In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The duty of the press: the edification of society
The press caused one of our biggest problems during the taghouti era. The taghouti regime used to choose the pawns; the elite ones, that were working for it and for the foreigners, to have control over the newspapers and to make propaganda against Islam and the country, under an Islamic-nationalist guise. I do not know whether more harm was done to our country and Islam by the press or by the other taghouti institutions during that period!
The print media that ought to be the bearer of the message of Islam, the disseminator and enforcer of Islamic precepts, the edifier of society and the promoter of morality- divine morality- among the people, acted contrary to all these values during the taghouti era. The newspapers with the help of their widespread propaganda, were commissioned to direct the country, and the issues concerning it and Islam, towards taghouti interests. More harm was done to Islam by the newspapers and the taghouti media than the other organs. Nobody knows whether the centers of corruption drove our youths to immorality to the extent these corrupt newspapers and the yet more corrupt magazines, radio and television did. It was these magazines, newspapers, radio, television and the mass media that drew our youth into corruption instead of attracting them to the university and towards knowledge and culture.
Young people are quickly influenced by events. They are tender saplings that are easily damaged and also easily nourished [trained]. In the time of taghout, these youths would see [the forms of] corruption wherever they went. The magazines they would buy would be full of depravity and obscenity. The newspapers they would buy would be replete with propaganda against human values and Islam. They would find a profusion of centers of corruption wherever they went in the country. It was not possible for them to develop into proper human beings in such centers of corruption and in such a country where everything had turned corrupt.
The people who schemed to plunder this country were professors and thinkers, they had found the way of rendering the country apathetic and of depriving our youths of the Islamic and human qualities one should have. Thus, they facilitated the plunder of our country and the exploitation of all its resources. They did this and that, so much so that within the last fifty-odd years in particular, they did not let anyone develop properly in this country. Their depraved plans led all our institutions into corruption: the university that ought to have been the seat of learning and culture; the print media that ought to have been the people's instructor; the radio and television that ought to have trained society, and the offices that, in themselves, ought to have been training centers staffed by proper human beings. On stepping into such a society, our tender youths would perforce be pushed backwards and corrupted by them.
The Blessed and Exalted God has put the dear people and us under His obligation by rescuing us from this quagmire that had engulfed the entire country. He transformed our newspapers, also the things that you are better aware of, into centers which- in view of the training they are imparting and the propagation they are doing- will hopefully deliver our country from the corruption that was previously rampant in it.
Heavenly assistance in the transformation of the nation
Our sisters and brothers must be aware of the responsibility they hold. Society can be reformed if reforms are instituted in the mass media and the newspapers. The centers of prostitution will be uprooted if the youths are not drawn towards them and are led towards the Straight Path [Sirat al-Mustaqim] instead. As you are aware, many were the centers of vice, especially in Tehran, instead of centers of virtuous and humane activities. There were plenty of prostitution centers and other places that used to rob our youths of their personalities and divert their minds towards vice!
When the print media turns into an institution- it will, God willing, and it has- that propagates piety in society, the newspapers and magazines that our youths and adolescents will start reading, the radio they will listen to and the television they will watch must all serve as their instructors. A youth will be brought up in a sound manner when he sees and hears only instructive things wherever he turns his attention to. If left free [to do whatever he likes] he will grow up to be a dissolute person. He will tend towards vice if driven to it, and towards piety if drawn to it.
All the activities in Iran and the means they had provided over many years were for the purpose of driving our youths into vice. Their actual aim was to have a society here that would be oblivious to whatever they did to it. The country going to rack and ruin or the religion dying out was inconsequential as long as the people indulged in debauchery and made merry. It did not matter to them if there was oppression in the country as long as prostitution was not suppressed. They wanted the people to remain indifferent to whatever was done to them. The type of country they wanted was one in which a large member of these youths be drawn to heroin, another group to alcohol, and yet another to prostitution and centers of vice. And whatever the youths listened to, they wanted it to be corrupt instruction, songs and such things that spoil the mind. And whatever be the community, they wanted its leader to be one that led the youths into vice and corrupted their minds.
This matter was not one that had happened by chance. It was one that had taken place with great care and planning. And you saw how it happened. What happened that the Blessed and Exalted God favored to this nation by which it underwent a sudden transformation? This youth who was supposed to visit the dens of vice came into the street and began to fight. The youths that had to have those vices and [corrupt] minds in line with their [the ex-regime's] plans, suddenly became transformed into ones with bright, Islamic and humane minds. If it [the transformation] had not taken place, this nation would not have been able to defeat this powerful entity and these satanic powers. This change first emerged among the people and then developed. But it did not develop in accordance with the usual criteria. When youths have been lured into vice, it should take at least twenty years to transform their minds devoid of Islamic and human values, into humane ones. What was it that brought about this change in one night, and transformed this nation, within a year, or a year and a half, into a different kind altogether? How did the youths whose thoughts were only on debauchery, merry-making and vice, and their whole attention was focused on the intense propaganda against Islam and the clergy, suddenly changed into something else? This is not in conformity with conventional criteria. It was the Hand of God that supported this nation. This transformation caused all the youths to desert those houses of pleasure in Shemiranat and between Tehran and Shemiran, which they used to frequent, and come into the arena to sacrifice their lives. Lust turned into self-sacrifice for the cause of Islam and the Muslim country.
The need for an overall purging to be carried out in the country
The dear brothers and esteemed sisters that are working in this institute, and those notorious ringleaders that changed into people of the type of Mr. Du`a'i and the other clean employees, ought to be mindful of taking the right path and to be straightforward and united, and also be determined to serve the country. Do not let the people who want to create mischief and take the country back to its former state, have a free hand to do such things. Do not allow these plots, these treacherous plots to develop once again. By means of your speech, your pens, your moves and acts, you must nip these plots in the bud so that your country, God willing, be cleansed; a cleansing that is general and not confined to the offices only. It should be a general cleansing in all spheres of the affairs of the country. The bazaar must be cleansed spiritually. It should no longer be a taghouti one. It should be a bazaar run according to Islamic precepts. All the offices, factories and farms ought to be changed into such places that on entering them, you will be able to feel the presence of God and [the effect of] His teachings.
If you establish such a country, and you who are in responsible positions in newspapers like Ittila`at, and all the others working for the rest of the country's newspapers and periodicals, bear this in mind that everybody ought to aim at cleansing the country of everything that is against human values- everybody should think about cleansing and edifying [the people] and it is hoped that, God willing, it will so happen- rest assured that your country will not be harmed again.
A country is harmed when its people are unconcerned about the harmful acts [that are done]. The time they used to come to your country and do all these things against your interests, was because of the fact that they had lulled the nation into a stupor. They had made it inert and drained it of its spirit. The people were not able to recognize their own intrinsicality. They saw western values in everything. Whatever entities they saw were the powerful ones; they had forgotten their own power. You have now discovered yourselves. You have understood what power you have. It is the power that confronted the big world powers; all world powers in their totality, and prevailed over all of them. And now you have realized that you yourselves are powerful and [always] rely on God. Whoever relies on the Seat of Power is powerful.
Safeguard these realities. Maintain your guidelines. Keep to it in practice and act according to God's commands. Safeguard divine morality and abide by moral principles. Safeguard your beliefs and learn and pay heed to humane tenets. If all this happens everywhere, God willing, rest assured that nobody will be able to harm such a country; neither these groups that occasionally emerge under various names in the country and try to harm you, nor those that plot and hatch conspiracies. Neither of them will be able to do anything again. On reforming yourselves, the country will be reformed and will also remain unassailable.
I pray to the Blessed and Exalted God for the health of all the individuals that are engaged in serving Islam, and also for the welfare of everyone. I apologize to you gentlemen who have come here and are present here in this hot and cramped place. I hope that the Blessed and Exalted God will grant you prosperity, and that all of you will serve Him.
May God's peace and mercy be upon you.