Speech [Connivance of the discord-mongers and the colonialists]

I seek refuge in God from the accursed Satan

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Their (colonialists') experts, who delved into a deep study in the past, have investigated and toured this land inch by inch and have discovered its resources. They studied our spiritual nature, our various tribes and whatever we appealed to. Based on their investigations, they found out that if religion is prevalent among the people and they are under one banner, they cannot be overcome and their treasury cannot be plundered. Therefore, in order to dominate them they tried to weaken religion and propagated that the basis of religion was something that the powers had concocted, saying that religion was the opium of the masses! The basis of religions is the opium of the society! This was aimed at demeaning religion in the minds of the people and the intellectuals so they would lose their faith in religion. However, the fact is that anyone who looks into the history of the prophets will understand that the prophets had hailed from among the masses and had assailed the powerful. They arose amidst the masses. Hadrat Mousa (Prophet Moses) was a staff-bearing shepherd from among the masses who rose against the pharaoh and was victorious. Our own prophet whose history is more contemporary, and, the gentlemen here perhaps know, was a person from the masses, from the common people; he was constantly at war with the oppressive powers, orchard owners, the wealthy and the capitalists from the start of his prophetic mission up until the end. The prophets were from the masses, and they would oppose the powerful clique; they were not from the oppressive powers who schemed to dupe the people. This is a very clear issue but foreign propaganda is very powerful.

They (the colonial power) realized that if the entire nation were united, they would not be able to steal the resources they wanted to loot. Hence, they thought they had to sow the seeds of discord among the nation. First, they turned their attention to the clergy. If anyone remembers, all the gentlemen present here remember that during the time of Rida Khan, they beat up the clergy so severely that neither a preacher nor a congregational prayer leader was left for us. They beat up everyone. Nor was there a parliament, that is parliament orators. They had humiliated the clergy in the eyes of the nation in such a manner that drivers sometimes would not give clergy a ride in their automobiles and would repeatedly tell them:" We will not let you sit in our automobiles!" They humiliated the clergy. On the one hand, they caused disparity between parties plunging them into disarray and creating chaos. They segregated the academicians from our universities «1». The former would ostracize the latter in one way, and vice-versa. There were so many other controversies to expound on and I do not feel very well. The gentlemen themselves should take note that all these were factors that this nation should vouchsafe their nationality under one banner because it was this solidarity that they (colonialists) wanted to snatch away from and divest the nation of and perhaps pit them as foes to one another. This is a great cause for concern. Therefore, prior to the movement we were never confronted by you; we were confronting another" clan."

That which has been the source of our delight is the fact that this Islamic movement of Iran has led to the reduction of the differences into mere deficiencies and they will be eliminated. The universities have become united with theology students. Now the parliament in which the gentlemen judges and lawyers are, has never been for us. Now that we are face to face, we would like to tell you our grievances and we have a lot of those; they are grievances that are also yours.

We have never had freedom for fifty years. All of you know that when Rida Shah came to power and so brazenly occupied the throne, we had never had freedom; it was just recently that we have acquired it. Neither was there a free press, nor did we have an independent judiciary or a lawyers' guild. They had encroached on everything. Neither was there one single decent university, nor could they properly educate the youth whom they had detained in backwardness. The growth of our culture was reversed and our offspring pushed (culturally) backward. A lengthy chapter can be written regarding what they had done to the culture.

On the one hand, they created centers of prostitution nationwide, particularly in Tehran. Centers of prostitution proliferated in Tehran and its suburbs. They dragged the youth into these places and decimated human resources. And on the other, they had reduced the economy into a state that you see it now. And as you see, the agriculture too was kept from flourishing and was despoiled. Everything that we have has been destroyed. Our military is one that is governed by American and Israeli advisers. All these are adversities afflicting the country and us.

This nation has risen and is saying that it wants to be free. The wish of being independent is one of the human rights, and the whole world believes it in. This is the right (of everyone) to have their destiny in their hands. The nation is saying that it wants a jut government; they want a just Islamic government. It is every man's wish to live under a rule wherein the ruler will not fill his pockets after sometime and transgress the limits (abuse his powers)! You just imagine how much these people plundered our resources, devoured everything and despoiled the country in their thirty-seven years of rule. American, British, and Swiss banks and so on, are chock-full with the nation's wealth all deposited in their names. We hope that the judiciary will consider the nation's demand and put this man on trial. If possible he be extradited here and stand trial. If we can we will try him here and if we cannot, then let us try him in absentia and freeze his assets in banks.

But you, gentlemen, are well aware that they (regime) have gone and have left the country in ruins, a country whose everything is falling apart. Anywhere you turn your head there is corruption. And do you think all this can be remedied in one or two yeas and by one group? It is impossible! It is incumbent upon all of us to help this movement, which we have brought to this stage and has achieved the present results; we hope that we will be able to achieve its ultimate goal. You are men of letters; you should write and discuss the matter. Or, shall I say, you should give talks, publicize it, expand it and support it. Support this (provisional) government, make declarations and announce them in newspapers. Thereafter, when, God willing, a rightful government is in place, then we should all assemble and, lamentably, rebuild the ruins! They have despoiled this country, and abandoned it after devouring and plundering its resources; now you should all join hands and rebuild this country anew. We should reconstruct it as if it had been devastated by an earthquake. I hope that God will make all walks of life closer to each other. I should not be cynical about you, nor should you be cynical about me, and, God willing, you are not. May God grant you all success and His approval. I thank you for coming.