Speech [The conspiracies of the West against Islam; explanation of the prophets' uprising against the arrogant; the leadership of the clergy]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

It is important for any nation to diagnose the pains that it suffers as well as their cures and then to follow their treatment. Included are the pains that have come about along the history and especially since the time the Westerners found their ways into the East, and above all, during the past fifty years of that black rule. Unfortunately, many strata of the society take no notice of them. And some are treacherously fueling it. The important thing is that the pain that came about for our nation has now become a disease, alas an almost chronic disease. This is a result of the Westerners' effort in alienating us from ourselves and making us void of anything. They like to let us understand and indeed let us thus understand:" You are naught, and whatever you have is from the West and you have to face toward the West." Take the case of Ataturk- while in Turkey I observed his statue. He had his hand raised this way (gesture). I was told that he had his hand raised toward the West meaning that," We should become Western in every respect!" One person who was around here (in this country) during and after Rida Shah and was a famous figure, too- I do not wish to mention his name now. First of all, he was a former cleric but was not wearing his turban anymore. «1» Later on, he made his way into the Senate and the like. This person had also said," Everything we have should be British"! It had been the plan and so was the plot to self-alienate us, empty our head and replace such an empty head with a Western creature. They do it in such a way that when we are going to name a school, we give it a Western name. Our streets have been given Western names; as do with our pharmacies and other institutes. If we want others to hold our entities in respect, we should carry one of those (Western) names!

The citations and references used in the books that have been penned during the past half a century are all to what Westerners have said! If they want to include a topic, they conclude by saying that this point has also been said by so-and-so and here will be mentioned the name of a Western philosopher. Both those who write books and us and all other people have become void of us. Instead of an Islamic Eastern being, a Western being has been imposed on us. We are lost and instead of an Eastern mind, there sits a Western mind. Demand for books diminishes unless they cite the Western sources. If books want to be in high demand; if the institutes want to have lots of clients; if the pharmacies want to have lots of customers and attention-getters, they all should carry a Western name. They should cite the Western words in order for people to pay attention to their books thus written. This is a disease in the East and until this disease exists, the East cannot be reformed. Until this disease exists, the East will be considered as a parasite; it will be just a" follower". The moment one of us gets sick, they will immediately leave for Britain, France, or America.

I recall that during the reign of Muhammad Rida, one of their children's tonsil needed to be operated on- I do not recall the exact operation- it was tonsils to be operated on- they expressed their willingness to bring a surgeon from abroad. Not that there were no surgeons here and there were no physicians here! Rather, they had lost themselves; they did not know themselves; all they knew was the West. Even at the present time, if someone gets sick, they suggest to take the patient to Britain. The same specialized physician here, whose mind has become a Western mind, says this.

Some days, some time ago, a number of physicians were here and I talked about this very issue. What has happened that- this is the way I put it:" Why did not they allow for physicians to be around in Iran and is it not the reason why they take patients abroad?" One of them said," No, we do have physicians here. And there are many Iranian physicians abroad and it is they who treat most of the patients who go abroad!" I remarked," Well, that even makes it worse!" That is because you have found yourselves in a situation where you are not able to know yourselves; you have lost yourselves. There is sitting a Western being instead of you. That is when the Western philosophers, even at the present time, need to learn from the Eastern philosophers. Avicenna's books were, up to a short time ago, and are even right now, used by the Western physicians. Avicenna's Qanoun «2» was being used as a textbook there (Europe). However, this Eastern souvenir had traveled West and the West has used it but we have lost ourselves; we do not know Avicenna. This is because from the time they found their ways to the Eastern countries- the history of this may go back to around three hundred years ago or so, I am not sure though, but I do know that it has been a long period. They studied everything Eastern. Experts came from abroad; they came from the West and traveled all around Iran and all around the East and did extensive studies. This is in the history; the recent history tells us when these people were traveling by camels through our deserts- those very arid deserts- and did research there. One part of their research was to discover what the East possesses. They wanted to find out if Iran had oil, phosphorous, and everything else, like copper, iron; they wanted to discover these underground resources. They also wanted to find out the ways to exploit these. They were discovering.

When I was in Hamedan, an acquaintance of mine who had lived there for a long period of time- what I am narrating could go back to around twenty years ago or more- brought me a one-meter by one-meter sheet. It was a map, a map of Hamedan and the villages, hamlets, and boroughs of Hamedan. When I unfolded it, I noticed many dots scattered in different colors on the map. I asked," What are these?" He replied," Foreigners make this map. These dots indicate the places where they can find something, an underground where something can be found there. They have studied everywhere. One of their studies included the recognition of the Eastern resources, including those of Iran. Another type of their studies that they carried out was by means of traveling on convoys and camels, in the absence of today's modern transportation. They were doing research on different tribal groups of Iran: Bakhtiyaris, Balouchs, Kurds; a group would go to those places and carry out their research. Their studies would include such points as what kind of people these people were and how could they be colonized. Another group would carry their research in the cities to find out what conditions they had."

And the way I understand it, they have concluded from their studies about the people that this Eastern society believes in Islam. And those who prevent their underground resources from being plundered are these very people who believe in Islam. Those foreigners did not fear the other strata that did not have any connection with Islam, for they were a bunch of hollow brains and whom those foreigners did not care about. They feared those who believed in Islam. But how did those who believed in Islam have acquired that belief? Well, through the clergy. They are the ones who had instilled that belief. Those researchers had also found out that the mullahs were scattered all over the villages and hamlets and everywhere else and they are able to incite them to riot. What should they do in order to prevent this from happening? There were two plans that they wanted to carry out. They carried out a plan during Rida Shah's reign and it was carried out in a very hard way. But when they noticed that it was very difficult for them and they could not succeed through satanic acts, they did two things: One was to belittle Islam before the people. Their mercenaries and their widespread propaganda started writing things such as that Islam belongs to ancient time! And what good is something that belongs to fourteen hundred years ago today? Even today, you might have noticed, they dare not spell out what they want to say, however, they say it even if in one single word. This was one way to cause Islam to fall in disfavor in the eyes of the people. They would say Islam has become old. Now, we are in a new era and nowadays there is a spirit of modernity. Now, we are in a space age and in a space age, Islam is no more relevant!

Another solution that was followed along other ways was to take the clergy out of the public. These clergymen are courtiers. They are Britons! The British themselves injected the people with this idea. The British themselves would tell the people that these (clergymen) are Britons! Their mercenaries also injected the people with the same idea. Well, in the old days, ten or twenty years ago, twenty years ago or a little more, Britain was famous and enjoyed popularity. Then, America outpaced it Yes, these are courtiers; they are Britons; they have put them there to put the people to sleep! The essence of religion is narcotics; religion resembles narcotics; it puts people to sleep so they can win and do their plundering. The clergymen are British agents! They are here to put people to sleep and keep quiet so that they (the foreigners) could do their plundering. They put the people to sleep. They disown the people of their possessions and the people themselves are asleep and do not take notice of (what is going on).

These two plots were there in order to discredit Islam in the eyes of the public, and make people careless about it. And those who promote Islam- they also fear of them- fear that they would make them decadent, too. When these two powers are taken from the people, the people can no longer do anything. It can neither have unity nor can it comprehend the depth of the issues.

From another viewpoint, their writers who belong to their circles or are even worse than them, exacerbate these matters. I will narrate the purport of a poem by one of their poets. I remember well his poem. It says," So long as the akhound and the" Qajar" «3» exist in this country, to where can the country of Darius take this disgrace! This disgrace, which is the akhound existing in this country- where can the country of Darius take this disgrace!" When Rida Shah became victorious, it was the logic of the poets of the time that the existence of clergymen here was a disgrace. How could the country of Darius tolerate such a disgrace, i. e. the existence of the clergymen and that which they say which is Islam? They formed a Majlis during the time of the same person (Rida Shah) - or perhaps toward the end of his reign- where there was a show of the dominance of Islam over Iran when the Arab army came in and dominated and captured Iran. At that time, Arabia was also a part of this territory. There, they took out their handkerchiefs and started to cry! Cry for Islam coming and making Iran Islamic. They shed tears! In a public assembly, they created such a scene where they took out their handkerchiefs and shed tears for Iran because Islam had come to Iran! What was all that about? It was to frighten the people of Islam for coming and creating disturbance. At this very moment that we are sitting here- I was present on the other side- when there came in a scroll, or something like a telex that said," As per your order, the Iranians raised against the Kurds! Now, it is such for the Democrat Party there as well as the Kurdish gentlemen who are in Mahabad. Since they noticed that Mahabad was leaving their hands and when it was gone, it would be the end of it- and God willing the same thing will happen- as they noticed that that was the end of them. They resorted to this, to a telex, which I just read on the other side. It has opened with my name followed by a great number of newspapers and the like with copies to everyone involved saying," We the Kurds, the Kurdish nation, which are united with you, what has happened that you have now made all the people and the entire Iran to rise against the Kurds?" But, the entire Iran knows that they rose against the anti-Kurds and not against the Kurds. Although we always claim that the Kurds are our brethren, and in spite of that, they are drawing me to an issue that is as clear as that in the form of a telegram. They sent the telegram to Mr. Bazargan and they also sent a telex. They are showing the situation the way they wanted to be. They were the same persons, and they are the same persons who are introducing Islam to the people in such a way that Islam is here to put the people to sleep; Islam is here to put the oppressed people to sleep in order for the strong ones to devour them and for the oppressed not to be able to raise their voice! Oblivious to the fact that history is watching; the Islamic history is not far away; it has said everything about all the faiths. Well, that's the history.

As you notice, all the faiths, the heads of them who were the prophets, they were all from the oppressed class. They rose and urged the oppressed class against the powers. Hadrat Ibrahim (Abraham) was there with an axe- his only possession- was coming from a low class and rose against Nimrod of the time and shattered to pieces his idol that was the sign of his aristocracy- an idol was a sign of aristocracy at that time. Hadrat Mousa (Moses), a simple shepherd with his only rod from the same oppressed class, raised this class against Pharaoh and his taghouti system. He raised the former against the latter; he did not dupe the former so that the latter could deceive (them)! Rather he awakened the former to kill the latter. That is contrary to what our treacherous writers and the worse treacherous foreign writers say that religion is the opium of the masses, and the prophets have come to put the masses to sleep using this opium so that the men of power and taghouts would suck dry the duped masses. If you review the history of the prophets, you will find this remark to the contrary. In other words, the taghouts had prevailed over the people. But Almighty God raised one person among that very low class, among the same shepherds, among the oppressed class and awakened the oppressed masses that moved in on the taghouts and drowned the Pharaoh and did away with him.

Unlike what was mentioned above, the history of Islam is closer to us. Everyone knows the life of the Noble Prophet. So are his struggles and his battles. It is quite clear against whom he fought. The Noble Prophet came from Holy Mecca and from among the ordinary, low class people. Of course, he was an aristocrat, but not in the sense of being rich; rather in the sense that he was from the noble of his time. He was poor, i.e. he was from a poor class who lived throughout his lifetime in poverty. In spite of that, he accomplished all that. He emerged from such a class in Mecca and the Meccan aristocrats, the capitalists; the leaders of caravans, and the like opposed him so much so that he had to keep a low profile ever since. He dwelled in a cave and actually he was confined to a cave and was conducting his secret propagation from there. He formed a group to collaborate with him. But since he realized that he lacked the power to challenge his opponents, he made a secret deal with the people of Medina and departed for Medina. At his arrival in Medina, he did not dwell with a rich clan. Rather, he stayed with those very poor people, those very indigent. The Noble Prophet's Mosque, too, did not resemble the present-day modern mosques. The Great Mosque was a very small place the ceiling of which was made of raffia and hence they had put something together which they called a mosque. It had an adobe wall this short only to prevent the animals from entering. Yet, it was in these very mosques that the destiny of Islam was shaped. It was not a (modern) mosque with a dome and an audience hall but a simple place. There were no bureaucratic ceremonies but it was from the same place that they defeated the ancient empires of Byzantine and Iran. Now let their people cry their heart out.

The Noble Prophet was coming from the same low class such that when he arrived in Medina, he had companions who were homeless; they did not have any dwelling whatsoever and were sleeping in the mosques. There was a platform that was called" Companions of the Platform," where some would sleep in there beside each other. That was what their life looked like; you couldn't call it a living. And when they wanted to go to war, every few of them would ride one camel and every few of them would share one sword. This was the situation they had. There was nothing beyond ordinary going on. They were indeed from the same class. Against whom were they fighting? Against whom were the Prophet's wars? Was the Prophet there to dupe this oppressed class so that their opponents could suck them?! Or, had he come to raise this weak and oppressed class of people? The Prophet's wars were all against those very aristocrats, those very owners of those farmlands, and against those very capitalists, and the like, and later on against the sultans and others.

The Prophet's missives to the King of Iran, to the King of Byzantium, to the Coptic King of Egypt, and others, are all well known. He had invited those kings to come forth and become humans, become Muslims; it's not that he had aimed at singing lullaby to them and tucking them to sleep! Now, is it fair to say that one should be opium-addict to recite the Qur'an?! It is really unfair that the Qur'an that is found in every Muslim's house, and all open their eyes to this Qur'an, a Qur'an whose every page you open or whose every part that you look at, talks about the killings, about the (mass) murders of the taghouts and about raising the oppressed against the hegemonic powers. These iniquitous ones closed their eyes to the Qur'an that is accessible to everyone. Then they would say that Islam is here to dupe the people; dupe the oppressed and make the hegemonic powers prevail over them! This Qur'an that talks about killings, talks about the battle of the oppressed against the arrogant, talks, from its beginning to the end, about Pharaoh, and about other people and about the hegemonic powers, who prevailed in those days and instigated the people against them. Again, they would say that the Qur'an or the Prophet has come to dupe this helpless and poor people as well as the peasants and farmers so that Muhammad Rida would milk them! Here is the Qur'an and here are the prophets, there they are as large as life.

Let's make an inquiry on those, so-to-speak," courtier" `ulama'. You are all about my age and should remember. You should all remember this- you are all my age, I know you from the olden days- since the time Rida Khan came to power to this day, how many rising were there? Who did the uprisings? Among other classes: ordinary people, the intellectuals, the writers, and the like, which one of these took part in the anti-government uprisings? Who did the Azerbaijan uprising? The Azerbaijani `ulama', of course; the late Amirza Sadiq Aqa, «4» the late Angaji, «5» There were others who were followers. Who did the Isfahan uprising? It was the late Haj Aqa Nourullah, «6» of course. You saw the `ulama' of Islam coming here and gathered together; the `ulama' from other cities; an uprising against Rida Khan. Now, who did the Khorasan uprising? It was the `ulama' of Khorasan, of course: The late Younus, «7» the late Aqazadeh, «8» and the like. Later on, Aqa Qummi «9» staged an uprising single-handedly; he went to the shrine of Hadrat `Abdul-`Azim and we, too, were at the shrine of Hadrat `Abdul-`Azim at that time. However, these uprisings were defeated by the more powerful (adversaries). They stroke down the uprisings and arrested the `ulama' of Azerbaijan. And it was in one of the Kurdistan cities- it was Saqqiz or Sunqur- where they were exiled. And later- after a long time- they gave permission for the late Amirza Sadiq Aqa to come here, to Qum, where he later died. They also arrested all the `ulama' of Mashhad and took them to Tehran where they were imprisoned. The late Aqazadeh was one of the high-ranking `ulama' of that region. I myself witnessed him having a house in a remote corner of a street. He was sitting there alone while the government officials were watching him. No one could contact him. They were taking him to the court where they were interrogating him. And who was it that confronted them? It was no one but Mudarris. The" courtier" `ulama' they are talking about were nothing but" wall paintings"! Who then did all these uprisings during those fifteen or sixteen years? It was no one but these gentlemen. It was these akhounds of the cities and their vicinities. It was them against whom they (the regime) did propaganda. And even at the present time when the government is Islamic, again they do not want the name of akhound to be there. Yes, they do not want it, even now! They are so scared of them lest the unlawful profits that they were usurping and the businesses they were expanding here and abroad would fall into the hands of these (mullahs), who when they go to the Council of Experts wherein a budget is allocated for them, they said:" What do we need a budget for? We will use our cloak as a cover sheet to sleep under." This is what a mullah is saying.

These are the akhounds that you claim to be such-and-such. These are the people who, when they went to the Council of Experts and a ten-million budget was allocated to them, objected, saying," What shall we do with the budget?" They had rented a place for them and provided bed for them, but they said," What shall we do with the beds? Whenever any of us comes to this assembly, we will wear our cloak over our shoulders and will sleep in this simple place." But that group does not want this kind of people. That group wants a regime and a situation that enable them to feather their nests. Let them suffer from indigestion so much so that they are lost in their doings! Let them take this country's capitals abroad; export money, which they are doing right now, anyway, and live in pleasure there. When I was in Paris, one of the things that I heard, and only one word of which, a rarity, has remained in my memory. One of Muhammad Rida's relatives, I do not remember which one, owns a villa abroad, the price of the villa I have forgotten also. But what I do remember is this: They have spent six million dollars on flower plantation there! Can you imagine what does it mean? Six million dollars equals forty two million tumans. Or, perhaps it was five million dollars; one of these two figures, anyway. Apparently five million dollars, yes five million dollars spent on flower plantation in that villa! This is what those people, and the ones around them, want! Right now they have organized the rebellion in Kurdistan and are deluding our Kurdish brethren. They are creating this situation in order to empty your pockets and fill up theirs and build such villas there where they should spend five million dollars or thirty five million tumans on its flower-work. I do not remember the price of the villa itself, but I did remember that (the flower-work). Well, this will repeat itself next year. «10»

At any rate, they aimed at two goals: They initially managed to hollow us. They also seized us from ourselves and deprived us of the two powers that could do something for us. Propaganda, teachings, and everything else were colonized. They made us void of ourselves. They intended to take (the two sources of power) from us but thanks to God they did not succeed. One was the power of Islam, of which they feared. Another was the power of the servants of Islam, which includes the clergymen. They wanted to take away these powers and tried very hard at it and (at one time) did take them away. During Rida Shah's reign, they tried very hard, partly because the people, too, were against the clergymen, and many different classes were against the clergymen. The enemies tried, through talks, through dialogues, but when they realized that they could not do it through force, they resorted to trickery. They used tricks, wicked propaganda, and similar things.

And- thanks to God- this revolution that came about in Iran, a revolution to which I am very optimistic about, not because it defeated Muhammad Rida- although that in itself was a great part of the accomplishment- and not because it defeated the East and the West, but because it was a humane revolution. We recognized ourselves. Our ladies recognized themselves. What does that mean? Well, they recognized what they are. The ladies were addressed by propagations," They want to discredit you ladies; they want to take your prestige away and make you Western." Cosmetics should come from the West; fashion should come from the West; whenever there is a new fashion, you too, switch to that fashion! All your things were imported from the West. It was the result of propagation and everyone had made it a habit. If something (new) was happening in, let us say, Britain, today everyone would immediately get rid of the existing things and follow the new fashion! Several times for a dress that they wanted to make for Farah «11» - I guess it was for the coronation- a number of times the designers flew back and forth and what kind of expenses- I do not recall right now- they spent in order to make just one dress! And then it was funny that it was in one of her statements that," We have our children wear the hand-me-downs that their siblings have already outgrown!" This was in the papers. This person who has to make three flights on the plane in order to fix the design and pays several thousand and fifty tumans- I do not know the exact amount- which they spent on a dress, for what?! These are the ones who want to deceive you; it is not the clergymen who want to dupe you.

These people fear the clergymen, for the clergymen want to awaken this nation while these people fear wakefulness; they fear an awakened human. What do they have to fear of a duped person? If they would put these people to sleep, they would have clergymen reach the empyrean. If these people were the kind to put the people to sleep, Rida Shah would have promoted the clergymen and he would not have created a situation when a cab driver would not pick them up! Drivers would not pick us up, or perhaps some of us. They would say, one driver said," I have made a deal with God not to pick up two groups: One is the prostitutes and the other the akhounds!"