Speech [Confronting religious differences, Shi`ah-Sunni unity]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

It is good that our Sunni and Shi`ah brothers are present in one place and are talking about the fearful former situation and the oppression to which they have been subjected. The issue is not that only you had been subjected to pressure and oppression or the Arab gentlemen for that matter. This oppression was general and took in the whole country in which everybody was under pressure. Even if I do not say it, the theology centers, especially the Qum Theological Center, were under greater pressure. However, I cannot confirm that the others had been subjected to greater pressure; all had been so.

Even now that we are facing various groups from diverse places as every group has experienced the oppression in its own region it believes that its own area had been subjected to greater oppression. You experienced it in your own region and saw exactly that oppression had been done as well as violations. The gentlemen also experienced the same in their own homes and centers. We, too, experienced these in Qum, the Tehranis in Tehran and the inhabitants of every place in that particular place. Therefore, since every one of us, and every community had been witness to the same situation obtaining in his or its own place and had been hearing about all the other things, what they had observed had captured their attention more than what they had heard. But you should know that all the people of the country were under pressure.
That day, that time when that person,«۱» who was there previously, ordered the unveiling of the women and dragged the country toward ruination, he exerted, perhaps, greater pressure here in Qum than anywhere else. The case was the same in Tehran and elsewhere. And when his son inherited his plundering and criminal nature, the same thing happened everywhere. There was this mischief in every place, there was corruption. There were, perhaps, more centers of corruption in Tehran than other places. Tehran was more favored by them for preventing our youth- this great force- from developing. This was not a matter restricted to one or two places. You gentlemen clearly saw the things they had done in your own place. The other gentlemen also saw such things very clearly in their own region. And we, too, clearly saw in our own place what they did to this nation.

Of course, we have not been able to put the Islamic Republic into effect in its true sense yet. We are now midway. What we have done so far- our nation has done it- is to have cut off to some extent the hands of these criminals. Their remnants still remain, of course. It is these very remnants that go among the Arab gentlemen and instill into their minds that we intend to discriminate between Arabs and Iranians. They come to you and tell you that we want to discriminate between our Sunni and Shi`ah brothers. They say certain things, certain words wherever they go. They go into the factories and, in another way, prevent the workers from doing their work. They approach the farmers and create unrest among them in yet another way. The remnants of those people( of the ex-regime )are now dispersed all over Iran. They also receive inspiration from abroad, of course, and are engrossed in mischief.

It is now the duty of everybody: you Sunni brothers; those Shi`ah brothers; all the people of this country to pay attention to this matter of certain hands, employing various means, being at work to prevent the effectuation of Islam. Diverse subterfuges are now afoot for the purpose. The point is that the foreigners have come to the conclusion that it is Islam that is preventing them from deriving benefits. If Islam took effect and this country become Islamic, their hands would be completely cut off. Thus, now that everybody has voted for an Islamic republic, and have announced their allegiance to it- which is but something natural- and as all of you and all of us want Islam, they are now thinking of sowing discord among the Muslims. They are proposing programs and making certain suggestions, all of which- or most of which- are for preventing the effectuation of the Islamic Republic in the way ordained by Islam. It is incumbent upon us to eschew these personal and petty differences and such things. We should put aside these matters of a personal nature. All the inhabitants of this country, or most of them, were dissatisfied and discontented during the previous period because of the pressures that had been put on them. These grievances have been there since former times. The Islamic Republic has not created any dissatisfaction. This is the legacy of many past grievances. We now have to consider this point that the Islamic Republic has been established to rectify all the affairs. It has come to repair all the damage. Everybody has to assist this Islamic Republic. We should not allow them to create obstruction in order to achieve their ends. If, God forbid, these saboteurs manage to do something that we are not able to prevent; if they grow in power while we, because of our differences- if these arise between us- begin to lose our power, then there is the fear of problems like the previous ones, or worse than that, arising. Therefore, all of us are now duty-bound to overlook those things that concern our personal matters and to be patient a bit.

You who patiently tolerated oppression for fifty-odd years- that is, you could not say anything (in protest) - should wait for another year or two. Wait; help this movement; lend your assistance; do not allow these seditionists to come and create mischief among yourselves. Do not let them say things in order to create a rift between you and the others; to go and say something else to the gentlemen and so not let them be friends of one another. We should all behave like brothers. We are all friends, Muslims and belong to one nation. We should extend our hands (of friendship and cooperation) to one another so that this chaos comes to an end, God willing. You should all know that if, and in case, Islam becomes a reality, it will be like the early Islam in essence. The brotherhood that was there at the advent of Islam, the equality that was present at the advent of Islam, the extirpation of the tyrants that took place at that time, will all turn into reality, God willing, I pray to God, the Blessed and Exalted, to give you success and to assist all of you gentlemen. And I hope that this nation will be able to traverse this path safely and well.