Speech [Conspiracy against Islam and clerics; the role of the clerics in the Islamic movements]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate the Merciful

One of the greatest results we enjoyed and are still enjoying from this movement is meeting the religious brothers whom we had not visited for ages. In this session, the Iranian, the Bahraini, and the Pakistani religious brothers have gathered to consult about our problems. In the course of over three hundred years that foreign powers found their way into the East and worked in all areas, in material and in spiritual arenas, and finally came to know that Eastern countries are rich in underground and above ground resources such as vast pasturelands, thick and rich forests, and oil reservoirs, they found other resources in the East that perhaps the Easterners themselves were unaware of them. However, foreign powers came, found, and plundered them.

At a time when there were no automobiles, they came on camels as travelers and tourists, took photos, and learnt about the underground resources. They also studied the spiritual matters of the people and got to know what to do if they wanted to have possession of these resources. They found out that the union of the Eastern countries would make it impossible to plunder these resources. Then these nations had to be disunited.

One of the important things to us, and to them, is the fact that if the Muslims perceive the authentic Islam, it will nullify the oppressors' benefits.

They employed many experts and propagated against religions to make them downcast in the public view. Islam was the major target. They propagated that Islam in nature had a stupefying effect on the society. They said religions had come to flabbergast people so that powerful persons and kings come and plunder public treasury. These religious groups make people dull. They continued this to disdain the clerics: clerics are fogies and fanatics! They are courtiers! They work for the kings! It was a vast propagation, and they succeeded in both methods of propagation, to some extent. A group of the youth, unable to understand the core of the matter, believed in their first dogma of religions had a stupefying effect on the societies, and they joined them in propagating against Islam. This is quite the opposite of the nature of religions, at least opposite of the history and religion of Islam, which is closer to us in time. They used to say kings created religions to cast a spell over people and plunder them while people make no counterattack; they do not rise and do not stage a movement. He who is familiar with history knows that religions have always come to make people rise against sultans. Moses, a shepherd with a cane, overthrew Pharaoh. Moses moved with a number of the oppressed and readied them for a revolution; it was not Pharaoh who made Moses cast a spell over people.

The history of Islam is close to us. He who has studied history knows well that when the Prophet of Islam was in Mecca, all the oppressed, the businessmen, the influential people and the rich were his enemies. It is not true to say the powerful people brought him to put people into sleep. The Prophet (s) could not openly publicize Islam in the beginning and had to do it privately with the assistance of some relatives and friends. They knew that Mecca was dangerous for publicity for Islam, so they moved to Medina, where he was the guest of the poor and all the poor people gathered around him. The Prophet's wars were all against the rich, against the powerful people and against the infidels. This is quite the opposite of what they publicized and our inexperienced youth followed this. It was not true to say that Pharaoh made Moses cast a spell over the people; rather it was Moses who awakened people from ignorance to overthrow Pharaoh. It was not true that Quraysh and the wealthy brought the Prophet to mislead the people, the holy Prophet (s) awakened the poor and rose against the rich to topple down the wealthy and the oppressors. Then, when Islam gained power, it was the oppressed and the weakest strata of the society who attacked the two powerful empires of the world, Iran and Rome. Rome and Iran did not make the Prophet; it was the Prophet (s) who captured Iran and Rome.

Let us turn again to propagation against the clerics who were said to have been courtiers! They used to say the British government introduced the clerics to prevent the awakening of the people, to prevent people from acting against their benefits. He who is familiar with history knows that it was the clerics who rose against the powers, and governments did not make clerics. Clerics united people against them. In Iran, as far as we remember- I remember more than you all- from the time that Rida Khan took the throne in a coup to the present time, thanks be to Allah they were overthrown, within fifty years of Pahlavi reign, Iranian people suffered the severest hardships. If these (Rida Khan and his son) were not the most criminal of the kings, they were the most treacherous of them.

Some may say that Aqa Muhammad Khan of the Qajar dynasty was the worst criminal, but he was not as treacherous as they were. There is no record in history to say the Aqa Muhammad Khan neglected his nation's benefits for the interest of foreign powers. He was a criminal, but not treacherous. All previous kings were criminals, all of them were bad, but none of them was more treacherous than this father and his son. They practiced treachery in this country that will take time to understand, and some of them may never be discovered. The contracts they signed with the great powers are astonishing for our government! It is said that those contracts are such that they will be detrimental one way or the other! What they did was all treachery to their country and their nation. The erstwhile sultans committed fewer treacheries in this sense, perhaps some of the Qajars committed them, but they were limited. Before them, treachery did not exist in this sense. They practiced treachery in this country some of which may be understood soon but other may never be! The discovered treacheries are so astonishing for the experts. The ministries have found an opportunity to study the contracts they had concluded with foreign countries. How corrupt are these contracts, and the major problem today is what to do with these contracts. They say these contracts are a loss to both sides! They have concluded the contract in a way that we are the losing party after all.

At any rate, based on whatever we remember in the contemporary history, the clerics have risen against the kings. See how many times clerics have initiated movements during the past fifty and so years. Of course, the governments were powerful and the movements had failed. Clergies in Azerbaijan and Mashhad rose, and in Isfahan there was an all-out uprising. There were clergies from all regions, but the government of the time was powerful and they all failed. The government imprisoned them, exiled them. They arrested and jailed or exiled the most influential clerics. They arrested the clergies of Azerbaijan and exiled them to Saqqiz or Sunqur for a long time. They detained the clerics of Mashhad and brought them to Tehran.

They dishonored the clerics of Isfahan and defeated their uprising. During the past fifty years, clerics were in the forefront to rise against the tyrant regimes. There were no others. The nation joined clerics as far as possible. That time, of course, there was no possibility of organizing an all-out movement like this; therefore, when the clerics rose, many were killed, imprisoned, exiled and the movements failed.

Then, the claim that clerics are courtiers is not true. These are against the courtiers. They introduced the enemy of the courtiers as a friend of courtiers to giving them a negative image in the public view. The conspiracy was effective, such that in the time of Rida Khan many people, especially the youth, turned away from the clerics. This was another plot staged by the enemies of the clerics.

Another conspiracy of the enemies was sowing the seeds of discord among the tribes to prevent them from uniting. They feared Islam could unite them against the regime. They feared clergies and clerics could gather these people together against the government. That was why they wanted to kill clergies. They did not confine their conspiracies to this and intended to divide the people. They propagated against clerics in Kurdistan, Balouchistan, Bakhtiyari, and Khorasan inside Iran and in Pakistan and in some other neighboring countries, such as Arab countries, Bahrain, etc. to divide them. They divided the Muslims. In the course of World War I they captured and divided the Ottoman Empire that was a vast country including Egypt to Hijaz. They gave one region to every one of their servants to rule. They lined up governments in front of one another: the sultans, presidents, and they made them enemies of one another. That one was the enemy of this and this one the enemy of that. Now, they have withdrawn after plundering all our possessions. The powerful countries then became enemies. They formed political parties in each country. All these parties opposed one another. Parties blamed one another. There were various fronts but the Muslims were being neglected day by day. War broke out between the two Muslim nations of Iran and Iraq. Pakistan, another nation, is fighting another Muslim country.

These were the plots and the brainchild of these enemies. I do not know when the Muslims will wake up out of their ignorance. When our governments, Muslim nations, will open their eyes to realities. Do they not understand? Do they understand but take it for granted? If they do not understand, they are requested to pay attention to the issues and see where all misfortunes come to the Muslim nations. They need to understand the pain of the Muslims that allows the plundering of their treasuries and their living in poverty? They took oil away and our nation became poor. Such is the case everywhere. When do the Muslims and their governments want to wake up? When do they want to put aside their personal interests and enmities and serve their nation? Muslims are almost one billion. They form one billion of the world population. They possess everything, vast and rich lands. And 35 million Muslims live in Iran. It is large enough for 150- 200 million people. That is to say, some 200 million people can live in Iran in welfare. Such is the case for other nations. Iraq is a vast land with limited population. When do these governments want to wake up and give up their enmities? When do the Muslims want to come to know what is good for them and what is bad? When do they want to get rid of this pain?

One of the greatest conspiracies the enemies of Islam have ever implemented is preventing us from understanding Islam as it is. They did not allow Muslims to understand it. This negative propagation has found its way well even into the theological schools in Qum and Najaf. This means that a part of Islam is understood in these schools, part of Islam and the rest is not known. They did not allow us to understand the entire Islam, because understanding Islam was a potential danger to their status and people would tend towards Islam. They did not want the preaching of Islam. When the British people were in Iraq, hearing the call for prayers [adhan], one of them asked an Iraqi what it was. He said it was the call to prayers. The British asked:" Does it cause any harm or loss to the British Empire?" Hearing Iraqi's negative answer, he said:" Let him make the call to prayers as long as he wishes."

Our discussions cause no harm to the British Empire, to United States of America or to the Soviet Union. They may even help the expansion of the talks, but do not allow the growing of whatever may be harmful to them. When will the Muslims pay attention to the teachings of Islam? To the early advent of Islam? When will they understand the way of life of the Prophet (s) and the Imams? How did they live, and how did they advance their programs? How a limited number of people without equipments could capture two empires of the world?

We have seen the likeness of it. The likeness of what has been in early Islam happened in Iran. You see guns on some people's shoulders; they have taken them from the enemy. They had nothing. As I have been told people took a stick, cane, knife, stones, and bricks, whatever else and went out in the morning to fight the enemy. What did the enemy have? Tanks, artilleries, machine guns and mortar shells. They fired from the air, from the land and from everywhere. But, this nation had faith that was everything to them and it was backed by God, and the nation had one goal ahead, i.e. Islam. Everywhere in Iran in all cities, people chanted," Down with the king and we want Islamic Republic". All people, young «1» and old, in the schools and in the hospitals and everywhere chanted their slogans. There were from all strata of the people: clergies, seminarians, academics, administrative personnel, all and all wanted the establishment of an Islamic Republic. And it was the key to victory. In the early advent of Islam, the Muslim combatants used to say they would be in heaven if they killed or if they were killed. Martyrdom was a salvation for our nation. It was bestowed on us by God. It is impossible for a man, for a group of people, to do this. It is impossible for such a revolution to take place without the assistance of God. God gave us the victory. Now, our Muslim nations would welcome martyrdom as means of salvation and would resist against the treacherous people.

They said Iran's power was not exclusive to the East. Iran's military power was unrivaled in the East, they said. They enjoyed military backup of the powerful countries, large and small. In the course of the revolution, none of the Muslim nations supported us- perhaps one of them did, as I have been told. They all backed the Shah, all of them. Well, it was the Shah by his unrivaled military force in the East. He had his patrons from among Muslims and non-Muslims, from world powers to small powerful countries, and from the Persian Gulf littoral states. They had beguiled our religious brothers. In some Arab nations around the Persian Gulf, they thought Islam would fall if the Shah goes. If Shah falls, the integrity of Shi`ah will be in danger. This was what they had been told. These religious brothers thought that nothing would be there in the absence of the Shah. When I was in Paris, they used to say," What would happen if the Shah goes". I said, nothing in particular, a plunderer will go. Now, he has gone and we feel no regret. We threw the thief out, we cut his hand short, and we cut short the hands of foreign treacherous mercenaries.

Today, we are challenging a family problem. It is not a serious problem; it is a family affair. We do not have the problem of Security Organization any more, no problem in connection with foreigners. Now, we have no fears. We have gathered to talk about problems. The problem is unfair distribution of wealth. Someone has a house; the other has not. It is not important. These problems were always there from the beginning. But the enemies have now started propagation that people need houses, livelihood, etc. I told some of them the poverty is not exclusive to the Revolution. We have inherited it. The Revolution has not made people poorer. The fall of the Shah has not created poverty. If we are to be blamed for poverty, if there is no electricity, asphalt on the roads, clinics and hospitals because the Shah has gone, then we must be questioned, and we must compensate for it. But what would you say if you know that the problems were already there when we took control of the country? We bestowed freedom on you, and this is what we had to do. You are now free to work for yourself. In the past, you were in jails, in exile. Everyday, a police officer used to come and order something. One word was enough to go to jail. Today, you are free. But what problem do you have? Did we make you deprived of asphalt that you have come to us to complain? Did we take electricity from you? These problems and hardships were always lingering on this nation. We took control of the country with all these problems. The government has inherited these problems. The problems should be alleviated. But do not ask about these problems anymore. You gained a valuable thing that could not be achieved except by the Will of God. You enjoy freedom. What else is more pleasing and blessed than freedom? In the past, we were poor, but today we must work to alleviate poverty. We must work and work to eradicate poverty. They prevented us from farming in the name of Land Reform Program, but today you are free to work on land.

May God's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you.