Speech [The roots of the people's opposition to the Shah and the need for propagating Islam]

Nowadays, we are faced with problems every day, which hitherto we only encountered once every month or every twenty days. Previously, the people were given a respite until the seventh or fortieth day after a killing before another was perpetrated. But today the situation in Iran is such that as I speak to you now, there are disturbances in Hamedan and confrontations between the people and the police which have been going on for three days. The people's opposition to the regime does not stem from one or two reasons. The people see that everything that a nation needs, each institution that the nation can benefit from, this oppressive regime, this Shah, these masters of the Shah of whom America, Britain and the Soviet Union are the most important, have endangered or destroyed.

A nation needs education; a nation can have a political existence through its culture and education. Our educational system is not an independent one, it is not one which relates to the people; rather it is planned and controlled by foreigners. Consequently, they do not give us a sound system; they do not give us sound teachers. The university lecturers cannot and have never been able to pursue their tasks as they should. The university students cannot pursue their tasks in a way that they want to. All the institutions must glorify Aryamehr; all must be organs, which support the apparatus of oppression. When the nation looks at its education, it sees a paralyzed system, one which can achieve nothing and which does not have a sound role to play in the society. When the nation looks at its army, it sees a parasitic army. Sixty thousand military advisers have come to this country and the majority of them are American advisers who have taken control of our army and now administer it. The army is not under our command, it is not under the command of the nation, and it is not beneficial to the nation. The armed forces have now come together to crush this nation on the orders of the Shah and those above him. The Shah is using his subordinates to cause all these tragedies and many of them are not happy doing what they are doing, but there is another power over their heads and that is these American military advisers. They issue the orders and these subordinates carry them out. They (the Shah's masters) want the Shah with all his crimes to be retained.

Only yesterday or the day before the British Foreign Minister said that they had interests in Iran and they could not withdraw their support from someone who was safeguarding their interests. This is what we are saying too, we maintain that the Shah is being retained now to safeguard British, American and Russian interests. The Allies put him in power to safeguard their interests. He himself admitted that the Allies wanted him to rule, that they wanted the Pahlavi dynasty to rule. May God curse those Allies for imposing such an animal on us. We are saying the same as the British Foreign Minister! All our problems now are caused by the fact that he is staying in the country to safeguard the interests of the foreigners. He wants to destroy everything we have to their avail. He gives our oil and our minerals to them; he sacrifices our culture and education for them; he does not allow a sound culture to exist, one that will prevent them from reaching their aims; he weakens Islam; he does not allow Islam to be presented as it truly is so as to prevent it from forming an obstacle to the foreigners' aims. He weakens the `ulama' of Islam, he does not allow them to speak out and tell the people what is being done to them. Political groups, all groups, the righteous and enlightened bazaar merchants, our university students and academics, he crushes them all. He does not allow them to speak out and if a voice is raised anywhere it is silenced by these commandos and hirelings. What did the people of Hamedan do to be treated so? They only said one word and subsequently were attacked; the girls were arrested and the tumult that we now witness ensued. One of the girls was raped and she committed suicide because of it. These disturbances in Hamedan, in which they say fifty people have been killed, stem from a voice being raised.

About two or three years ago, I anticipated that we should be wary of this dictator in his last days, and now we see that these actions also stem from the fact that he, like most of our other dictators, has gone insane in his final days. Aqa Muhammad Khan Qajar also went insane toward the end of his rule, as did Nadir Shah. Some of them were mad from the beginning, like Rida Shah; he was mad from the start! Now this one (the Shah) has become high-strung and mentally disturbed. When he is interviewed nowadays he appears distracted. Apparently he was interviewed recently by a reporter from a French newspaper who said that throughout the interview, the Shah kept muttering to himself, complaining to himself and that he repeated about twenty times:" What's the solution now? Now what should we do? What should be done now? What shall we do?" Well it is obvious what you should do, get up and go. What else do you want from this nation? The solution lies with you, leave! Now he is taking gold out of the country, yesterday or the day before we were informed that the day before that an airplane left the country carrying the crown jewels. His father did the same thing. They have been the bane of the nation.

I do not have a personal or family dispute with you as you claim. What personal dispute do I have with you? I am speaking for the nation; the pain of the nation concerns us, not personal pain. We are objecting to what you are doing to our nation and our `ulama', and what you have done and are doing to our Islam. This is not a personal dispute; this is a struggle over the nation, over Islam, and because you are destroying all of Iran's resources, you are giving them away to others and we are telling you to stop it, these should be ours; our hungry people should be fed. We are concerned about these hungry, naked people who wander around the streets, who have nothing and are in dire straits, as we are about these farmers whom you say you wanted to do something for through your so-called land reforms, whereas in reality you implemented these reforms for America. This was the mission for your country, which America gave you and you carried it out, making the country dependent on America and foreigners in all respects.

The people are shouting now for freedom, for independence; they are shouting that they do not want their resources to be destroyed this way. This is what ails the nation. In twenty years' time we will have no oil; our agriculture has already been destroyed; we have nothing. When the nation has nothing how is it expected to survive? How is the future generation expected to live? We have a responsibility toward the future generation. We should now do whatever is within our power to sever the hands that grip our resources, our nation's resources, so that they will last a little longer. We have large reserves of oil, but such a great amount is being taken, and taken without payment at that, that they are being depleted. If only they (the Americans) were taking it free of charge, but in return, they build bases for themselves! They give us arms in return! Are these arms for us? No, they are for creating their own bases in Iran! Bases for America are being built all over the country, in the mountains of Kurdistan and this place and that. Arms! These arms are of no use to us. Arms that we do not know how to operate are of no use to us. On the one hand, they take our oil and on the other, they send weapons to Iran for their bases here, so that they can say that they have paid for the oil with these weapons and thus stem protests from the Soviet Union and other countries. This is being done in the name of meeting our needs and with the excuse that our power should be such and such.

A few years ago, this person, the Shah himself, said that we didn't want arms, we didn't need arms, that what we already had were sufficient for administering the country. This is true, he does not need these things (that the Americans send) to kill the people! These machine-guns that he already has are enough, they are killing the people! He does not need them for anything else apart from killing his own nation! This same person, who once claimed that the country did not want weapons, soon changed his tune when he received the command from America that he had to take the weapons and build bases on the pretext of them being in return for the oil, to which he said:" No, we should have arms, other powers like us have many weapons," and other things to the effect that Iraq for instance had weapons in its arsenal that could do goodness knows what in a day. This is all a lie! The arms that we buy are not for us, they are for America. The Americans wanted to set up bases here, but they realized that if they openly stated that they intended to do this, Russia would oppose them and a dispute would ensue. Therefore, under the pretext of paying for the oil they get with `goods', their goods comprising of these weapons, they build bases for themselves in Iran! Our nation's woes stem from the fact that he is a traitor; the father was a traitor and the son is a traitor, too!

The nation has now had enough. The people do not want him. School-children and old men alike are saying that they do not want him. A whole nation says that it does not want him. Is there a better referendum than this? When the nation says that it does not want him, it means that this Shah is no longer a Shah. A Shah is only a Shah when the nation wishes him to be so; when the people vote against him, he forfeits his position. Parliament likewise, when it does not enjoy the vote of the people, it is no longer a Parliament. Our Parliament was not a Parliament from the beginning! We just need to look at the history of our Parliament. I myself am like a history of our Parliament; I can remember what has happened from the time that Rida Khan carried out his coup d'etat up to the present time. I can remember the Constituent Assembly, which was formed at bayonet point. This is the kind of Parliament that we have had! When did we ever have a true Parliament? Never, from the time of Rida Shah to the present, we have never had a Parliament that the people have voted for of their own volition; we have never had such a Parliament.

The present Members of Parliament are all traitors, because they know that they are there only on the orders of the Shah and the nation has no say in the matter! This is the first problem we have with all you Members of Parliament, for you are all aware of this, there is no denying it, you haven't come from outer space, you are more aware of this than the nation is itself. You know that your entry into Parliament was not brought about by the approval and votes of the people; rather it happened because the Shah installed you, because this was `the Shah's mission'. The embassies handed over a list and you were appointed. Still you entered Parliament even though you knew this. So the first question we have to put to those of you who claim to be nationalists is:" Why then did you enter Parliament knowing what you did?" You may reply that you had no choice, but surely, nobody could force you in, no, you yourself wanted it. Therefore, you entered Parliament and approved of everything that was put in front of you. But now you see that things are changing, the opponent is coming to the fore and so you want to compromise and make a place for yourself. The question remains though as to why you are in a Parliament that has been appointed by the Shah and which contravenes the Constitution. The Constitution has given the people the right to choose their representatives and no one has the right to interfere with this

According to the Constitution, the Shah is a criminal and must be deposed. The Shah is a traitor and traitors, as stated in the Constitution, must be deposed. A Shah who acts against the interests of the nation or against that which the law has determined can no longer be a Shah, he automatically forfeits his office. This Shah is not a Shah, he is a usurper, he is a bandit and as such, he is automatically deposed.

This bandit was placed over us and Britain supports him from one side, America from another, China another and the Soviet Union from another. They are all seeking their own interests. There is no better, more foolish servant for them than he is. He has given all the wealth of this nation to them free of charge. The nation's gas is taken by Russia, its oil by America and Britain; everything this country has is being taken by somebody. The Queen of England has taken its pasturelands; our lush, green pasturelands were handed over to the Queen of England and some other people there, and I have received information to the effect that the nation's forests have been given to another company. Everything in this country has now fallen prey to these hyenas who tug at it from all directions. Iran is now food for these oil-devourers and these hyenas and they are tugging at her from all directions, and it is Muhammad Rida Pahlavi who is letting this happen. He is her executive power! When we say that we do not want this man, this is why, it is not because the nation has been given freedom and it does not want it! According to Carter, this nation has been given a very quick freedom; the Shah has given his nation a quick freedom! This is the fast freedom that has been recently implemented in Hamedan, in Kerman a few days ago and in towns close to Kerman. Murder is now widespread in Iran and this man has gone insane, he has become mentally disturbed and very dangerous. The people should get rid of him as fast as they can to be free of him.

I am surprised at the army on the one hand, and on the other at those youth in Iran who sometimes allow themselves to be led into error. I am surprised at the army for allowing this Shah to sully its reputation for the sake of his own and his masters' goals. The military forces have a bad name now among the people because whatever he wants to do he does it through them. He uses the army if the action is a little widespread, as on Khordad 15 and other similar occasions, or if not he uses a smaller force such as commandos and such people like them. These forces are all giving themselves a bad name for the sake of the interest of this man and his masters! It surprises me that the army, which is made up of nationals of this country, would do such things to its own nation for the sake of a man who is a traitor and who it knows to be a traitor, that it would bring shame upon itself and give itself a bad name for the sake of the goals of a traitor who wants to prolong his treacherous rule for a few days longer! This is surprising for me.

On the other hand, I am surprised at our youth, some of our youth of course, those who have allowed themselves to be led astray by this regime, which has deceived them through various means. Their elders have made them shout slogans at the university, slogans that are anti-Islamic and unpatriotic so that the people will be afraid that if His Imperial Majesty goes the communists will take over! A group of our young people has now become the instruments of some of their elders who make them do such things and who are working for SAVAK and for this regime. These people are not communists; they are communist-makers. They make our young people say and do things, which are for the benefit of the Shah and America and beguile these young people into thinking that what they are doing is for the sake of communism and the Toudeh Party and such things. I find it truly surprising that at a time when such matters are obvious even to the bazaar merchants, the farmers and the young children, some of these young people allow themselves to be deceived so. They are making a mistake and it works to the benefit of the regime, but the Muslims will not let the regime take full advantage of this and only humiliation will be left for these young people. It is indeed surprising for me.

I ask you gentlemen who are studying abroad and who form part of the enlightened classes not to let our youth fall into the trap of these people. Some of our youth have been deceived; they have been deceived by some of their elders. They have made a mistake; they haven't read about Islam; they haven't seen true Islam (in practice); they haven't read about the laws of Islam nor seen them in practice; they are not familiar with the language of the Qur'an; they do not know that the Qur'an is a book designed to create human beings, to stimulate man toward progress and development, toward crushing the oppressors and the apparatus of oppression. They do not know these things. They know nothing about the economics of Islam either. So when they come here, they come almost totally ignorant about Islam, and some people, some groups who themselves have no belief in these matters, mislead these young people and force them to do such acts and our youth are deceived. You are intellectual people; you are Muslim and you preserve your national sentiments; so, I ask you to take care of our children; do not let them fall into these traps. These are the traps of SAVAK, not those of the communists. The SAVAK agents have a mission to make these young people shout slogans which benefit the regime and in this way destroy these youth. If you meet some of these young people here, take them by the hand, do not let them work for the benefit of the Shah or the regime, for America, the Soviet Union and other powers, do not lose them in this way.

Another duty, which we who are residing abroad now have, is to help the Iranian nation. It has a right over all of us who are abroad now for it is giving blood for us, it is sacrificing its youth. Wherever you go in Iran nowadays there are disturbances, a movement has begun, the people are speaking out and are shouting:" We want freedom; we do not want this dynasty because it has deprived us of our freedom and has plundered our resources for its own benefit and that of the foreigners." Those of us here are indebted to them; we are responsible before God, the Blessed and Exalted, and before the nation. We have to help these people and that which you and I can do for them is to propagate their cause. Those of you, who attend the universities and colleges over here, speak to your friends there, whenever and wherever possible sit down and speak about the situation in Iran.

Everybody nowadays is watching events in Iran. Tell them what this man is doing to the people; tell them what ails the people and that the cure for their ailment is for him (the Shah) to leave. An even better cure is that Mr. Carter and the leaders of China, the Soviet Union and Britain leave this nation alone and let the people administer their own affairs. What business does that wretch have coming here from the other side of the world, robbing us of our oil, taking it for free or worse than if it were for free. Tell these people, these students that you meet, whether in America or in Europe, about these things. There are about five thousand of you over here, if each one of you tells only ten people, then that will mean that a great number of people have been informed and a wave of support will be created in Europe and America which will prove useful to the Iranian nation's cause. This is a service, which you can do for the Iranian nation, and in this way, you can repay your debt to them. I ask you all to invite the people to support the nation of Iran, ask the American nation to support the Iranian nation, to understand what the American government has done to Iran and why it has the bad reputation that it does in Iran. Gradually, people may come to presume that the American nation supports the policies of their government in Iran, but this is not the case. In the same way, wherever you are living speak to the people about your problems, alert them to the fact that their governments' policies toward Iran are detrimental to your nation, to everything that your nation has, and (in this way) help the Iranians in this movement that they have started.

May God grant you health and success. May you all be ready to make sacrifices for Islam and your nation and may you strengthen yourselves. God willing, you will take control of your nation, your country, and others will leave and you will administer your own country yourselves.(The audience replies with" God willing").