Speech [Iran's stand in the Iraqi-imposed war and the need for an unyielding confrontation with the aggressor]

I thank you gentlemen for coming to Iran and witnessing the conditions of this country from close quarters; and if time permits and if you are interested, you could even identify the oppressor from the oppressed and the aggressor from the aggressed. If I had to relate all the problems that Iran has and is still facing as well as the atrocities that this nation has undergone, even very briefly, it would cost me my health and would be too time-consuming for you. However, I will share a few of our problems with you and am hopeful that the Muslims and especially the Muslim leaders will go beyond mere lip-service to Islam- which is a cover-up for not abiding by Islamic principles- and will instead contemplate and act upon the true message of Islam. The problem of the Muslims and the oppressed Muslim nations, thus far, has been that their leaders have not gone beyond paying lip-service to Islam and have pursued their vested interests under the cover of Islam. I am hopeful that the Muslim nations and especially their governments will shift from lip-service to wise action and will seriously think about putting Islamic and Qur'anic principles into practice.

You are visiting a country that has faced 2,500 years of suppression and suffocation and has been crushed under the boots of unjust monarchs under the pretext of justice, civilization, and humanity. You are visiting a country whose oppressed peoples chose to liberate themselves from the pressures of tyranny and subjugation and to gain freedom and independence after facing long years of suppression at the hands of the stooges of the superpowers of the East and the West in the name of Islam and under the pretext of progress. The whims and fancies of these stooges of the superpowers did not permit this nation to breathe freely. You are visiting a country that has given about sixty thousand martyrs and which has more than a hundred thousand war-injured people and nearly fifty thousand families of which have lost their bread earners. You are visiting a country in which more than one and a half million people have been rendered homeless because of the imposed war. You are visiting a country that has been attacked by the tyrannical stooges of the superpowers who have violated our borders without any prior notice and have cruelly occupied some of our cities, killing many of our youth and taking some of them as war captives. You are visiting a country whose only crime is that it wants to serve Islam and wants to return to the principles of Islam and to sever the hands of the big powers that were active in this country much against human and Islamic principles and to overthrow a despotic regime and to establish a government of its own choice and to live according to the tenets of Islam. The superpowers that do not want the Muslim nations and governments to unite and who fear the consequences of solidarity among the one billion world Muslims have attacked us from all sides; military attacks, coup d'etats, and recently an imposed war through a stooge by the name of Saddam Husayn. You have come to a country whose oppressed peoples are facing atrocities at the hands of a cruel tyrant. You should not refer to any antagonism between the two nations of Iraq and Iran because these two nations share brotherly relations and both these nations are against the Iraqi government. If you really want to go beyond lip-service to Islam, you should come and witness what has happened to our cities, our youth, our women, and our children. You should take a look at our ruined cities that are clear evidence of their crimes. If you as well as the Islamic governments wish to move from lip-service to Islam to wise action according to the principles of Islam, the need of the hour is to move beyond personal whims and fancies as well as tyranny and to unite together.

If you stay here for some time and clear your ears of all the negative propaganda that has been spread about Iran a little and if you see the real Iranian situation for your own self and if you observe the aims and objectives of the Iranian government and the nation, you will come to know whether their call is indeed for Islam or if they are actually only after the promotion of" Persian nationalism" and wish to bring down" Arabism"!

You and all those who were present at the Ta'if Conference listened to Saddam for eighty minutes. In all those eighty minutes, he did not even spend a single minute speaking about something that would win divine approval. Even if he mentioned the name of Islam it was the Islam that has been presented to him by America and Europe and not the one that has emerged from Medina and Hijaz. You spent eighty minutes listening to his absurdities and while his army is busy massacring people in our country he spoke about Iran being the aggressor; and yet, not one of you asked him for any proof regarding his claims of Iran being the aggressor. Are we engaged in war in the Iraqi territories or are we defending our Iranian territory? And if we are merely defending ourselves within the boundaries of our own country, then it is indeed Iraq that is the aggressor. If we have attacked Iraq even once, then we are partners in this aggression. But when we are only defending our national rights, Islam, the rights of the Iraqi peoples, and the Muslims, in that case, the Ta'if Conference should not stay silent. You should not relate to this whole thing as a war among two nations because the Iraqi nation despises the Iraqi government even more than the Iranian nation does. This corrupt regime has exterminated Islamic scholars, youth, elderly people, and even the children of the Iraqi nation. If you are concerned about the Islamic stance then you should refer to the Qur'anic verses and should act upon the holy verse that says," And if two parties of the believers quarrel, make peace between them; but if one of them acts wrongfully toward the other, fight that which acts wrongfully until it returns to Allah's command;" «1» that is, if we can even consider them to be Muslims in the first place! If you only act upon this divine obligation, we shall not have any other expectations from you. And if you are short of time, then send your representatives to the borders that are under their aggression and get them to witness the situation first-hand; send them to the graveyards that they have built for us and let them witness the graves of our martyrs as well as their homeless families and let them witness the oppressed people from the west and the south of Iran and let them see whether we have been the aggressors or whether they have attacked us. If you conclude that we have been the aggressors, then you may wage a war against us and if you conclude that they have been the aggressors, then you could wage a war against them. It is meaningless to talk of peace between Islam and kufr. No Muslim should think that any peace between Islam and disbelief or between the Muslims and the disbelievers is ever possible. The divine command should be acted upon. We should all follow the Noble Qur'an.

Do you think that the Iranian nation today is under a despotic government that can make peace with someone whom the nation opposes? Do you think that this country is governed by a despotic president who can negotiate with anyone he chooses and can take any actions against the will of the nation? This country is governed according to a national consensus and it is the nation here that has the government in its own hands. The nation has elected these government bodies and it is not permissible or possible for any of us to go against the will of the nation. If your mission is to put an end to this war- which is the desire of all the Muslims- then you should put the aggressor on trial and punish him. You should compel the Iraqi troops that have occupied our country to leave and you should order Saddam to withdraw from our country and his army to stop its aggression. After putting an end to this aggression, an international commission should be formed in order to survey the crimes that have been committed; and if we are found to be the aggressors, they can take action against us but if Saddam is the aggressor, they should take action against him. This is what Islam demands.

Islam has given us very precise laws and has commanded us to remain united and to avoid dissension. «2» We should go beyond mere lip-service and should actually get united. We should not limit ourselves to merely organizing gatherings and seminars that bear no substantial results. Take a look and see for yourselves if this conference that was held in Ta'if made any difference for the oppressed peoples of Iran, Palestine, or Lebanon. What was done there for the Muslims? Is it enough for us to simply collect together, claiming to be Muslims and claiming to be the supporters of Islam? Such loud claims were even made by Muhammad Rida and they are also made by Saddam as well as those who are illegally dominating and oppressing Islam and the Muslim nations. But if you sincerely wish to check out the facts for yourselves and if you have come here to bring an end to the war, then you should sit in judgment and should visit the border cities for yourselves and you should examine the stances of both sides and you should give an ear to what both nations are saying. You should check for yourselves if the Iraqi nation even approves of this government. You should also check if the Iranian nation approves of its government, its President, its Prime Minister, and its Majlis. And if you find that the local government bodies have the approval of the nation then they are legal governments. And if they do not have public support then they are illegal. And if the claims made all over the world about democracy and human rights are genuine, they should not recognize such governments as legal. We are prepared to allow you come to our country and hold a referendum under supervision to check whether our nation approves of this government, this Majlis, as well as this President. You should also somehow manage to take a trip to Iraq and hold a similar free and fair referendum, if possible, and then check for yourselves whether the Iraqi nation, too, approves of its government and whether they approve of their so-called" President". Then sit in conference. And if you find that their nation does not approve of their President, then know that neither do we and nor does anyone else in the world approve of him, except for a small group that is supporting him, like America and the Soviet Union.

Failing this, all your conferences will bear no fruit and all our talks and your talks will not lead to anywhere concrete. Everyone should truly and sincerely seek refuge under the banner of Islam but not in the form of mere lip-service. And if we truly unite under the banner of Islam then we will be able to serve all our common interests. But if all this remains as a dry formality- some day in Ta'if, some day in Tehran, and some day in another place- then it will go on endlessly and the Muslims will continue to remain under foreign pressure. And we and you will remain under oppression forever. We will succeed in liberating ourselves and our one billion-strong nation along with all our natural resources from the oppression of the big powers only when we realize the true message of Islam and when we discover our true identity and follow the commands of Allah. God Almighty is bound to grant us victory if we obey His commands. The Qur'an says:" If ye help( the cause of )Allah, He will help you and will make your foothold firm". «3»

May God's peace and mercy be upon you.