Speech [The necessity of purifying the thoughts from West-struckness]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

However, those who were not taghouti and did not want to be were unable to run the activities they wanted. This goes for those who were aligned with these people's course of action as well. After the taghouti regime was replaced by an Islamic one, it must be Islamic in every sense, God willing, and all the strata should pay attention to this, too. That means, from the ministries on the top to any other organization- government organizations and other institutions, both national and state-run as well as the strata of the nation itself.

During this 2,500- year period, so to speak, when injustice and lords of tyranny cast their shadows on this nation and were dragging the nation to a different course; during this fifty odd years that father and his son were on a mission to ruin this country and prevent the growth of our human resources and keep us backward in every aspect in order to misuse our natural resources in any way they desired with no one there to oppose them. Now that the regime has changed to an Islamic one, it is upon all the strata to try hard to purify everything that has remained from this taghouti regime; and the most important is the purification of the thoughts. I have repeatedly mentioned this and I deem it necessary to repeat this for every new group that arrives here as much as the Western experts who were commissioned with the study of the Eastern condition tried hard and they run propaganda in any manner they could in order to brainwash the people from believing in their Eastern selves and alienate them from their selves and replace their brains with Western ones. You just notice that any institute that is established in Iran, a pharmacy, for example, most of them bear a Western name; our streets:" Roosevelt" Avenue," Churchill" Avenue, and so forth. The same is true for the hospitals and books that are published; they are either named after one of those listed above or something to that effect. If someone wants their books to enjoy a better market, they choose Western names for their books. Here you have an author who becomes Western, for he/she has chosen a Western name, for buyers favor that more; the author has turned Western, too, for without that the buyers will shrink! The reason behind all this is that they voided us from the reality that we possessed, and from our own glorious works and replaced them with that of the West. At the present, too, whoever wants to follow his/ her studies goes abroad even if the means are available here. Patients go abroad for treatment and they choose to do so even though there are good physicians here.

In my young years, when I contracted eye problem and poor eyesight, I went to Tehran. The famous physician during those days was Amin al-Mulk. A friend of him who was an acquaintance of my family referred me to him. That gentleman said that such-and-such person- he named a person whose name I forget- had gone abroad for his eye treatment. There, they had asked him," Where are you from?" Iran, he had answered." But is Amin al-Mulk not there?" he had been questioned." Yes," was the answer." Then why have you come here?" he was asked. And there are now physicians who are capable of treating the usual diseases people contract. However, they themselves have become Western in such a way that they recommend to their patients to go abroad for treatment! These physicians have lost their identity; we all have and this was the result of the criminal conspiracies of the foreigners and their domestic elements. One of the former representatives of both the Majlis and the Senate during Rida Khan's era- I am reluctant to bring up his name at this time «1»- had said," Everything of ours should be British!" Yes, if we want to become humans, everything we have must be British! The same is true with Ataturk. «2» There is a standing statute of him in Turkey with his hand raised as such; I was told that he has raised his hand in the direction of the West to imply that everything should become Western. This happens because we are oblivious to what we ourselves have in the East. Avicenna's book, Qanoun «3» is perhaps used in the West at this very time. But we ourselves are ignorant of him. The Westerners used the medical and philosophical books that were possessed by the East and intend to return our own products to us and we are ignorant of that.

What is necessary for all of us at the present time is to rid ourselves of this West-struckness. We should make ourselves understand the fact that we are Easterners and we are the people of the East, and should revive the Eastern glorious works. So long as we are entangled with this issue of lack of self-recognition, now and in the past, we will not be able to have an authentic independence. The principal part of independence is mental and spiritual independence. At one time a group of physicians had come here where I was talking about why the universities should be such that we do not have physicians and our patients should go abroad (for treatment). I said then that we do have physicians but despite that patients go abroad and why should it be like that? We ourselves should have (physicians).

It is my recollection from the era of Muhammad Rida that once one of his relatives had tonsillitis and they called in a physician from abroad for that patient. Now, is such a lie becoming of a person who claims that he wants to attain the" Great Civilization"! Should such an action come from a person who is the king of a country, so to speak, has not found someone in Iran to operate tonsillitis and had to call in a physician from abroad to operate on tonsillitis! Even in their dirty work, when they wanted to celebrate the monarchy festival; to celebrate that filthy monarchy, they brought in (tailors) from Europe to design a dress for such-and-such a person. Following three airline flights, they needed again to bring someone to redesign the dress. I recall that it was one hundred and fifty thousand tumans. But yesterday, a lady who was here corrected the figure as being eight hundred for that design. That opened the people's eyes to their being oblivious of the affairs; to see for themselves that what this man who is supposedly the head of a country and wants to take the people to what he calls the" great civilization," is into.

Just imagine, someone who calls himself the head of the country to indulge in a thing like that, to call in a physician from abroad for (operating on) his child's or his sister's tonsils. What kinds of damage will this cause a country's prestige! How would it weaken the morale of the people and that of the physicians; what harm would it do to the morale of the surgeons who are able to do the same kind of surgery here? What kind of injury will it cause to the people's thoughts? People would say," We do not have anything." And now that we do not have anything, our young people would go abroad in multitude. This is not because things do not exist here; they do.

But the problem was that unless they went abroad, they were not given any job. And most of those who did go abroad did not pursue any education; they would go on excursion. But the deal is for this person who has gone on excursion to be given a diploma! I was told that- in America or Britain or elsewhere- they are very tough when it comes to giving a diploma to their own people who follow a course of study there. But when it comes to us, they become very lenient! Why? Well, because they do not want us to become someone. They will issue a paper right away and at their arrival the recipients will cast their paper to the (authorities') teeth! But no one bothers to inquire as to what that person has practically accomplished and what can he/ she really do. This is because they (those universities) do not want us to advance; they tried to keep us backward and this is something that has been planned abroad.

They fear humans; they fear a committed human who can confront them. They realized how Mudarris- may God bless him- then a member of the Majlis would not let many things to become a reality. The Russians on passing a bill on an issue that I do not recall now gave an ultimatum. And they threatened by saying," The Russian army is on its way to Iran or it is arriving from Qazvin route, and you must act on this thing." It is narrated in a missive by one of these foreigners- who have written on Iran's situation- he has written that what he should do if the Majlis keeps quiet! He writes that among the members there was a clergy whose hands were shaking. He came forward and stood up and said," Now that we are due to be destroyed, why we should do it with our own hands? Nay, we reject." After he did this, others gained the courage and rejected it, too. And they (the Russians) did not do a thing; it was all intimidation!

You should know well that all this is to scare others; no action is intended. These two powers are confronting one another: The East and the West and each are scared of the other. They do not act; but they do intimidate. During the time- especially recently- when I was abroad, I witnessed how some of them were intimidating:" Should you decide to go, this is what would happen and this is what we would do." And I knew that all that was intimidation. They always act that way. They decide to intimidate and frighten; to bring their naval in the Gulf! They do not intend to take action; they only want to frighten us. But we should not be scared. Rather, we should change from this West-orientation to East-orientation. In other words, we should know ourselves and realize what we ourselves are up to; what should our lives be like, what should our situation be like. I am not suggesting that we should not accept the Western and the Eastern sciences. No, we definitely should accept them, but we should not lose countenance, and underestimate ourselves. Suppose that there are two individuals, one Easterner and one Westerner, who have equal education. We should not lose our countenance that if the former used a Western expression or has provided a diploma in the West; we all focus our attention on him/ her to the expense of ignoring the latter. All this happened because during the time they (the Westerners) were busy with their studies, they then transformed us to a completely different entity. Now, in the present revolution that was materialized we managed to curtail these people's hands and it is hoped that it will remain curtailed to the end.

In our education, in our universities, we should be thinking of ways to find ourselves, for we have lost ourselves and need to find ourselves so that we can realize what we were. All the talks in the past revolved around the monarchy! The 2,500- year history, the 2,500- year history of monarchy is what made us fall on evil days. We have 2,500 years history of having great scientists, in particular during the early period of Islam in every field and in every subject. The diseases that they failed to treat in Europe, our physicians treated them with the use of herbal medicines, the properties of which have been discovered by those Europeans only recently and they found them in the book of Avicenna and those of others. But we ourselves are neglectful of them. If a physician uses the traditional way of treatment, he is not approved of at all whereas, I have seen some of those physicians who are not around anymore; they cured some chronic diseases radically.

In any case, this is now an issue for us and for you and for our future generation that we should transform from the form that our brains have which is a Western one. And everything that is said revolves around the West! Our women- I do not mean this audience here but those who walk in the promenades! For them also the cosmetics and items for make-up must be made in the West! If something becomes fashionable today and as soon as they have found about it, in magazine, that such and such has done that, that product will immediately fill the shelves of the shops on the whole block! The changes will be effective the very next day and they will discard the old ones. This is because they see their Mecca in the West! They will perform their prayers facing the West, for that's their Mecca! Such mentality should leave the memories. Those of you who are young, and have the power of thinking on this issue should contemplate and be persistent and think it over so that you can correct the situation.

And I am glad for the changes that have come about recently, in the last couple of years and in particular during this revolution. There was found in our surroundings a spiritual change. That includes the case of the participation of all classes: the intellectuals, the scientists, the physicians in the Jihad for Reconstruction that are unprecedented here. The reason, for instance, the ladies who should be occupied with- let's say- other tasks, take part in the Jihad for Reconstruction to go to the wheat field and shear wheat. Although this is something that neither these ladies nor you gentlemen could handle productively, for you do not have the power of doing that, the peasants are able to do that. However, this is something that will give more power to those farm workers. When a farm worker notices that an urban lady is there to work for him that increases his productivity by several folds. Do not underestimate this. When you go there and pick a few clusters of wheat, that peasant who picks an acre of wheat farm in a single day, will work out two acres the next day; he finds the power. He realizes that it is worth it, and will value his labor. He notices that people from other classes, whether students who should be attending schools or those who have to be in their clinics are now there busy with harvesting and work on the wheat field. This will give a spirit to that community. These are the changes that make us hopeful. This kind of spiritual changes that has come about in the people, example of which are plenty, but my time would not allow me to describe the details. These changes will cause us to find a different situation and undergo change, God willing.

May Almighty God make all of you successful in order to separate yourselves from the West and separate your thinking from the West; and also to train the next generation not to have this West-struckness. Note that learning is one thing, and self-alienation is another. No doubt that we should learn everything, but we should not lose ourselves. We should learn things to put them to use for us and not for them! But now we learn for them. What we do is for them! I hope all of you are successful and victorious.