In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Their Eminences distinguished `ulama', honorable preachers and the great nation of Iran, may God always assist them:
After greetings and salutations, allow me to state that at the present time we are experiencing heavy blows inflicted daily on Islam as well as ever more hardships and difficulties for the Muslim nations. On one hand, there are the Palestinian issue; the Al-Aqsa Mosque; the homelessness of the innocent people of that land; and the powerful imperialist governments' support of the occupying Jews- the perpetuation of this cancerous gland is a great danger, God forbid, for all Islamic countries especially the Arab governments in the future. On the other hand, the repression of the Iranian nation under the clutches of the imperialist agents and its servants has brought serious and all-dimensional difficulties to the Islamic society. In a bid to eradicate the foundation of the Holy Qur'an and the liberating teachings of Islam, the plots of imperialists are underway, which are somehow to be carried out any time.
The day when Rida Khan came to power with the assistance of the foreigners, he was commissioned through the bayonet and total brutality to cancel Islamic ceremonies, and to destroy and eradicate the luminous ordinances of the Qur'an and Prophetic traditions. However, realizing that the people cannot be separated from Islam and the fundamentals of the Qur'an through the bayonet for the purpose of achieving their sinister and plundering motives, they resorted to neo-imperialist designs. By feigning Islam, they have come to eradicate the foundations of the Qur'an, take the Muslim nations in captivity and rid themselves of the great barrier (clergymen). By means of the deceitful plans called `Religious Corps' and others, they want to smash this great barrier in order to achieve their wicked goals.
Today, broader and wider plans are implemented that reveal the real face of the imperialist agents and the nature of their mission. These are plans through whose implementation they want to crush the oppositionist fronts and transform them into fronts that serve imperialism, Zionism and their agents. They wish to push back the distinguished `ulama', honorable preachers and those who serve Islam, and replace them with the pseudo-turbaned men and agents of the corrupt organizations in occupying the pulpits of Islam and the Great Messenger (s). Instead of explaining the ordinances of the Qur'an and the truths of Islam, they want to create mouthpieces for the implementation of the sinister and anti-Islamic objectives of the surrogate and slave regime. These are plans through whose implementation they want, based on their corrupt notion, to convert the grand maraji`, distinguished `ulama' and honorable preachers as government employees- employees who are so contemptible and insignificant. They want to eradicate all the sanctities of Islam and the clergy, and to open as wide as possible the way for the imperialists. Finally, these are plans through whose implementation they want to erect, in lieu of the great oppositionist blockade to tyranny and despotism, a blockade that serves the tyrants and despots.
Now, as what has been repeatedly reported, in the process of implementing these dangerous imperialist plans they have started subjecting the mosques, places of mourning, religious schools, and other Islamic centers as well as the status of the clergy under the supervision of the anti-Islamic endowment organization. They want to make the `ulama', preachers and congregational prayer leaders as the implementers of the illegitimate designs of the tyrannical regime and filthy agents of imperialism, or to impel them to retreat and surrender the fortresses of Islam to the enemies and agents of the foreigners.
This is the dire consequence of the bloody revolution and imperialism which, through propaganda and demagogy they want to entitle and label as the `White Revolution' and `the Shah-People Revolution'. During the past gloomy decade, the oppressed people of Iran have gained nothing but poverty, abjectness, strangulation, mass murders, firing-squad executions, illegal executions, and filling the prison cells with the `ulama', clergymen, and the youth of the Islamic nation. Violating the sanctities of Islam, torturing to death the `ulama' and the Muslim people, attacking the Faydiyyah Madrasah and the universities, and the tragic massacre of Khordad 15 with (most widely known) fifteen thousand victims are the other products of this shameful revolution. Granting immunity to the American
military personnel and their relatives; shattering the country's reputation; obliterating the judicial independence; and giving predomination to the plunderers of America and Zionism over all the military, political, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and marketing affairs are yet another disgraceful results of this boastful revolution of the tyrannical regime that has held all these full-of-fanfare celebrations, merry-making and propaganda, and spent enormous sums from the sweat and toil of the deprived and hungry people for these ignominious celebrations.
Now the tyrannical regime has a new dream for the Iranian nation. By purchasing excessive weapons and ammunitions from America for the amount of two billion dollars, which is approximately one hundred and fifty thousand million rials, it puts the Iranian nation at the brink of destruction and economic bankruptcy. It has shamelessly announced that the country's budget deficit on the issue of paying the amount will be recovered through foreign loans and tax increases! It is inconceivable for me that the aim for buying all these weapons is to expel the masters and imperialists as the regime itself has been their protege, made Iran as their military base, and allowed their hands to have access in all the military, political and economic affairs of the country. Or, in fact, is it not in carrying out the plundering designs of America that, as the effect of weakening of the economic budget and political change on the basis of annihilation of nations by means of their own power and wealth, they want to further strengthen their base in Iran and to suppress the defenseless Iranian nation and other freedom-loving nations in the region which are struggling against the occupiers of Palestine and plundering foreigners?
At present, majority of the deprived nation of Iran are deprived of the basic life amenities, and according to some newspapers affiliated to the establishment, in Tehran alone one million people lack electricity, water, public health and other basic living necessities. It is a nation whose majority, due to poverty and indigence, cannot afford to send their children to the school and cannot satisfy the hunger of their innocent children, or they leave them on the streets while only pinning hope in God. It is a nation whose majority cannot afford to consult a doctor or buy medicine and as a result they die out of not consulting a doctor or lack of medicine, and according to some Iranian newspaper reports, in most Iranian cities and large provinces for every thirty-five thousand individuals there is only one doctor. It is a nation which, just last year, due to famine and hunger, is forced to leave its home to look for the daily bread and became vagrant, must pay such enormous sums from the country's budget on such a foolish affair!
Furthermore, there is a backbreaking 2 billion transaction, apart from the transaction on weapons, that it has recently concluded with the imperialist and aggressor Britain, and it has purchased all the weapons and ammunitions. I am afraid that these deviations and foolish acts are a result of complication with which some of the bloodthirsty rulers had been afflicted during the latter part of their lives and had pulled their nation to dust and blood. For this oppressed nation, I am afraid that the latter days of these tyrants who are on the verge of death would lead them to insanity. For Islam and the Muslims, I am afraid of nervous sicknesses to happen to these ruffians in old age.
Now, silence in the face of these plans and atrocities is tantamount to suicide, welcoming a gloomy death, and the fall of a great nation. Before it is too late, it is necessary for the silence to be broken, and protest and denial to begin. It is for the `ulama' and preachers of Islam to expose in the mosques and gatherings the behind-the-curtain plans of the establishment. In this great tragedy that has befallen Islam and the Muslims, especially the distinguished `ulama' and honorable preachers, they should not refrain from any kind of actions. The grand religious authorities should express their respected views in the printed media. In this backbreaking state of affairs, those who cooperate and have good relations with the establishment, or endorse these plans and activities of the endowment organization and other corrupt organizations and help in their advancement, or have been stipendiary of the endowment organization and the tyrannical regime, should be rejected, disgraced and made known to the nation. With those who have been appointed and designated by the corrupt organizations to occupy the pulpit and altar, the nation of Islam should not justly deal, not attend in their gatherings, and not to listen to their sermons. Moreover, they should point them out to each other and reject them from the Islamic society, and refrain from mosques and assemblies that are supervised and run by the endowment organization. As a gesture of protest and disapproval, the distinguished `ulama', honorable preachers and congregational prayer leaders should stage a strike in an appropriate manner and stop going to the mosques and mounting the pulpits for a limited period of time, and be certain that a collective protest and public strike would be fruitful and the tyrannical regime will retreat. It is necessary for the Muslim people, at the time of the `ulama' of Islam's strike, which is for the preservation of the laws of the Qur'an, to support them and follow suit.
I pray to God, the Exalted, for the eradication of the evil of mischief-mongers and the cutting off of the hands of imperialism. May God's peace and mercy be upon you.
Rouhullah al-Mousawi Khomeini