Speech [Necessity of the unity of all classes of people, and thwarting the conspiracies against the referendum]

I seek refuge in God from the accursed Satan

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

One of the blessings of this movement is that we became acquainted with those faces they (ex-regime) had kept us away from knowing. God willing, we will get to know them and we have already come to know them. Governments servile to colonial powers tried to separate the various segments of the people of Iran from one another. Rather they tried to separate the Muslims from one another, and Islamic governments from each other, and do likewise with all strata of the people in every region and separate the clergy from the other groups.

You, gentlemen, who are physicians and doctors, know better (than we do) what they did to us. You witnessed the afflictions of the people more than we did. However, we share the same grief arising from witnessing so many sufferings that befell the nation over the past fifty-odd years. The younger people may not remember the early years of this dynasty. However, they are aware of what happened in the last years of the regime. We (the elderly) who are aware of what happened at the beginning of this regime witnessed the affairs. We were in Qum then and saw what they did when they came to power and when Rida Khan came to power, and what he did to the people; to these very people of Qum; what he did to the women, to our ulama and the theology students. These are matters, which will have to be written as a whole book if anyone wishes to write them.

Sometimes I would be engaged in discussions at the Faydiyyah Madrasah with some colleagues. Once I saw someone who told me that they had to leave before sunrise and go into hiding in orchards because government agents (who were pursuing them) would come to arrest them. Therefore, they would go to the orchards in the city before the sun rose and return in the dead of night, to our place. When we ourselves wished to have some private gatherings, we had to go separately from alley to alley to congregate and pour our hearts out. You have no idea what they did to the women of Qum. There was this police chief, who maltreated the women. I do not know whether he is dead or still alive, but, according to what was said, one day he was sitting in his office with his nose bleeding, when his eyes caught sight of a woman wearing a chador or it could have been a scarf. Ignoring his bleeding nose, he jumped at her and assaulted her. This was how they treated people. Toward the end of their rule, you witnessed what they did to this nation, what massacres they committed in all the cities and provinces and what crimes they perpetrated right here in Qum.

One of the afflictions they encumbered this nation with was that they made the people distrustful of one another. In other words, if there was a sick person in Tehran, they would tell us to seek treatment in England or Paris! This is a situation that they have created for us. That is, we have lost our confidence before them. You think the doctors over there are so good that anybody (ill) going there will be cured! It is not known if the patients who can be cured here with a little care, will be given proper (medical) treatment when they go abroad. It is not that the medical doctors there perform miracles and that our physicians are not capable. It is not true. It is because of such propaganda that we become suspicious of our own capability; that is, we have lost our self-aplomb. Do you think that our own physicians and Iranian medical doctors are less capable than their foreign counterparts? Presently, many physicians residing in the United States are Iranians. I have been told that there are more than 500 Iranian doctors there and if they return home, the American health system will be disturbed. It is not true that those Iranians who went abroad for education and those who were educated here inside the country are less competent than their foreign counterparts. No, they are equally good and even better than the foreigners. When I was in France and would sometimes become sick, foreign doctors would visit me. I did not see something extraordinary in them. People who have gone abroad for treatment have returned with the same ailment. Those who were pronounced as hopeless cases by the doctors here went abroad where the situation was the same. This is because the foreigners took serious efforts for long years to empty us of our brain. That is, to render us so Westoxicated that we become suspicious of what we have, which is superior to its foreign counterpart. They want us to believe that our ways and thinking are inferior and that foreign ways and things are better, whereas that is not the case, and it is not true that they are far ahead of us when it comes to intellectual and medical issues. Well, they are advanced but not in the way we imagine.

Therefore, one of the blessings of this movement is that it has brought us face to face. We were estranged from each other and this was also the handiwork of foreign powers, which distanced us from each other. In that we are your peers- we are doctors of the spirit and you are doctors of the body, and both, doctors of human beings. We should join one another like a human body, which consists of the spirit, and body. The clergy and physicians are two parts of one body: the former takes care of the spiritual aspect and the latter the physical aspect. Nevertheless, we had never converged in a gathering like this except during these recent days in Tehran when physicians came and visited me. We had such gatherings neither with you, nor with academicians, judges, or lawyers. One of the blessings of this movement is that now we are facing each other and talking to each other.

From now on, God willing, the tables will be turned in favor of our country, Iran, which has been trampled under the feet of foreign powers, whose reserves have been depleted, whose dignity had been crushed. Our human resources were kept retarded or we were made cynical with respect to our own capabilities. We curtailed the interests of foreign powers and those of the oppressors. Thanks God, the hands of this tyrant have been severed. Of course, he had depleted our resources; nevertheless, these hands were severed. I hope that we will be able to snatch back our wealth from his clutches. I want to bring up this point at the end of this meeting. This should be obvious to every one that we have not achieved the ultimate victory. We have gone only half of the way. We have not yet pulled out all the roots of colonial rule. The dictatorship has been dismantled, which means that there is nobody to bully us, or you. Neither is the Islamic government a bully nor do we have any security organizations such as the police and army, for fear of which some people would not sleep.

Now, everyone is at the service of the nation and Islam. Thanks God that we are now safe from these (despotic agents) and we are not afraid. However, the roots of colonial rule are still in place, that is, its agents are hatching plots.

Now that we want to hold a referendum, which, God willing, will take place a couple of days from now, they (enemies) are hatching a conspiracy to cause a commotion, commit burglaries or perpetrate other untoward activities in order to forestall the holding of the referendum. You should all be vigilant and aware that you should thwart their plots. The young ones among you and other people in Qum and other cities, should all gather and make a pledge to safeguard ballot boxes and guard the voting precincts. Moreover, if any crooked individuals want to cause confusion, you must hit them in the mouth and do not let them cause any commotion so that the referendum will be held properly. If, God willing, the referendum is carried out, they (anti-Islamic elements) are few and are insignificant; you count (as majority): the Muslims carry weight and everybody wants Islamic Republic. I hope that the Islamic Republic will bring us tidings of freedom and independence and, God willing, we can be freed from these fetters. God willing, Iran will acquire an image other than what it has had up to now, which was a West-intoxicated image, a protege of foreign powers as they said. God willing we will gain true independence and gain true freedom.

The main thing is to preserve this movement. How this movement could bring us up to this point, was due to the fact that it relied upon all the people, faith and on top of all this, it was Islamic. This means that all the people said they wanted Islam and not the regime of so and so. We should preserve this intention. If we safeguard this intention up until the end (of the struggle), we will be triumphant. And if, God forbid, we show lethargy and apathy in this matter, I am afraid that things will return to their previous situation and if they do, then it will be a point of no return. But, I hope it will not happen and God willing we will be victorious through the endeavors of you, gentlemen, and our services to our whole nation and the nation of Islam. God willing, we will triumph and up until the end (of the struggle), we shall be victorious. We will advance forward together, God willing.

May God protect you all and acquaint us all with our responsibilities. I thank you, physicians, for your activities in this movement, for the sufferings you underwent, and for the efforts you took for your comrades and the citizens of your own city. Obviously, those that witnessed the seriousness of wounds inflicted and the number of people injured, killed or under so much difficulty, suffered more than those who merely heard about these events.

You were witnesses (of all these) and we are aware of this matter. May God bestow honor and health upon you. Peace be upon you!