Speech [Cooperation of the nation with the government; rebuilding the country requires stability and calm]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

God willing, may you all be successful. This is of the blessings of this movement that we all are gathered together. This is of the blessings of this Islamic movement that it has gathered the Islamic brethren under one roof; and God willing, the issues that are of consideration are put forward for discussion. And the gentlemen must know that this ideal which we are thinking about and which we hope will be realized with the aspiration of the entire nation is that Islam should govern in Iran; the rule must be the rule of God. And those things that the taghouti regime would do and which their agents would do and the problems that they created for our nation shall, God willing, be resolved by the efforts of all the youth of our nation; and the banner of Islam flies everywhere; in other words, it should be such that if we enter the Prime Minister's office, we see that Islam is present there. And if we go to the other ministries, we see that the circumstances are Islamic circumstances; and if we go to the tribal areas we see that there too the circumstances are Islamic circumstances; and if we go to the traditional bazaar we see that the circumstances of the bazaar are also Islamic. If Islam is realized in its true sense, in the manner that God, the Blessed and Exalted, has commanded to the Noble Prophet, then all the people shall live in welfare and happiness under the banner of Islam; not only the happiness of this world but the happiness of both this world and the hereafter.

We pray to God to grant us the favor to be able to perform the service that we intend; to have the power and strength to perform it; and this power shall be present when the nation is with us. If the nation is with us, we shall be able to perform the tasks as a result of the power of the nation. As you witnessed that when the nation united, they were able to destroy such a great power. Now, too, when it is the time that those corrupt people are exterminated and cleansed and their remnants are destroyed, again it requires the cooperation of the nation.

Now, there are many conspiracies at work to divide the brothers from each other; at every place in a different form. Where the centers, for example, are the big cities, it is in the form of" party" and so forth. In border areas and places where our brothers from the Sunni school of thought are living, it is in the form of the demands of the Sunni and Shi`ah schools so that these two schools that are both Muslims get involved in conflicts with each other. At the same time- perhaps you all know- that in Kurdistan province, a group affiliated to foreigners was involved; and from what has been gathered from their contacts and we have been told, they were the agents of the former regime and are in touch with the Zionists; they have relations with Israel and with some other unidentified countries; and it is they who have created these disturbances in Kurdistan such that the people of Kurdistan are fed up with them. The government sent forces and these corrupt elements were either arrested or crushed, and some of them ran away. Later, those who were the agents of the foreigners began to write that the government of Iran or so-and-so person has mobilized all the people against the Kurds and against the followers of the Sunni school! This is while we had sent the forces to assist the brothers who were besieged. One must be alert at such moments that these individuals who want to create trouble; who want to cause a rift between brothers have nothing else in mind other than the fact that the interests that they and their masters had here has been threatened and their hands are being severed, so they wish to recreate those problems and bring back those same people to rule over us and destroy the lives of these people. In the course of history, all the tribes, all the border area residents were under pressure of these taghouti persons; they brought no welfare to them and now do not want to give time to the government to attend to them. They do not want to give the government the opportunity to do such a thing for the people so that once again there is chaos; and once again those problems return. Today we must all be awake and be aware of their plots. God willing, these plots shall be eliminated. God willing, the country shall be calm.

You should know that the main concern of the plan of this government is to initially, start with the poor; to start from the border areas the task of reconstruction and providing basic amenities such as electricity and asphalted roads and water and so forth that I know are either not available at all or are in short supply in many areas. The government shall, God willing, take action. May God by His will grant His favors to all of you.

[At this juncture, one of the audience presented a report about a group by the name of" Darbat Group" that had been organized under the supervision of a pious military officer in Sar Pol-e Dhohab and had undertaken to repulse the anti-revolutionaries and also presented a report of the rumor-mongering and fabrication of lies by the enemies of the Revolution together with a request to hand over the administration of the region to the clergy. In reply, Imam Khomeini stated:]

All of what you mentioned are correct but the government is also thinking of doing all of these things even regarding the Sunni `ulama'; and I have repeatedly told the Minister of Islamic Propagation and Endowments that these matters must be coordinated properly with them and it has been decided that a list of all those places that are in Iran be prepared and, God willing, acted upon and shall, God willing, be accomplished. And the same is true with regard to the problems that you mentioned; these also must be done; but you know that at present everything is in disarray. After a revolution there is always some sort of anarchy especially considering that all of these have been inherited from the former government. In the Islamic Republic- that is now five or six months old- these problems have not occurred in this period and have existed from before. And it must be compensated. This six- or seven-month old baby- this republic of ours- must be given some time. These disturbances that the corrupt elements have created should lessen a bit and then a comprehensive action be taken. Now also they are planning for every region, for every province; they have allocated oil revenues for this purpose and have planned to make it available to them and they shall make it available and I, too, emphasize that they make it available soon. I hope that, God willing, those problems shall be resolved quickly.

The main thing is that you should not listen to the words of these corrupt elements; they want to prevent development. At the same time, the government has also allocated a budget for this purpose; it has approved a budget for every province for these affairs such as construction of public baths, building asphalted roads, for example, and schools. They are planning to do all of these things but on condition that the area becomes calm. They cannot do anything in a disturbed and war-torn area; if they wish to build a public bath in an area that is fighting a war, it cannot be done; there must be some peace and calm and, God willing, there shall be peace and these affairs shall be taken care of. For the clergy, too, you must speak to the teachers of this place; well, you are present there and know what you are lacking there. And I hope that these problems shall be resolved soon.

It would be advisable if you also discuss with Mr. Muntaziri about the clergyman that you want to take along with you; Mr. Muntaziri shall determine the person for these affairs.