Speech [The treasons of the Pahlavi regime; the breach of the chains of dependence on others; struggle for self dependence and sufficiency]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I used to go to Mahallat during summers. When I was there I felt the Mahallati people were different from others. They were more concerned with the religion. I found out that people were good because their clerics were good. Those clerics stuck to their religious tasks. Following their examples, people, too, were good and nice. They were mosque attenders. They used most of their time in prayer and invocations. It is more than thirty years since I last saw that city. I do not know if it is still the same. I hope it is today as it was then. If a person educates himself to the level of the prophets, people, too, would improve. Sometimes an individual carries out corrupt actions and at times another individual brings forth positive changes in his society. The latter might belong to a power group; he is therefore the center of attention. Sometimes he belongs to the clerics; he, too, will be the center of attention. Distinguished personalities are rarely found among the men of power. I presently cannot recall anybody but it is not common among them. But there are strong people among the clerics. And if a committed cleric is found in any community, he will purge. If there were several of these devoted clerics in a given society, and implement Islam the way it should be, they would reform the people who, follow them, and eventually a righteous community would come into being.

You will not remember how Rida Khan seized the power in Iran. I remember clearly those days when Rida Khan carried out his coup d'etat. First, he pretended to be a religious man. During Muharram he took part in sessions commemorating the martyrs of Karbala, due to the special role that he was going to play. He used to force the army men to take part in processions for mourning. He even took part in those plays in places where these mourning took place. He continued taking part in these sessions up to the day his power was established. He used the religion as a weapon to reach his objectives. Then his mission started. He was to defeat the clerics. He forced the poets to write poems against the clerics. Every institute was made to oppose the clerics. Little by little, even the illiterate people deserted the clerics. The drivers either refuse to give ride to the clerics or they insulted them on the spot. I once was on a bus. There was another Shaykh aboard the bus. The bus ran out of gas on the way. The driver said," It is because of this Shaykh that the bus ran out of gas. The bus stalled because of this Shaykh." Thus, he attributed" the act of running out of gas" to this Shaykh. A friend of mine told me he was curious to know the reason. He said a driver had told him," we have decided not to let two types of people aboard: the prostitutes and the clerics (akhounds)! The clerics were forbidden to deliver sermons. The mourning sessions were prohibited. The government started defrocking the cleric and drafting them to the army. When we wanted to take part in mourning ceremonies we went to the place, one by one, in a clandestine manner. Leaving the place, too, was done secretly or else, we would be assaulted. Once I had to deliver a lesson. Only one student came to me. I asked about others. He told me the others were in the garden. He said the policemen searched the seminaries and the schools for the clerics. The reason for this lay in the fact that the government thought this group of people was very influential. This is because the government thought this class was the representatives of Islam and was the center of attention of the common people. They thought the cleric's power as an annoyance to the community.

Another plan implemented for the destruction of the youth was to open up to them the doors of the places of corruption. Such places for corruption were available to our youth both in Tehran and in the suburbs. The movies were another channel for the corruption of our youth. The places for serving alcoholic beverages were more numerous than libraries or the book stores. People said there were many brothels between Tehran and Shemiranat (the northern section of Tehran). They took these youth who were the future hopes of a community to the brothels to make irresponsible and idle persons out of them. All these nasty things happened at the time of this nasty person. «1» The son had more plans than the father: of course, he was implementing the plans which he had been given. The problem of heroin, which is severely threatening our society, did not come about haphazardly. It was pre-planned. It is because when a youth becomes an addict, he loses all he has. A youth will become indifferent and idle if he is given heroin, if he is allowed to attend the brothels, if he is permitted to watch those corrupt films, and if he becomes an alcoholic. An addict to heroin or opium or alcohol becomes an idle person. The addiction of our youth was done on purpose to destroy them in this way; they tried hard not to let our country become vigilant.

God helped this nation to become vigilant. People tried to gradually put aside the immoral habits. All those youth, who did not care for these moral affairs, joined our movement. They took to the streets and served Islam. We owe our success to the changes which took place in our youth with God's protection. Previously a group of our youth cared for the political issues but did not care for religion as such. They used to protect the American flag when it was up. On the following day, if the British flag was up, they would utter slogans in its support. Some of them might even talk in favor of Islam if its banner was raised. So there was no clear basis for their option. This was the position of our politically minded youth. Other layers of people, too, went their separate routes. The businessman was after his business and the farmer was after his agriculture. When they were deprived of anything they had, they would say they could not do anything.

Only a hidden hand from the hidden world could bring this nation out of its ignorance, lethargy and indolence. Everybody got equipped. However, this would be down right impossible without God's assistance. Everybody was supporting the Islamic Republic: neither East nor West, but the Islamic Republic; freedom, independence, the Islamic Republic was among the slogans of the day. This could not have been brought about by one person alone. Rather, it was done by God. All layers of the society believed in one thing: the Islamic Republic. And they succeeded. We shall remain victorious while we support our movement. We hope to maintain it.

Be aware! Today is not the day to be solely concerned with our or your personal problems. If one day, anything happens to Islam or to our country, then the corrupt will destroy us; they will take us, back, to our previous position. It is not the time to complain about our salaries or our dilapidated homes. Today, we should rescue this ship which is engulfed in the stormy waves. It is not time to be idle. We should come together to salvage this ship; this ship in distress. Now our country is being threatened by all sorts of calamities: it is confronting a superpower which has the propaganda means of the entire world available to it. All governments, except for a few, are cooperating with this superpower. All this sensitive period of time, the nation should not worry about where he should sit in office they go to; people at the Education (Ministry) should follow suit. These (trivial) issues can be attended to in a more opportune time.

It is time now we put aside all our personal whims, all our preferences related to our offices. We should be of one view regarding our country. Our common problem is to get rid of this enemy of our and to defeat it. This we can do, you and we both. If a nation works toward a common goal, it will get it. Nobody may oppose a nation's preference:" God's hand is with the congregation." «2» Nothing could be imposed over a nation which has risen up for God and has advanced through the slogan of" God is Great".

The impositions over nations occurred due to the lack of cooperation among individuals: everybody looked to his or her own interest only. The enemy then started sowing discord among them. They used to for different political parties each one of which was the enemy of the other. They brought forth the (divisive) terms like Turk, Kurd, Sistani, Balouch and Fars. Even within a city there were conflicts between two neighboring alleys. You will not remember the hostility between these alleys. If a person of one alley trespassed the other alley he used to be beaten up. This was done on purpose so that a nation cannot congregate and be united.

Despite the enemy's tricks, God helped our nation to unite. People took to the streets, protesting to the regime; they shouted antagonistic slogans from the top of their roofs, demanding the expulsion of this person. «3» They wanted an end to the kingdom and asked for an Islamic republic. This was how we became victorious. Now it was time for our adversaries to revenge since they had tasted a bitter defeat. Islam had struck a blow on them. Then they conspired to delete the word" Islamic" from the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are still active. Our nation should always bear in mind that what bought us to victory was our unity. If you think of luxury, home, ornaments and home utensils, you will lose track of your movement. Today, it is not the time for thinking of absurdities. What we should be concerned with is the unity and the interests of our country.

Today we are being threatened with economic sanctions. Therefore, we should think about it. The solution is for the farmers to start cultivating land. Those who create obstacles on the way of the farmers should be liquidated. There are some who bother our farmers. The military and police personnel should stop their activity. If the sanctions are carried out, we might need foreigners and if this happens the same old story repeats itself and we will go back to where we were prior to our revolution. They say a hungry man does not have faith. If we need wheat and ask others for it we will be politically dependent over others as well. Then the cultural and military dependence will naturally follow. We will lose everything. So we have to stay united. People should not establish affiliation with different political parties. We do not need so many political parties. Two hundred of them are too many. All of these should unite to save the country in which they live. The salvation of this country depends on the improvement of its economy. We should operate the factories, large and small. Those who infiltrate these factories to bring forth turbulences should be stopped. They are sworn-enemies of this country. They would not like us to improve. They should be removed from our factories. Everybody, including the farmers, should carry out their job perfectly.

The teachers' main task is to educate the youth. If our children are trained properly, our country will be saved. We should train our youth in such a way that they could defend this country. The future belongs to this generation of youth. Later, they will protect this country if they are trained properly.

Now our main concern is to expel our enemy. Then we will sit and think and build our future. This does not mean we should not reconstruct our country now. We should embark on it now. We need agriculture which should be developed in a progressive way. Our farmers should work harder. We should not sit idle and stretch our hands to ask our enemies for help, who will, plunder us in exchange for our livelihood.

We must struggle in such a way to attain self-sufficiency and cultivate this God-given land in our nig country, where as it has been said, 150 million people can jive. Our current population of thirty-five million can lead the best in a country which can hold 150 million citizens if it is managed based on right principles. But they (superpowers) do not want or will not allow, this to happen. Before the Karoun River reaches the Shattul-`Arab waterway, a lot of water goes to waste. Once I went there and crossed it, I saw deserts and arable lands around lying idle. If the water flowing from the river is used to irrigate these idle lands, the whole Iranian populace and one hundred million people will be assured of their sustenance. I am not saying that our current thirty-five million population cannot manage itself.

Therefore, we should not allow ourselves to obtain provisions from ungodly sources to meet our needs. We should fulfill our needs not through our enemies who will make us dependant on and force us to procure our substance from them. To achieve this, everybody must work hard. Now that the nation has awakened it should make every effort. On the other side, there is this corrupt cliques which has been trying to stop people from endeavoring, you should expel and turn your back against this group. May God grant all of you health. Many long years ago, there was this man «4», whom I had been with. He has been appointed as the congregational prayer leader (of Mahallat). We hope that you can make benefit from his sermons, which are very educational. May God protect you.