Speech [Refusal to oppression and struggle against oppression]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I thank the honorable ambassadors and the other gentlemen who are present here today on the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic nation and their grand revolution. I also felicitate all the oppressed nations of the world on this day that marks the beginning of liberation from the clutches and the subjugation of the dominant superpowers.

The nation of Islam follows a school of thought that can be summarized in two phrases:" Oppress not, and ye shall not be oppressed!" «1» Our nation has been subject to the tyranny and the oppression of internal and external powers through the course of history. Especially so in the last fifty years, in which it was the big powers that brought the previous regime to power; Rida Khan who was appointed by the British and Muhammad Rida who was brought to power by the Allied Forces. We had been subject to all kinds of force and oppression through these fifty years- oppression and cultural invasion, oppression and military invasion, oppression and economic and social invasion. In the past fifty years, we lived in a country that was under foreign domination through their local stooges. We have witnessed oppressions that would call for the penning of an entire book if only they were to be recorded in the annals of history. We were subjected to all kinds of religious and national oppressions; the oppression of women, the oppression of the youth, the oppression of intellectuals and the oppression of Islamic scholars, the magnitude of which cannot possibly be described in a day or two. Our nation staged their struggle when these pressures had reached unbearable heights. They gave many sacrifices during this struggle which lasted for more than fifteen years and rose in protest when the widespread oppression had become intolerable and they managed to eliminate that tyrannical puppet regime from their country at the cost of the lives of their youth and after facing great massacres. Similarly, they managed to cut the hands of those who plundered this country and carried home everything for free in the name of trade.

We simply wish to implement those two principles as per the guidance of the Prophet of Islam (s) and choose neither to oppress anyone nor be oppressed by anyone. We have been oppressed throughout the course of history; oppressed from all angles. Today, we choose neither to be oppressed any more nor do we wish to oppress anyone. Based upon the principles that have been imparted to us through Islam, we shall never encroach upon the rights of any country and nor shall we ever violate the rights of any individual. However, it is also incumbent upon us to resist any kind of external aggression. Today, our people- women, men, the young and the old- are determined to rise up against all the oppressions that they have faced so far and are ready to sacrifice their lives for freedom, independence, and liberation from oppression. And we do have some moral expectations from all the nations and from all the world governments. If they are Islamic governments and follow Islam, then it is an Islamic injunction to neither oppress anyone nor to tolerate oppression from others. If they are the followers of Jesus Christ (`a), then he has never endorsed oppression. And if they are the followers of Moses (`a), then even he has never given any sanction to oppression and nor did he ever tolerate it. This is the message of the prophets (`a); this is the divine message that has come to mankind through the prophets (`a) who had taught that no one should ever become oppressive even to the slightest degree. And neither should they tolerate oppression. And the same applies to us who have tasted the bitterness of oppression. I have personally witnessed the oppressions that this nation was subjected to during the previous regime. The kinds of inhuman oppression that we were witness to during the ominous Pahlavi regime was not even inflicted upon animals! The savages that we were subjugated under did not have any regard for us or for our human dignity. These beasts murdered our youth under the worst kinds of oppression, torture, cruelty, and savagery. They even brought in torturers from Israel for training them. Today we have overpowered all those oppressions and our nation has overpowered that regime and all those internal forces that intended to exploit this country and to plunder its resources, including its human and its underground and land resources. They had plans to deprive us of all our resources for free. Our nation rose up and cut their hands off. And we will not lose our achievements at any cost whatsoever. If you examine the historical background you will realize that contrary to Saddam's hollow claims Iraq was a part of Iran. Ctesiphon, in fact, belonged to Iran, evidence to which claim is available even now in Ctesiphon as well as in Taq-e Kasra, «2» which is still present close to Baghdad. However, since we are the followers of Islam and since we honor international agreements, we do not ever intend to infringe upon even a span of the Iraqi territory which now belongs to Iraq. At the same time, we shall never concede even a single span of our own territory to others. Neither shall we oppress them nor shall we be oppressed by them.

The honorable ambassadors who are present here and who are witness to the crimes that are being inflicted upon us through Saddam's regime and who have heard and seen these aggressions through the various radio stations and the press should know that this regime has committed violations against our country. And these aggressions and violations should be compensated for and what is rightfully ours should be returned to us before we can decide upon what to do with him (Saddam). And let us also see how the world reacts to their violations. This person has committed violations against us and our country and against all international agreements; he has acted against all human ethics and has massacred a large number of people who were dear to us- our children, our youth, our old men and women- and has rendered many of them homeless. Moreover, for a long time now he has been expelling multitudes of Iraqi citizens, simply because their forefathers had once migrated to those regions from Iran, leaving them homeless. However, as per the demands of humanity and Islam we have accepted those people with open arms and have treated them just as we treat our own people.

We have a large number of captives from this war which they have imposed upon us but we treat them quite differently from the way others treat their captives. We have treated them like our brothers even if they have been torturing our POWs. In fact even our minister of petroleum «3» is under their torture presently, to the extent that according to the newspapers of the last two days, his life is in danger because of their torture and he could, God forbid, even lose his life. This is the same regime and the same person who spoke such nonsense in Ta'if and feigned innocence. And yet there is no one to hold him to account or to even ask him whether he is actually the oppressor who is portraying himself as a victim or whether he is a traitor proclaiming loyalty to the Arab nations! Is there no one to ask him whether the Iraqi nation even approves of him! Just let him loosen the grip over the Iraqi nation for a couple of days and then see if the people of Iraq even approve of him. The damned Shah of Iran also made such tall claims of support from the nation! And yet you all saw how much support he received from the masses! The same applies for the Iraqi nation. If only the iron grip is loosened then the world will see who supports this person. All Saddam's talks about strengthening pan-Arabism «4» are against the very essence of Islam. All the races- whether Arab, or Turk, or non-Arab- have their own place in our view, and not as implied by the Ba`ath party of Iraq, which demands that everyone should be Arab and not Turk or non-Arab. This is the same belief that Hitler held. He considered his own nation and his own race to be superior and we all have heard and seen what he inflicted upon the world. We will never oppress anyone and nor shall we ever be oppressed by anyone. All this talk about our plans to violate all the nations and all the governments is evil and is nothing but a false and malicious accusation that this criminal and his wicked party are laying upon us. We have repeatedly stressed that based upon the principles of Islam, neither will we ever oppress anyone nor shall we tolerate any oppression. Neither can we allow anyone to oppress us nor can we oppress anyone. And neither do we lust for even a span of anyone's rightful territory even if we may have the power to do so and even if we may have the power to overtake the entire world we would never think of doing so. Any kind of violation is against the principles and plans of Islam. And we will also never concede even a span of our land to anyone else. We have put Saddam right back in his own place and shall do so even more firmly.

May God's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you!