Speech [The enemy's conspiracy against the clergy and education; the moral downfall of the West]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

It is a peculiarity of the Islamic movement that all the various strata of the people have sincerely served the society as a divine duty and not just a perfunctory one. You the employees of the statistics center are also among those who have served the people. That is, everybody served for the sake of Islam. You would not have made such efforts had this been a nationalist movement, and neither we nor the rest of the nation. The nation wants to see Islam established. It wants its country for Islam. All the people, from the small children to the elderly, clamored for Islam. The movement was for this Islamic religion; its objective was Islam. It was an uprising against taghout and against those who wanted to destroy Islam and did certain things in order to consign it to oblivion. It was an uprising that was aided by God, the Blessed and Exalted, in that you, people, who had been dispersed and separated from one another, joined forces. The army that was against us joined us. Those who were not involved in these matters at all joined the fray. The people that were involved but were not so active became fully so; all of them for the same purpose and for the same aim; that is,(the people) from the center to every side and corner of the country. All of them would say the same thing so much so that even if you had gone into the wilderness and asked a shepherd what he wanted, he would have replied," Islamic Republic". This was a divine issue. That is, God guided you.

We consider it a great honor for you and ourselves that God has favored us and extended his blessings to the nation that at one stage was heading toward destruction, and Islam was in the process of being forgotten. All the people of this country, whoever they were and from wherever they come would cry out that they wanted Islam; not taghout, not the regime. This was not something that anybody could bring about by himself. God willed it so. 

Because the Hand of God is involved in this matter, you, we and everybody should do something for this Hand of Blessings to remain open and to remain over our hands. And it is this that just as we have been together up to now, and" The Hand of God is with the people," «1» with everything being for His sake, and also because He favored us, we should not concern ourselves with problems for the time being. At present, our attention should be focused on the issue of the Islamic Republic that now exists only in name and not in substance and meaning. You will notice that the offices and the education and justice ministries have not assumed an Islamic aspect for us to call it an Islamic Republic. We voted for it, and so did you. Iran has an Islamic republic now; however, its content has not materialized yet. That is, we find traces of the previous times in every office we visit. We want these traces to be wiped off.

As it was pointed out, education is at the top of everything. Our opponents had been concentrating on our educational system from the very beginning. They had been concentrating on these schools since the time they came into existence. They did this as they knew that whatever arose was from education. There were two things that, more than anything else, were the objects of the attention of those who opposed us and Islam: one was the clergy, and the other," education". They realized that these two could bring independence to a country and administer it. They would, therefore, obstruct their affairs. Their educational programs were not exactly suitable for us. As for the clergy they would bash them at every opportunity.

From the time that Rida Khan appeared- except on the few occasions when he would try to beguile the people by showing piety and such things- his main concern, from those days itself, was the clergy whom he tried to do away with, using any excuse that he could. He would see that the mourning ceremonies that are held in every village, borough, town and even the countryside all over Iran were (spiritually) beneficial to the people because of which people and groups could possibly emerge that would prevent the illegal exploitation (of the country). These commemoration meetings, which even if most of you do not remember, perhaps Aqa «2» here does so, were forbidden to be held throughout Iran. We could not hold meetings. The time was such that we had nothing. They would control the whole country. Their agent would see to it that neither voice be raised anywhere nor any commemoration meeting held. On the other hand, there was the pressure on the clergy to remove their turbans (stop preaching)! And they did remove them. It was the same with education. They could not say that there should be no education; they said that it should be there. But they devised educational programs in such a way as to be unsuitable for the nation. And above that was their extensive propaganda campaign to deprive us of our content and make us pessimistic about ourselves; to separate the university from the clergy; rather, make them its enemies; to alienate the clergy from the university and, in fact, make it their enemy, and the same with the bazaar merchants and others; to deprive them of substance and make them pessimistic.

Worse than everything is to deprive the people of their substance so that they lose their self- confidence! For example, we have doctors; not that Iran lacks doctors; it has them. We have many of them. Why is it that whenever anybody falls ill, he has to be taken to Europe! It is because they have made us pessimistic about our own doctors. We have doctors, but have become pessimistic (about them). We have engineers; we cannot say that we do not. But they have taken away this content of ours in that whenever a road needs to be asphalted, the concerned engineer has to come from abroad; they are brought from abroad. They must come from abroad to put up a factory or a big building. This is because of all their propaganda, which had made us pessimistic with regard to ourselves. They had emptied us of our content. We had been a people fixated entirely on the West. It is the same even now, as you might notice. Now, as we are saying" Islam", and you are saying" Islam", there is another group that has got together and saying" democratic"," democratic". Why? Because they have become so westernized and so obsessed with the West that they cannot imagine that a country with Islamic programs can be administered. They forget, or pretend to forget, that this Islam governed all the countries for seven hundred years. Now they say," No"! Not an Islamic republic, it must be a democratic one! It is because they lack content. They have alienated the people from their inner selves with the wide-ranging propaganda which they made. They brainwashed them so to speak and have planted Western ideas instead. They have deprived us of our intellectual freedom. They have taken away our freedom and our personalities. We do not have independent personalities now. We have to think of developing our personalities. We have to pay attention to Islamic history and see what Islam had accomplished in the world and what things it had done. Those who say that Islam cannot accomplish anything or that it has now become obsolete, for example, are saying so because they do not understand. Many of them are unaware; actually, they have not paid attention to it. That is why the Westerners deprived them of their content and injected" Westernism" into them instead. Therefore, they say that everything must come from there (abroad). Well, if you wish to asphalt a road, you have no one to do it. If you wish to spray poison, you do not have people to do it. If you wish to- I should say- run a factory somewhere, you have the people; but they have alienated you from your own people. They have alienated you from your own personality.

We can manage ourselves, and even better (than you). Do not think that the West is everything; there is nothing doing there. We do not say that they have no factories; that they had made all these things. But the humane element is lacking there. All the things they have made- not all the things- many of the things that they have made have been done so against humanity. It is the West that is ruining the ethical principles of humanity; it is the West that is ruining the personality of human beings, and we think that the West has everything! Now that the West has invented the automobile, it must have everything. Our laws are more complete than any other in the world. As marriage is the means of producing man, Islamic laws have set down procedures for your marriage even before you get married; it begins from there. When you wish to get married, no law in the world tells how to go about it. After you have registered your marriage in the relevant registration office, the rest is up to you. Islam has concerned itself with your marriage and given its attention to it even before you get married, as it wants the child born out of wedlock, to be brought up properly. A cultivator approaches his work with care and tenderness so that it yields results. He first prepares the ground, waters it properly and sows it with suitable seeds.

Islam molds human beings. It wants to do so even before you get married. It has told man and woman about the type of spouse to choose and the spouse's manners. It, likewise, tells us about the marriage itself and what we should do after marriage. Now let me tell you what they are: after marriage; during pregnancy and mothering; all of these, I should say. The reason is that Islam wants to mold human beings. Islam concerns itself the matter from the very beginning of the child's conception. Islam pays attention to that issue which the laws of the world have neglected and have not paid attention to. Islam wants to do something so as to stop you from doing anything that is against universal laws even in your closet. The other (non-Islamic) laws are not concerned with the substance; you may do anything you want in your house. It is nothing to do with anybody." Do not come outside (your house) and create disorder; you may do whatever you want (in your house)." Islam, however, is unlike this. Islam wants to bring up (proper) human beings. It brings up a person in such a way that he is the same in his closet and indoors as he is when out on the road. Not that he will do anything he wants in his closet that he will not do outside his house. The person should be the same in his closet as he is outside the house; as he is in society. Islam wants to mold a person that will be a human being in all situations.

The West is totally unaware of this. The West is after manufacturing aircraft; it is not concerned with human beings. Man must make the world; the West has nothing to do with man. It is concerned with aircraft and such things. It is leading mankind toward destruction. It is bringing up people as savages and murderers. Those who kill the most and eat the most are savages. The West is bringing up human beings as savages; the type that kills and devours people! It is turning out savages.

Islam, on the other hand, brings up people that are friendly and considerate. Even when Islam went to war and destroyed corrupt elements, it was out of its loving concern for society. As those people were corrupt, they (Islam's leaders) would destroy them in order to eradicate the cancerous tumor and to allow society to develop on the right lines. It is all a matter of loving concern. We are calling for the execution of these few corrupt people because they are like cancerous tumor, they are wicked. It is because they corrupt society, and have corrupted a society! Now that these corrupt ones are being executed, a clamor has arisen in the West over the executions. They (West) say that these people are their friends. Well, we are executing them for this very reason. They say," These people are of us; they have helped us!" and so they are raising a hue and cry over our killing their lackeys. We are punishing them for this very reason, on these very grounds, of being your servants, of acting against our nation and Islam and of killing the people. Not a word was uttered, not a single word, when they assassinated the late Mutahhari! «3» But they raised a hue and cry when Hoveyda «4» was executed.

The American Senate raised such a hue and cry because of the murderers. They should be asked for the figures relating to the execution we carried out. Who and how many were they? They should give us their backgrounds. But they do not do so. They are the well-wishers of our nation?! The well-wishers of the people?! They are our people's friends?! They are the protectors; the supporters of human rights?! Such meaningless words are again being said in Iran, such mischievous things. Such supporters of human rights are also here. We have advised these people to keep away from them. They are not interested in human rights. They support the superpowers. And thus you see that they (Shah's regime) killed some hundreds of thousands- I do not know whether it is hundreds of thousands- thousands of our people. It is said that 15,000 (people) were killed on the 15 th Khordad. From 15 th Khordad until now, perhaps 200,000 have been killed and many number injured. Did these supporters of human rights ask them the reason for this? Why are such things taking place? Why did they not question all this? And now that we are trying some of them- who murdered people, did a lot of mischief and ruined the country- in the courts and, after getting evidence from eyewitnesses, and following their own confessions, are punishing them, the supporters of human rights have raised a hue and cry! The people should know these" supporters of human rights" for what they are and whom they support. Our own supporters of human rights should consider these questions as to who they are and why is it that they are doing all these things.

In any case, we need you and everybody else now; we need more than ever before. Why I say more than before is that most of the people were keen to see this regime go and then have a government of justice. All their attention was given to this one issue. None of them would think of what they would have for lunch or dinner on going home. There were no such things. Neither did they talk about their salaries being low or high. All of us were moving forward in that revolutionary state that was there. Neither did I think about your salaries being high or low. Such matters were not raised at all. This barrier was breached because these matters were not raised and because all of you were Godly. With divine will and with your empty hands you broke down this barrier which the world thought was impregnable. Now that we have come so far, a sort of lethargy has arisen. We are now thinking about our salaries, about not having houses and proper lives. We are thinking of what is to happen about our salaries and our grades. These issues are now being raised. For this reason, we have to pay more attention to the movement. That is, we have to be active in making the people concentrate on the movement, because we are still on the way and have yet to reach our destination. We have not yet implemented the Islamic Republic in substance in Iran. Our objective was that the entire country be Islamic, and to have the government of Islam. It has not happened yet. Of course, we have made some headway, but much remains to be done. It is now the time for everybody to be together and for all of our attention to be focused on the aim. We should not make so many excuses about our salaries being low or high. God willing, they will increase later. Or the excuse about not having homes and such things. God willing, you will have your homes. And regarding cultivation, you will have that as well. But for now, just as in those early stages you had forgotten all these matters- neither was a worker concerned that his wages were low or high, nor was a cultivator bothered about the state of the cultivation in that year- and all were concerned with just one goal which was obtained and everything went off well. We should continue in the same way as before, with the same attention to the matter and maintain the same Godliness. That is, our purpose should be for God, the Islamic Republic and the tenets of the Qur'an so that we retain God's favor and the Divine Hand protect all the people. If this aim is achieved, God willing, you will be victorious and the country yours with you running it. All the hands will be cut off (from the country). But the main purpose is not to lose sight of our aim. I pray to God for the well-being of all of you and the prosperity of this nation of which you, too, are a part. May God assist all of you.