, that is thirty-five million tumans, was spent on the gardens alone! «10» Who is paying for all of this? I was around when Rida Khan came to power and he was a man with nothing, he was a simple army colonel.

One of the gentlemen sent me a cassette tape which I listened to. A contract for tarmacking roads was discussed and it was stated that every meter of tarmac cost a few hundred dollars! But the money was stolen and the work never completed.

Even if the Shah leaves now it will take us many years of effort before we can repair the damage he has done. If indeed we are able to do so at all. Such talk we hear:" If he goes the whole world will fall apart! If he goes the stability of the region will be lost!" What stability is there to be lost? To be sure if he leaves there will no longer be a policeman for the Persian Gulf! With the nation's money he sends troops to this place and that in the Persian Gulf to protect American interests there. If he leaves, our country will be put right, it will be administered properly. Whoever comes to power after him will administer it better that he did.

Some say if he goes a vacuum will come into being! What vacuum? When a thief leaves and a more reliable person takes his place does that mean a vacuum is formed?! And a more reliable person will take his place. Do they think we don't have reliable people? Doesn't Iran have anyone who can take the place of Mr. Muhammad Rida Khan?! What does he do that others don't? Well for one thing, he steals, others don't! What is this talk of a vacuum? What vacuum? This is just propaganda that they put about. They spread propaganda in whatever language they can in an attempt to keep him in power, because a group within the country wants to derive profit from him and another group, which comprises mainly foreigners, wants to plunder our country's resources through him. There is nobody better than him to plunder us, for he is the best servant of them all. If they could find a servant better than him they would get rid of him immediately, but there is no one better than him. He has served them for some time, he is an old hand at it now.

Of course it is a great task, a difficult task, but its importance is also great, for a nation seeks to confront some powers and this is no small undertaking, it is a difficult task but it is being done because that nation is a prisoner of others and it wants to break the shackles of imprisonment. It is an important task and when it is important even though it may take time, even though it may be difficult, it must be done. You may get caught in a shower, but no matter, something has to be done. You must demonstrate, you must attempt to explain matters, may God grant you success. You may get wet in the process of doing this, but no matter, for this is something you are doing for God, it is something you are doing to deliver the Iranian nation.

All of you are duty bound to counter this propaganda which has been and continues to be put about abroad, and to enlighten the people to the facts. Some of these foreign newspapers get their daily bread from these people and write against the Iranian nation and in favor of Muhammad Rida Khan. Enlighten the people. Tell those you meet the facts about the situation in Iran. The Iranians have not raised their voices because they have been given too much freedom! Rather they are calling for freedom because they do not have it. Who enjoys freedom in Iran? Our newspapers are now shut down and have been for a while. Why have they done this? It's because they are still subject to censorship, they have shut down in protest at the censorship.

Nowadays, every place you go to in Iran is shut down. Every place you go is on strike because the people realize that this regime is destroying the country. The various governmental departments have always known what was going on, but they could never say anything. Now, however, they go on strike. Wherever you go there are strikes. The hospitals are on strike; the doctors are on strike; in the Ministry of Justice the lawyers and judges are on strike. Everywhere is on strike, the electricity company, everything. Why? Do they strike because they are so content, because they are happy in their jobs and they are so free? Have they been given too much freedom, as Carter says, and that's why they are all on strike and are going to such great pains?! Or no, is it because they realize it is better to strike for a short while and paralyze this system, even if only temporarily, than it is not to strike at all and always be beset by these problems? They realize they have to strike so that these difficulties will be removed.

We here are duty bound like anyone else. We should follow up these strikes by giving interviews to newspaper reporters, if we can, and by speaking about the problems which afflict Iran. If we are not able to give interviews then we must acquaint the friends we have here, in America, in Britain, wherever we may be, with the facts about Iran. When you see a group of people speaking together at your schools, join them and tell them what the problems facing Iran are, tell them what it is that ails the Iranians who have risen up. Tell them about the treason that this wretch has committed against the people. These newspapers and magazines that are sometimes printed abroad and speak against the Iranian people are not presenting the facts which are that this man has hitherto done nothing but squander Iran's self-respect and its resources and continue to do so.

All the people (in Iran) are shouting:" We want freedom; we want independence; we want a just government, an Islamic government." An Islamic government is a just government; this stealing will not take place in an Islamic government. If a correct, just government is brought into being, everything will be put right.

May God grant you His favor. May you be successful. May you be healthy and safe. Once again I ask your forgiveness for we do not have the room to offer you gentlemen, who have traveled here from a distance, proper hospitality. May God protect you all. God willing, you will be successful.