In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The importance of publicity
Publicity holds a very important place and it could be said to hold the highest priority in today's world. We have, unfortunately, not succeeded thus far in giving this matter its due attention. Of course the problems that we have been facing since the early days of the Revolution as well as the problems that were imposed upon us from external sources have prevented us from paying it due attention although we cannot deny the negligence on our own part. As a result, the others- whether the superpowers or their stooges- got busy propagating against us and did their best to portray a distorted picture of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Let me narrate a story that will highlight the significance of representation even in the olden times. It is said that there was once a poet who was asked who the best poet was. He replied:" Come along and I will show you the best poet." He took the man to his own home where he found an extremely dirty man sucking upon the udder of a goat. The poet introduced the man as his father saying:" The best poet is the son of this man who is too stingy to even milk the goat lest a drop of the milk goes waste in the pot! And you can well see the rest. The best poet is the one who has taken pride in such a father for long years and has portrayed him as holding virtues such as generosity etc.!" Such has been the impact of the propaganda against us. They are propagating things that are against human values, the human intellect as well as international conventions. Through their propaganda they are introducing corruption into the world in most attractive forms.
Negative propaganda methods used by the West against us
As you know our revolution has inherently been the best and the greatest of all revolutions. The essence of this revolution has been Islam, Islamic ethics, human ethics, and the growth of man on the basis of human values such that even those who lived under the conditions prevailing during the previous regime have the opportunity of being transformed into the kinds of people who lived during the early days of Islam and made sacrifices along with the Prophet (s) in order to spread the Islamic teachings. However, we fell short in presenting our wares. Our enemies offered their lies to the world as the truth; and presented their worthless wares as valuable stuff while they propagated our truth as something horrific! When you had handed over some evil people for trial and the courts pronounced the death sentences for them because of the long years of oppression they had committed over this nation- some of whom had even indulged in murders while others had ordered killings or were deviated in other ways- despite being aware of the internal truth about Iran, these foreign propaganda machines began to portray that Iran was indulging in a killing spree! It was not that they did not know that those who were sentenced to death here were actually beasts, murderers, and criminals; they knew very well what kind of people these agents of theirs were. And it was because of those very qualities that they had chosen them for their jobs. Yet when it comes down to propaganda, Iran is portrayed as a criminal, savage, and uncivilized country by them. All their own stuff is portrayed as good. Take for example Saddam's speech at the Ta'if conference, which according to sources lasted for eighty minutes, in which he covered up all his own crimes and portrayed himself as a well-wisher of the Iraqi nation and the Arab world, introducing his government as blameless. Even those who were present at that conference, some of whom are also the agents of the same sources from whom Saddam takes orders, supported his stance portraying that all his crimes against our country, our nation, our children, our aged, and our young ones as" progressive move" to the benefit of Islam and the Arabs! Yet, most unfortunately, because of all the turmoil created at the hands of the anti-revolutionary sources as well as all the anti-Islamic acts that are committed at the hands of the deviated elements falsely alleging the Islamic Republic, we have not been able to introduce our noble reasons for staging this revolution and ousting the previous regime. We have not been able to express what we are working toward and what the aims of our nation are and what we stand for.
If only the corrupt people from within as well as their external counterparts gave us some respite and if those crooked anti-revolutionary elements gave this country and this Islamic Republic an opportunity, this nation would be able to revive Islamic justice in Iran for the first time in the history of this country. In the name of Islam and in the name of freedom, they committed cruelty and oppression; and under the farce of freedom for men and women they indulged in indignities and treated our women in a manner that the Mongols treated their enemies. We have been unable to inform the world and those who either know little or nothing about the conditions in Iran and about what we have to say and what we stand for. Unfortunately, there are also some deviated or ignorant elements inside our own country that intend to introduce this revolution as a corrupt one. We have also had some people from whom we had other expectations mention that the Shah's regime was better than the present one;" religious" people who are far from the realities of the previous regime. Just because a few deviated people have approached them claiming that they have been wronged, unaware of the truth and not out of any malice, they have said that the previous regime was better! If we do not take quick measures, we will face great problems at the hands of the internal forces that have picked up their pens to defame this revolution, whether deliberately or out of ignorance. And despite the fact that our nation had witnessed everything with their own eyes, gossip-mongers spread that the previous regime was better than this one! This reflects our weakness in the area of propaganda. They rely upon the big powers and their grants for their propaganda. On the other hand, despite knowing that we are in the right we have neglected propagating our truth. They are busy propagating against us and the Islamic Republic. At times, they resort to writing or speaking against the Islamic Republic in the name of Islam while at other times they directly target this Islamic Republic without referring to Islam. They spread fresh gossip all over the city each day. We have been unable to even propagate our views within the country. We also have to admit that the message of our revolution has spread abroad on its own strength and we have not really had any role to play on this front. The Islamic nations abroad that have become acquainted with the happenings of this revolution did not come to feel passionately about our revolution because of any powerful publicity on our part. The message of the revolution spread almost naturally and those who did not harbor any bias or prejudice have, to some extent, come to understand what you and our nation stand for. They have recognized that our aspirations are not different from those of the other nations; both, the oppressed as well as the Muslim nations of the world. It was not as if we succeeded in propagating our message powerfully; we just sat and watched the truth spread on its own strength. In fact, we did not do our duty well. If we had, right at the beginning of the victory of our revolution, sent out the groups that we are sending abroad today our case in the foreign world would have been quite different. The biased foreign governments would not have been able to propagate all the negative stuff about us so freely. If we had taken the precedent in conveying to the world the audacity of Iraq and its attack on us and if we had sent our representatives to the different parts of the world to inform everyone about what this savage was doing to our people and to these lovers of Islam, today none of the foreign governments would have been able to spread so much negative propaganda about this nation. All this is because we failed in this area. On the other hand, this world-famous Saddam promptly sent out various groups to all the Muslim countries and many other non-Muslim nations and propagated against us and gave a distorted picture regarding this imposed war against Islam and against humanity claiming that it was Iran who started the war! However, all well-informed people despite all the attempts of the foreign mass media have realized the truth and have declared that it was Iraq that had attacked us without any warning. The very fact that they have the audacity to make such false claims against us reveals that we have not been able to present our case to the world powerfully and have not effectively propagated the foreign aggressions against us. Well aware of the lack of knowledge among most people of the world, these forces started propagating against us and introduced us as the aggressors. Our only intention, however, was to defend ourselves. All that we are facing is owing to our weakness in the area of propaganda and the fact that they managed to present their own lies powerfully as the truth while we even failed to spread what was true.
Defending the Islamic republic against negative propaganda
If what our honorable authorities have embarked upon now- and may Allah grant them success- had been done immediately following the revolution, we would have been saved from a lot of trouble. If only some internal elements from among our writers and orators would carefully refrain from aiding foreign propaganda and if only they would refrain from supporting the crimes of others! If only they would harness their pens for the cause of Islam, Allah, the Islamic country, and the Islamic nation!
They really need to check the flow of their pens instead of instigating people to bad-mouth the government. As if they are not active enough, they call upon others to confront and to swear at the Islamic government. They want others to go around saying that the Islamic Republic is not Islamic by any means and that the government bodies of Iran are all non-Islamic! They surely need to pay more attention to their responsibilities instead of defaming our Islamic system. No one is claiming that we are not facing any problems. There are also some corrupt people who have infiltrated all the government offices, the committees, the courts of law, as well as other places and are misusing their positions in order to defame the Islamic Republic; therefore there is no denying that there are occasional mishaps. But why are they overlooking all the good work that has taken place here? Only yesterday, one of the members of the Majlis was pointing out to the places of corruption- based upon his own information sources- totally ignoring all the countless centers of corruption that have been eradicated from this country as well as all the service that has been rendered to this nation and to Islam. They either ignore these services or else they present a distorted image of everything, blaming all the crooked activities of some corrupt individuals upon Islam and the Islamic Republic. These people should take a break and they should give their own actions a good thought; and they should instead be defending the Islamic Republic failing which it is bound face a setback because of the endless external and internal misrepresentation. You do believe yourselves to be part of this nation and you are committed Muslims, too. But do not forget that there are baseless grievances all over the place that you need to ignore. You have not faced any harm at the hands of Islam and do wish that Islam gets established in this country. So work toward this cause instead of blowing small matters out of proportion and distorting the image of the Islamic Republic in the world.
An honest and fitting representation of the Islamic Republic
I pray to Allah Almighty to grant success to you and to all those who wish to serve Islam. Keep in mind that the best means to make this revolution successful within the country and to spread its message abroad is an honest and unexaggerated representation. What we have to offer to mankind does not call for any kind of exaggeration. You should work toward confronting all the negative propaganda that the others have spread about our cause as well as all the lies they have spread against us. You should also spread the message of Islam as well as the vision of our nation- may it always be kept alive- exactly as it is. Our embassies should take up this cause that has unfortunately been neglected thus far. They may have recently taken this on to some extent but there were also times when this area was totally neglected. In fact, there have also been cases in which the opposite was being done. All these things should be given due attention. You need to give importance and
priority to proper representation in order to foster certain aims and as preventive measures. May you all succeed increasingly in this great mission, God willing!
May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.