I seek refuge in God from the accursed Satan
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Tasou`a and `Ashoura referendum: proof for Shah's downfall
The demonstrations which have taken place yesterday and today in Iran have deprived every person and every government of excuses. «1» No longer can governments claim that the Shah is legitimate and is staying in the country legally or because the people want him to. The referendum that took place yesterday and today and the declaration that was issued proved to the world that the Shah is illegal. «2» I said that his rule was null and void from day one; my claim has been that from the beginning Rida Shah and this Shah gained sovereignty in Iran through illegal and usurpatory means. Now, even if Carter and others like him deny that this is the case, events of yesterday and today have proved that the Shah enjoys no legality, because according to the text of our constitutional law, the Shah is a Shah only by the vote of the nation. This is only natural. Now all the people in Tehran, Mashhad, Qum and Tabriz, everywhere in Iran- and there can be no excuses made that another group of people were involved who came from the other side of the border!- have calmly announced that they don't want the Shah. «3»
Therefore, I have a message for the world governments, for those within Iran, for the Iranian army. My message for the governments of the world is this: we declare from today that our referendum is well and truly over and it is perfectly clear for you all that the Shah enjoys no legitimacy, consequently, we will annul all agreements which have been made between Iran and governments which continue to support the Iranian regime, and we will not give them a drop of oil, at least not while these governments remain in power.
American parliament should impeach Carter
The American parliament should reprimand Carter and ask him to explain why he is backing a government which does not enjoy the support of the nation and which no one in Iran approves of. Carter himself, along with his administration, should be formally questioned as to why they are acting against the interests of America by supporting the Shah who took over the reins of power in Iran illegally and whose reign was made null and void by the referendum in Iran yesterday and today- if it were not considered as being so from the beginning. This is against the interests of America, for if you (addressing Carter) continue to support him, then there will be no oil for America for the duration that you and your administration are in power. This applies to other countries too, be they America, Britain, Russia or other countries that wish to buy oil from Iran. We will not give our oil to those countries which support the Shah today, even through an equitable sale. In other words, so long as the governments of these countries are in power, we will not give them oil. It is true that we do not bear any animosity toward the people of these countries, and if the parliaments of these countries force these governments to sever their support for the Shah and announce that they do not back him, then we will give them oil. However, if these governments do not do this, then so long as they are in power, there will be no oil for their nations.
So now it is up to the parliaments of these countries and the governments, they must decide what to do. This is simply a message for the foreigners and the heads of state calling on them to open their eyes and follow the right path. They should support a people who have stood up and who are calling for their rights, who are saying they want freedom, they want the right to determine their own destiny and they do not want the Shah. If these heads of state do not do so and they support the Shah instead, then there will be no oil for their countries for the duration that they are in power.
A warning and alarm to the army
I would like also to say something to the army, the Iranian army, and I hope that my words reach them. I would like to address the young officers in the army, for I feel that the older officers, who have been in the army for a long time, are excluded here, especially those who served Rida Shah and who may still be serving this Shah, for they most surely support him because he has given them their fill of riches, and these killings which have occurred either at the time of martial law or the military government have done so at their hands! I hold out no hope for these old men. We have asked that a record be made of their names and, God willing, they will be given their just deserts under the Islamic government [The audience replies with God willing]. I would, however, like to awaken the young officers, those who have not got their ranks, or more to the point have not been given them so as to keep them in a subordinate position to these older officers who are the official servants of America or Russia and who serve them first of all and the Shah second, and who have been filled to overflowing with our oil money. I hold out no hope for them because the Shah has given them their fill of the riches of this nation and they now view the Shah and America as their providers.
I would, however, like to arouse the younger generation in the army who form an important group, and give them a word of advice which is that you are young, you still have a life ahead of you, your working days are not over yet, there is still time to serve the nation, so return to the nation and serve the people, abandon this regime that you now know to be illegal and un-Islamic. Forsake this regime and join the people, then the Islamic government will welcome you with open arms. This system will be better for you than that of the Shah, because in an Islamic system there will be no giving of money in order to strengthen a ruler, this will not happen. In this system the government will be just, it will be a national government, a government based on the divine laws and on the consensus of the nation; a ruler will not be able to bully his way to power and then protect his rule by the same means. No, he will come to power through the nation's vote, and it will be the nation who will protect him. And if at any time he acts against the wishes of the nation or against the law, the codified law, then his rule will, as a matter of course, becomes null and void and the government of Iran and the Iranian nation will sweep him aside.
Need for an army in future
You young army officers have not lost yourselves to the dollar like the older officers have! Return to the nation's embrace and the people will welcome you, the Islamic government too will take care of you. Do not think that if an Islamic government were to come to power it would not need officers; this is just what they (the regime and its supporters) are putting about. An Islamic government requires all the apparatuses that other governments have, minus the stealing [The audience laughs]. We want to stop the stealing and capture the thieves. Those who serve their country are held in high esteem by all of us, and they are dear to God too. Everything will be prepared for them. But of course those who are thieves, who have stolen the wealth of this nation and have taken it abroad, will be punished. Do not suppose that if they have left Iran then that is an end to the affair! If they come here, these young people are here to deal with them [The audience laughs]. If they go to America or Britain it will be the same there too. They should not think that they can stay in Iran until the last moment, steal as much as they can and then fly off to America! Wherever they go, there will be zealous Iranian youth to deal with them [The audience says God willing].
Be that as it may, I ask these young men in the army... and I know that they have not lost their Islamic character or their human nature and that at heart they side with the nation, but at present they see themselves as being under the command of these elder, higher-ranking officers, these generals and so on, who have frightened them by putting the idea into their heads that were an Islamic government to come to power, the army officers would no longer have a role to play. On the contrary, at the time of Hadrat Amir, officers existed, but in another form. Malik Ashtar was one of Hadrat Amir's leading officers, as was Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. A country always needs an army, it always needs officers and it always needs the different sections of an administration. What it doesn't need are people who are a burden to the country, people who want to steal the nation's wealth and who are of no benefit to the nation. Those who are doing this now have to realize what they are doing, the less they steal the better it will be for them, the less they take out of the country the better it will be for them, because they will be found wherever they go.
Islamic government defender of the deprived's rights
In any case, this is false propaganda that is put about whether among the soldiers or the farmers. They tell the farmers that if an Islamic government were to come to power they would once again fall on hard times. As if the farmers don't know it was those `land reforms' implemented by this man that blackened their days in the first place. These helpless people are now living a very inferior kind of life and these co-operative banks and corporations that they have created have deprived them completely of their existence. «4» There would be no talk of such things taking place were an Islamic government to come to power. Do not think that an Islamic government will come and demand that you give back to those property magnates the holdings which had been taken off them. No, it will sit each one of them down in turn and ask them to settle their accounts. Yes, they will have to pay tax to the Islamic government. For the past seventy or one hundred years neither they nor their fathers or forefathers have paid anything. If we work it out, the amount will be more than these lands of theirs and we shall have to take their jewels off them and their money from the bank because they are in debt to the government. Once the land is nationalized, that is when it is taken over by the Islamic government, then of course farmers will be needed, cultivators will be needed. An Islamic government does not want the agrarian economy to be in the state it is in today whereby the country has to beg Israel and America to give it eggs, chickens, wheat, barley and goodness knows what else. «5» It wants the country to be self-sufficient. Our country has everything, it is not the case that it doesn't have anything; on the contrary it has everything it needs. The agricultural produce of one of our country's provinces was once enough to meet the needs of the whole country, but these people destroyed our agriculture. They have brought our animal husbandry to ruin in order to give our pasturelands to others. They have destroyed everything we had.
We want a country that belongs to us. They think that if they spread this propaganda around... Islam did not come to oppress the weak; Islam came to take care of them and tend to their needs. Islam sprang up among the ranks of the weak, not the wealthy. It appeared among the beggars of Medina and Mecca, among those poor, weak people. None of the prophets was an aristocrat to side with their cause. They were all from the weak class, from the masses, and it was the masses with whom they sympathized. They did not allow acts of oppression to be carried out against them, or indeed against anyone, including those in positions of authority, for acts of oppression should not be carried out against anyone.
Islam defender of civilization and guardian of men and women's rights
This regime has disseminated propaganda to the effect that were Islam to come to power, women, for example, would have to remain at home with the doors locked to prevent them from getting out! [The audience laughs]. Such falsehoods they spread about Islam. In the earliest age of Islam, women formed part of the army and entered the field of battle together with the men. Islam does not oppose universities, it is opposed to the corruption of the universities, it is opposed to universities being kept in a retarded state, it is opposed to imperialist universities, not the universities themselves. Islam does not oppose any of the manifestations of civilisation and is not against any one particular group of you. When it first appeared, Islam took women by the hand and made them equal with men. Even though women were regarded as nothing at the time the Prophet of Islam began his teachings. Islam gave women strength. Islam put women on a par with men and made them equal with men. Of course, there are certain rules which apply only to men and others which apply only to women, but this does not mean that Islam discriminates against women. Both women and men are free to attend university, both are free to vote and stand as parliamentary representatives, that which Islam objects to is the way that these people (the Shah and his regime) want women to be: a plaything in the hands of men. To quote the Shah" a woman should be flirtatious." «6» We want to get rid of this mistaken idea. We want a woman to be a person like other people, a human being like any other human being, to be free as others are free. Do not listen to this propaganda the Shah puts about- on which it is said he spends one hundred million dollars annually. Nobody really pays attention to it any more anyway. He should pack up his things and leave now [Laughter from the audience].
I hope that you will be successful and an Islamic government will succeed in taking the place of the oppressive government, God willing.[The audience replies with "God willing"]. May God assist those in Iran who are aiding Islam and grant them success ["Amen" from the audience]. And may He grant you young people abroad, those of you who are outside of Iran, success, so that together we may sever the hands of foreigners from our land. ["Amen" from the audience]. May God keep you all ["Amen" from the audience].