Speech [Conspiracies of the deviant small groups]

Now, we ask these groups who have infiltrated the ranks of the people in various guises and are hindering you from doing your work, that well we, too, like to build houses for the downtrodden, for those who are homeless, for those who cannot afford to own houses and for these slum- dwellers on the outskirts of Tehran- who are living in appalling conditions. You gentlemen would also like to help by giving discounts to the extent you can. What do these people have to say? Are they sympathetic with the nation? Are they the `Fadai'yan' «1» devoted servants of the people as they claim? Do they wish to serve the nation? Well, if they want to work for the people; we are working for them, so why do you not come and help us?

The brick makers are coming forward and giving discounts; well, you also can help, you can do publicity work; you come forward and tell these workers that well, now that they wish to work for the poor, they should work more for fewer wages.

They are traitors. Their hands- the hands of their masters- have been cut off from this country, and they want to give them a free hand again. As otherwise a national issue, an issue that is for the weak classes- housing construction is for the deprived class, nobody builds houses for the wealthy; it is for the slum-dwellers on the outskirts of Tehran or other provincial cities; it is for the workers who are homeless, and wretched; housing construction is for these classes, and so instead of coming forward and being helpful, doing publicity, and co-operating so that these helpless people can have houses, they do not allow work to be done. Of course, they do not want to allow, but they are mistaken. This work will be done. But, my intention is to introduce them for what they are. You too should ask them why they go into the factories and tell the workers not to work and even pay them not to work. Yes they pay them not to do their job. The money for this is not from their pocket. This money comes from either America or the Soviet Union. They have filled the money into your pockets that you are paying them from. You do not have the money yourself. You are toiling for the sake of money. You do not have the money or else you would not have done these things. This is the money they are giving you so that you sabotage the work of these factories; to prevent these poor people from owning houses so that they raise their voices; so that there be a revolution; so that they can come back again and take away all your petroleum, and all your jewelry, and all your underground resources, and your forests and your pastures and take away your everything.

They are traitors. They are worse than those traitors who slaughtered people; they are destroying the honor of this nation. But, if you have a feeling of empathy; if the feeling of cooperation exists in you to have sympathy with the poor, then imagine the day you are sitting comfortably in your home; think of that man who with seven or eight children is sitting inside this slum, what he is going through in the cold of the winter; what he is going through in the heat of the summer and think a little on this subject and for their sake and for the sake of the Blessed and Almighty God give them a discount; toil for their sake, God willing, by sustaining this humanitarian and co-operative spirit, you will become victorious.

I hope that God willing, the movement of ours and this spirit of co-operation be safeguarded. Now that things have calmed down a bit, the profiteers should not engage in profiteering, raising their prices and- I do not know- smuggling and and they should act on the Islamic ideals, on the humanitarian yardstick and based on justice. I am hopeful that the government of Islamic justice- the way we want it, the way the Blessed and Almighty God wants it- be realized so that for everyone, for all, welfare and happiness both in this world and in the hereafter is ensured.

The photograph that you are seeing «2» is of a person- I do not know whether that gentleman is present here or not.[ One of the audiences: I am the nephew of the deceased. ]Imam Khomeini:" Yes- about whom Malik ash- Shu`ara «3» has remarked that since the time of the Mongols up to the present, no one like him has come into this world. This personality is the late Mudarris. The way we saw him ourselves, he was the only man who challenged the bully, Rida Khan. This personality, a cleric who wore fewer garments then the rest- and was the butt of a joke about his underpants which that immoral man had narrated in the form of a verse- he was the only man to resist the great power of Rida Khan. The person who had launched an attack on the parliament to bring the parliament to its knees in defiance to chants of" long live Rida Khan." stood up and shouted" Down with Rida Khan, May I live long." He was such a powerful figure. This was because he was a man of God; he wanted to serve for the cause of God and was not afraid. May God bless his soul and grant you the favor to beat back these miscreants.