Interviewer: Hassaneyn Heykal, the Egyptian journalist and writer
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Question: In three days, it will have been one year since our last visit in Paris.
Answer: Yes. That is right.
Q: And many things have happened since then.
A: Thanks God. We hope to witness other drastic changes in the coming years.
Q: In your opinion, what was the most prominent event of the past year?
A: In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. The most significant event was the cutting of the hands of the agents of superpowers from the Iranian internal affairs and the stoppage of the cruelty and injustices which had been leveled at this poor nation for a long time. Our greatest desire of this year is for us to see the joining of the Muslim countries to us and their awareness of the fact that the propaganda spread by the superpowers regarding their invulnerability has been proved totally false. All nations have noticed that we inflicted the severest defeat on our greatest enemy. We are still challenging the greatest idol of power of our time. «1» We hope other nations will join us in this effort. The Holy Qur'an has stipulated that all Muslims are brothers; «2» therefore, these Muslim nations should join us. Of course, I should admit that I have found the governments of these Muslim nations hopeless. But the Muslim nations are different. The Egyptian nation is different from Sadat. «3» The same difference exists between the governments and their Muslim nations. We hope these Muslim nations will realize their genuine strength and will carry out the same agenda that we have followed what was realized and what they have witnessed in Iran. These nations should understand that what they thought was impossible could happen given their determination and will which stems from the Divine will, and change the impossible into possible.
Q: During the previous year many events took place. Now that I am in Iran I observe a lot of problems arose with your victories: for instance, there are foreign propaganda against you. This propaganda might someday turn into military assaults. Now, you are being afflicted by economic threats. In the future, you might even encounter more attacks. May I ask you a question relating to the future? What is your comment regarding your relations with the United States? What are you going to do concerning the hardships that the Iranian nation will suffer? Yesterday, Carter said something similar to a war threat. And this is not his first threat.
A: There are similar turmoils after any revolution in the world. And I want to add that our revolution has been the greatest of its kind in the world. The turbulences now and in the future are negligible compared with the successes we have witnessed. We will not face the same problems that some revolutions face even fifty or sixty years later. The significant point is that our revolution is both Islamic and national. A Muslim nation has risen up for Islam. Any revolution which has these characteristics will not be followed by bloodshed or atrocity and incivility. You are aware of the fact that in some revolutions one or one and a half million people have died. Yesterday, I received a report of the death tolls of the revolutions in the past. The number of the dead and the prisoners has been huge, being in the range of one, one and a half and even two million. During our revolution, only a limited number of the corrupt individuals who were convicted of murder were executed after they had been found guilty. After the revolution freedom was granted to people. The airports and borders were open and writers were free to express themselves. As you know, in other revolutions this is not the case. A country which has undergone a revolution is usually cut off from the world. Being based on Islam, our revolution is different from others. Since our people were devoted to Islam and since our revolution had an Islamic feature, these nasty events did not take place in Iran. The damage done was incurred while the Shah was in power. The murders are taking place now are done by his agents in Iran. However, the number of these murders is negligible in our view. The issue here is the arrogant speech of Carter who is trying to bully us. I do not know if you are familiar with this parable or not. They say when a lion encounters an enemy, it carries out three acts: It roars; something oozes out of its back and wags its tail. It roars since it wants to frighten the foe; something oozes out of its back because it is frightened; and it wags its tail because it looks for some mediator to put an end to its dilemma. Of course, I would hesitate to use the title" Lion" for Carter, but he is carrying out exactly these acts. His tactics of making commotions, intimidation, threats to use military force against us and of military intervention are passed and are no longer in use. He is contradicting himself all the time. His roaring is like that of the animal which wanted to frighten others. Now all Islamic and non-Islamic nations are watching us closely and if Sadat's bayonets are taken off the heads of the Egyptians, they too are with us. The reason is that both Egyptians and Iranians love Islam. We want an Islamic government, so do they. We wish for an Islamic order; so do the Iraqi, and Turkish nations. Any Muslim nation in the world is looking for such a government of justice. Islam has remained unrecognizable and unknown in the world. Not many are aware of genuine Islam. People do not know what an Islamic government is. They assume it is something like Muhammad-Rida's or Sadat's or Carter's government. The word" regime" connotes this meaning in their minds. We cannot claim that we have established an Islamic order unless in practice we have acted on such a government. We are about to demonstrate such a regime in full. Once a businessman called an Islamic military leader names. When the leader walked away, people started reproaching the man, telling him the man he insulted was Malik al-Ashtar. The man started running to see Malik to apologize to him. When he reached him at the mosque, Malik told him" I have come here to pray for you." Islam used to have dignitaries such as Malik. If the world recognized Islam, they would adopt Islam as their way of life. The world is not familiar with this type of government. It has not been put to use in the world so far. At the time of the great Prophet (s), Imam `Ali (`a) and the Caliphs, Islam was practiced to a certain degree. When the Bani Umayyad, Bani `Abbas and the Iranian governments started their reign, the situation deteriorated drastically. Now, it is up to you writers to serve Islam and to introduce it to the world. You should show the differences of an Islamic order from those of Muhammad-Rida, Sadat or other dictators. Their way of government is alien to Islam. If we introduce Islam to the world properly, they would follow our way. Everybody in the world is after the justice of the sort that exists in Islam. Unfortunately, we are a weak nation and lack the required means of propagating our ideology. All the foreign mass media are making false accusations against us. It is miraculous that this movement is heading forward despite all these obstacles. You say Carter is busy bullying us. His threats are like those of that beast and we will ignore his mischievous taunting. Those people who fear death worry about these threats. You stay among these people who are uttering slogans here. «4» You will find out for yourselves what their logic is. These people say they want to get martyred. Today, I read in a newspaper that Mr. Mufattih's wife has said she was proud she has offered a martyr to Islam. «5» Such a nation who takes pride in having their loved ones get martyred would never surrender to the foreign powers. There are still mothers who come to me and tell me that their children have been martyred and that they are ready to sacrifice more. Mr. Carter is threatening such a unique nation of military intervention. Those should be intimidated who use invocations and prayers and the tolling of the church bells to secure their governmental positions. What are we frightened of? Why should we be intimidated while we believe we will be living in a better place after this world? Therefore, we will not take heed of their military forces. We will defy them with all of our might. If we failed to defend ourselves, we would get martyred: And this is exactly what we are after. Our predecessors faced the same threats, too. But I would like to assure you that the superpowers' approaches are useless and doomed. Previously, the mention of the name of artilleries caused people's fear. Not now. The whole world ridicules the very notion of resorting to weaponry for political objectives. However, if they foolishly resorted to these weapons of mass destruction, we would be ready for them. We, of course, prefer people to act like humans and not like beasts. Besides, if we were attacked by the beasts, we would defend ourselves. The same rule applies to the economic threats. We are not affected by these threats at all. Mr. Carter assumes we are unaware of the world situation. Mr. Carter imagines that the whole world would close their markets to us as soon as he used economic sanctions against us. Carter imagined these concepts when he was drinking coffee at the White House. We are not moved by such utterances, however. I have already asserted the fact that we would obtain our sustenance out of God's land if we had to. Furthermore, the American cabinet has already objected to such economic sanctions envisaged for Iran. Other counties, too, do not depend on the USA. Mr. Sadat is an exception. He, like the Shah of Iran, is obedient to the American diplomacy. I regret at the fact that a leader of an Islamic country bargains with two enemies of Islam: the Israeli regime and Carter, both of whom are sworn-enemies of Islam. These three bargain and the Egyptian nation and you, as well, should sit watching them plot against Islam. I regret to see that Sadat sits and signs an accord against the Muslims with the enemies of Islam who set fire on the Muslims populace. «6» It is even worse that the Muslim nations and governments sit with indifference and apathy.
Q: I feel many events are the result of internal factors, rather than the external ones. Examples are the issues of the Kurds, which terminated in an armed uprising and the hostage-taking by these students. These start from within. Did the Iranian government show its consent in taking these hostages? Did it assist the students in their act? What is the Imam's comment on these affairs which are rooted inside the country? There have been some replacements of ministers within the cabinet. For instance, the minister of foreign affairs was replaced. «7» There might be some internal economic pressures of which we are not aware. How would you interpret these events?
A: These events mostly stem from the foreign interference. Some of them may be attributed to the agents of the previous deposed regime. The genuine nation, either Kurds or Azerbayjanis, do not oppose us. There were some propagandas going around in Kurdestan, which had foreign roots. These foreign agents thought that there were some discord between Kurds and non-Kurds or among the minority groups. This is because they would not let us introduce Islam properly. If Islam materializes in Iran the Lurs, or Turks or other layers of the society will not be divided among themselves. Separation will be in effect if the central government tries to discriminate among different layers of society. As I have already said the people's concept of government is of the sort enforced by the previous governments, which deprived people of their rights, which plundered their wealth and which sold out their mineral reserves, keeping them hungry and miserable in Khouzistan, while the oil in their land is being exported. If the Islamic government is implemented, and if people take note of our intentions, there will not be any excuses for discontent. We ourselves want to establish our own government. We want our municipality organization to be headed by our own people. The previous government did hurt our people. That is why they are not happy with the concept of government as such. We are not facing any problem from within. Our nation approves of us. Those who are making a commotion do so because of external influence. Of course, we are suffering from the enemies' pen. They agitate people by exaggerating trivial matters. They overstress a small issue in Azerbayjan. The people there do not have anything against Islam. Then they make propaganda in the mass media against Iran. These remarks are not valid; they are sheer propaganda and false accusations. Now you are observing that our markets are actively operating and there is nothing wrong with them. Our situation differs drastically from what has happened in other world revolutions. We have had this revolution only for one year and do not expect peace and quiet within this short period of time. Previously, we used to have a huge prison called Iran. Now, thirty-five-million prisoners in the mammoth prison have been set free. Of course, there are some among us who are ignorant. Some are influenced by the external forces. And you expect too many good things to happen within a short period of time. These commotions resemble those made by Mr. Carter. Regarding the place you call an embassy, but which we prefer to call a den for espionage, you should know that a group of our youth occupied it and found out it was a center for spying and conspiracy against Iran and the whole Middle East. The personnel of this embassy are not ordinary people; they are not the usual diplomats. The United States has never recognized our territorial integrity so that to send their genuine diplomats here. Our previous governments were the servants and agents of the United States. Why should they bother, then, to dispatch their diplomats here? We were not their equal. We were a toy in their hands. No diplomats were necessary. Iran was pivotal for their Middle East plots. Carter's main concern was Russia. They wanted to establish military strongholds here as well a center for spying. Then our youths found out the functions of this center. The whole nation backs up the acts of these youth. Our government naturally could not oppose the wishes of our nation. Therefore, do not compare the occupation of the embassy and other insignificant commotions. This act of occupation is done for the release of a nation from the paws of serfdom. This endeavor is different from the commotions which have occurred, for instance, in Kurdestan. This issue is different from that issue. Neither Kurds are against us nor Azerbayjanis. All of them have expressed their allegiance to the Islamic Republic. How could a group of people who engage in prayers and who stand in the direction of Mecca while praying and whose sacred book is the Holy Qur'an, go against Islam? How can such Muslims say all this and then get ready to attack Islam? This is irrational. Those who level these accusations against us are plotting against us. However, these are minor things which could be easily resolved. Besides, do not be sorry for us.
May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.