Speech [The necessity of propagating Islam in all its dimensions; liberation from self-defeatism in relation to the West]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

First, I would like to express my gratitude to this gentleman who made us both benefit from his reciting of the noble ayahs and saved our face elsewhere. May Almighty God approve of you, God willing. I hope your Islamic society and other Islamic societies can represent Islam as it really is. Islam is something that if presented, it is doubtful if the recipient with a very little sense of fairness would not accept it. However, in the course of the history and after the occultation of the Imam (`a), we were not able to present Islam as it really is. We failed to present it. And this was because during these two hundred-three hundred years and after that, the foreign elements who came over here a little at a time and inspected and studied everything we had and recorded them and took out for their experts gave it some thought. They then discovered that if Islam is presented the way it is in an Islamic environment, it will not leave them breathing room. Because of this, they decided, with the help of their different agents from inside and outside, not to let this thing be exhibited and conceal it under some coverage.

And unfortunately, we ourselves helped them and we helped them a lot. We selected from the Islamic issues, those that dealt with the relation between man and God, the Blessed and Exalted, and the rest- which constitutes the majority of our books on fiqh [jurisprudence] - was buried in the books. They were left untouched in the books and did not come out of those books. The subject (of discourse) discussed at our seminaries was limited to these very subjects and all those news and all those ayahs and all those books on the topic of fiqh were not exhibited externally. We failed to present the social affairs and the political affairs- the affairs that are part of life- we failed to present those. Thus, they made the problem worse by adding to the fire from their side and here, on this side, we were ignorant of it all.

Using their venomous pens- even at this very time some of those parasites are in Iran- introduced Islam such that it is a kind of arrangement that belongs to the past, it is old now, and it belongs to fourteen hundred years ago. And now there should be a new way of thinking! From their side, they said anything that was in their power about Islam. And they continue to say those things now, too, and what is important about it is that they are frightened of Islam. Those whose venomous pens or whose very filthy steps they take against Islam and the Republic of Islam and so on; some of them or perhaps many of them do not know in the least what Islam is! They are ignorant; they do not understand at all. They have read something in an article published in Europe and that constitutes the scope of their understanding. And these- those Westernized ones- accept whatever they say with no reason behind it. They need no reason! Whatever they write in their articles, these people accept them just because they have written it! You consider the books they have written about our writers, about our so-called" researchers" during these centuries; at the end of any matter they have written that their reason- except some of them- is that such a professor has said this matter somewhere; such a person has said this in such a place. All of their attesting to their sayings is like our attesting to the sayings of God! We attest to the sayings of the Prophet and God in our words; and their attesting is that anything such a professor has said is the correct one! Everything Marx has said is correct, there is no need for other things! The same Marx who has failed abroad and his school has been buried, has now appeared among our youth and our children! After all it has now appeared here! There, they have pushed it aside, but these bunches here have just adopted it. But they do not know what he says at all or what his program is all about and what the programs of Islam are. They do not know these things at all and there are some fractions that know these things but are mercenaries because if Islam is presented abroad as it really is, they will be done with, and the foreigners will not be able to rule over here anymore. For this reason, a group of their mercenaries did not let any matter be set right; an example is the writers surrounding the deposed Shah. Those books do not seem to be written by his pen. He wasn't literary man and capable to understand such things. They wrote for him. Before, some composed poems for Nasiruddin Shah and told that he himself had composed them! Now, they wrote books and, those who should write and are mercenaries for that part, wrote books and published them under the name of" His Majesty".

Through the use of their pens, they did not let Islam be known as to what it is all about. And they now constitute a clique, which although in minority, could be effective. They are a clique that is knowledgeable of the subject matter, and bring them up for the deviation of the people's minds. They are knowledgeable- not that they do not know- but if they say all they know, it will be all over with them and it will be all over with their masters as well. They therefore would not let anything to happen. And during this time that their going back and forth to the East has increased, what they have been excessively successful in is the hollowing of our society from its content. They succeeded in this. It is not without its reason that any saga that comes up- let's suppose- about the physicians, or any other social strata, they look at the West as a kind of Mecca. Ataturk- I think I have seen his statue- I was told that the way he is standing and has his hand pointing out to the West in this manner, and that this is a statue faced to the West means that everything originates from there. One of the writers of this very place, who is now dead, «1» had indicated that every thing we have must be from England! Our every thing, that is. This is because their propaganda has hollowed these individuals' minds and they have been alienated from themselves. Our Easterners have been neglectful of the surviving works of the East that Europe has adopted. Even now the books of Shaykh ar-Ra'is (Avicenna) are being used in Europe at the present. They have taken away our Eastern works from us and have hollowed us so much so that any matter that is talked about we come to think of there. As soon as a person catches a cold, he should go to Europe! If someone wants to have tonsillectomy, he must go to Europe or if he is wealthy, he brings a physician from Europe. Once- in the presence of some of the physicians- I said," Well, this matter is indicative of that fact that you apparently do not have any knowledge." But they said," We do have the knowledge." And our (Iranian) physicians are also working there (abroad). And perhaps most of the patients who go there will see an Iranian physician. But the situation has become such that this matter has spread all over. Everyone who wants to find out about anything should go to Europe to find it. Iran is not the place for understanding anything at all! There is no solution to a question in Iran. It is not such that Iran could stand on its feet! This is because that kind of propaganda has hollowed us from the talents that we ourselves owned. In other words, they hollowed the Easterners from their Eastness and replaced their minds with Western ones- a Western parasite mind. This exists in all strata; there is a kind of Westernization more or less in every social stratum, some with a higher and some with a lower degree.

And if we really want our country to be saved, before anything else we should get rid of this Westernization. You just notice! Even our streets names are" Roosevelt" and" Churchill", etc.! Why so? It is because we do not maintain for ourselves the personality we deserve. Or else, it should be a European personality. Our country should be decorated with their names! This is the problem. They did this with our minds and bred us up in such a way that if we want to become something; if we write a book, there first should be mentioned the name of one of them so that our book will find a market! When our youth want to buy a book, if it carried the names of Marx or Lenin, there is a good market for it. But if its author is Shaykh ar-Ra'is, there is none. Not because they could not understand even a page of Shaykh ar-Ra'is's books! But (the lack of market) is because he is an Easterner. That's why. They haven't even heard the name of Mulla Sadra. They haven't heard the name of any of our mullahs, but know all of their bigwigs' names. They do not know what our books are all about, yet they call themselves scholars of Islam!" We are scholars of Islam," they claim. They do not even know what Islam is let alone being scholars of Islam! They talk about two wars of Islam- two or three wars that had happened (in Islam)! But what they do not know is that Islam is not for war. Is Islamic culture about war? They are unaware of Islam's culture. And even when they try to know Islam, they do this through what Europeans have said about Islam. They cite the Western sayings. Such-and-such a Western scholar of Islam! That Islam that the Westerners introduce for us! This happens because we have lost ourselves vis-a-vis the West; i. e. the East has lost itself. The East cannot be independent unless it comes out of this self-alienation, and unless it finds its own essence.

The military independence is an issue; mental independence; spiritual independence. The mind of the human being should be of his own. It should not contain the West so that anything it wants to say will be," West, such and such has said it. Such and such a philosopher have said it; such and such a person have said it." Unless the Easterners have regained the prestige they once had- they once were the Mecca of all. At a time when they (the Westerners) were barbarians, the Easterners were the Mecca- unless the Easterners have found their essence back and become Eastern entities and know themselves, they could not be independent. So much as you try, the university cannot be independent unless it puts its Western mind away and has found itself an Eastern mind. What they always say is this: People should go from here to Europe in multitudes for pursuing an education. And if they do not go to Europe, they would not admit them here. The question is this that the nation has turned as such! The people have also turned as such; the government also has turned as such. All are like that. They all have turned as such: unless one goes for some time- let's suppose to France, even though they go there but do not have a job. Most of those who do go there engage in a job other than their own. They will cursorily give them a diploma because they do not want to send a learned person to this country, but they just want to send someone with a diploma in their hand. Actually the plan is for those who go there and get a diploma, a colonial diploma. It is their decision to somehow certify these individuals, otherwise, they will not grant a diploma to their own people that easily. They treat us differently; they give us a diploma very fast. Why? Because they do not want us to reach a point where we have some knowledge to present. We should always be in need of them and always act as a parasite. Until we have come out of that West-struckness, and have not changed our minds, and do not know ourselves, we could not gain independence. We cannot have anything.

Try to introduce Islam to the people. These Islamic societies should try to introduce this good that we have and no one else has; this Qur'an that we have; this tradition that we have and no one else in the world has. Introduce all this. Take the experts to your place and take advantage of their services and develop this in such a way that Iran will at a time become the Islamic Society of Iran, do not suffice with only an Islamic society in the Air Force or one in the Ground Forces; think of an all-faceted Islamic society.

May Almighty God grant all of you success, God willing. May you be successful, and may we and you all be among the servants of Islam, God willing, with pure intention and divine purpose, God willing.