In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Dhou'l-Qa`dah 15,1398 AH
Now that is the time of pilgrimage and Muslims from all over the world are about to visit the sacred House of God, it is necessary to observe one of the greatest philosophies of this mammoth gathering during your religious rituals, and to look after the social and political affairs of Islamic countries, become acquainted with the concerns of your brothers in faith, and to try to eliminate them due to your Islamic and divine obligation. Looking after the affairs of the Muslims is one of the important obligations in Islam. I am now going to give you, pilgrims, a report on the problems that the Muslim nation of Iran is confronting with, and seek the help of Muslims all over the world.
Iran, with a population of approximately thirty million Muslims, for the past fifty years, has been strangled in the grasp of the Pahlavi dynasty, which has officially been and still is serving foreigners. During these gloomy fifty years, this great nation has been suffering under the pressure exerted by the police, and from the strangulations and mental tortures. The Shah has been giving away the country's every underground resource and its vital interests to the foreigners- oil to America, gas to the Soviet Union, and pastures and forests along with a share of the oil to Britain and some other countries. They have deprived people of even their primary living necessities and held them in an underdeveloped situation. Our army's system, our culture and the country's economy are under colonial rule, and he has deprived the nation of its progress in every aspect, and now that people have become enlightened in recent years, and stood up for their rights, and expressed their oppressed voice, they are being answered by machine guns, tanks and cannons. The massacres in the cities of Iran, during the past few months, have added a dark chapter to history. The Shah has come down on people with all his infernal forces and America's support. Iran now looks like a graveyard and general strikes are now widespread throughout the country. The Shah is trying to take revenge from this oppressed nation in his last breaths. The ominous shadow of the military government has been cast over the nation and the mercenary commandos are left free to murder the young and the old, men and women.
I do not have permission in any Muslim country, to continue my activity, which includes delivering the nation's oppressed voice to the world, and since I must perform my religious and divine obligation, I was compelled to leave the Muslim countries, so perhaps I could inform the societies of what the oppressed nation of Iran is going through. I will reside in one of the non-Islamic countries until such time that I can find an opportunity to continue my activities in an Islamic country.
Now, you Muslims of the world, do everything you can for Iran, and deliver the moaning of a nation of thirty million oppressed people to the world. It is narrated from the Holy Prophet (s):" Anyone going through a day without having regard for the affairs of the Muslims is not considered a Muslim," «1» and also," O God, I have done what I have been asked to."
Rouhullah al-Mousawi al-Khomeini