Speech [Importance of the role of the university in the independence or lack of independence of a country]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Although I had no plans to speak on Saturday, since you gentlemen are academicians and have spoken on the affairs of the university and the" cultural revolution", I therefore, will say a few words.

The most important thing that the enemies of the oppressed countries and the Muslim countries and the enemies of mankind have pinpointed is the university. This is because they know very well that if they manage to influence the university of a country, the entire country can fall into their hands. It is the university that runs the affairs of a country. And it is the university that trains the present and the future generations and if the university falls into the hands of the plunderers of the East and the West, the country falls into their hands. Nothing else has been their target more than the university. The clergy, too, is like the university in this regard. They wanted to introduce the academicians into society with an Eastern or Western upbringing. And since they could not succeed in gaining control over the clergy, they wanted to eliminate them from the scenes. They were neither interested in the university nor in the seminaries. Their attempts were focused on these two groups in whose hands lies the entire future of a country and they tried to groom one of them under foreign and Western or Eastern training before bringing them on the scenes while they tried to eliminate the other from the scenes because they could not manage access to their grooming and could not influence them even after a thousand years of effort. They tried to do everything to eliminate the clergy from the scenes while they put in all their efforts to gain control over the academicians. One of their main conspiracies was to make these two groups cynical toward each other. During these long years, they tried their best to cause a rift between these two groups and to breed animosity between them. If we were to visit a university, even the mention of a" cleric" would bear the same connotation as a narcotic drug. And within the clergy, the term" academician" meant someone" irreligious". They instigated these two groups to each other's throats so that they could misuse the situation to their advantage. It was not without reason that through these fifty years during which they were in power, they did not allow even a single university that could work for the welfare of the country and that would churn out human beings and scholars to get established in the country. I do not say that they succeeded completely but they surely tried their best to gradually succeed in ensuring that all the graduates either worshipped the East or the West! Once they can succeed in doing this to the university and in severing off the ties between the clergy and the university, they are bound to hold the reins of the destinies of all the countries in their hands.

They pinpointed the universities and tried to gain control over the university with all their might. And to attract individuals that were inclined toward the East and more toward the West. And to convert the academicians to their own advantage while sidetracking the clergy. To make the clergy ineffectual and to bring the academicians under either the Eastern or the Western influence. We and this revolution, too, should tap this same sensitivity. Top priority should be given to the cultural and academic revolution just like they did through these last fifty years. Following the Revolution, too, those who cared for their country as well as Islam put their finger on that same Achilles' heel and similarly demanded a cultural and academic revolution. And you saw for yourselves how those people whose Mecca was Moscow or America started opposing the move, calling it a reactionary step. Then they started making accusations like" these people are against knowledge and expertise" and that" these people wish to teach how to perform the dry and wet ablutions in the university", oblivious of the fact that if such kind of propaganda did bear any fruit during the past days, they no longer did so, after the Revolution and awakening of millions of the Iranian masses. The people now know very well that when you use the word" reactionary", what you are implying is for them to leave you all free to be" progressive" and to drag our country into the arms of the West or into the hands of the East or the communist bloc. When they refer to the term" reactionary", they mean the Muslims and the people who care for Islam and their country and by" progressive", they mean those who wish to drag the country toward the East and the West and the only way they can achieve this is by dragging the university toward the East and the West.

Oppositions started from the very first day that the talks of a cultural revolution began. If you only took a look at the groups that had opposed this issue and those who insisted on reopening the university before the necessary reforms, you will find that they are all either the supporters of the West or the East. You were and are aware that right from the beginning of the Revolution, pens and words and groups gradually started working against the Revolution and they opposed every step that the Revolution wished to take in the direction of reform. As and when any talks of the university came up, those very people who had turned the university into a center of corruption and whose Mecca was toward the East or the West, were opposed to any reform in the university. Their fear was lest the university turned Islamic and the hands of the East and the West get severed from the university- or in other words, from the country- forever. Those who wish and wished to give an open hand to the East or the West and found personal advantage for themselves in the same, tried with their pens and words to condemn reform and revolutionary activities in the universities. And if you saw which groups opposed and are still opposing this step insisting on reopening the universities under its same earlier conditions, you will find out what they are up to. We can recognize people from the suggestions they have to make for this country.

Those who opposed the Cultural Revolution busied themselves with spreading propaganda like" these people want to close down the universities forever and do not want any university to function". A group from among them comprised the same people who had turned the university into their fortress and had fought their battles from there. Another group comprised those West-infatuated people who saw the Islamization of our university, our youth, and our scholars as going against their own objectives and, thus, accused them of being" reactionaries". For them, all those who refuse to lean toward the East or the West are" reactionaries" because they considered the East and the West better. They only wish for the elimination of Islam, irrespective of what replaces it. All they want is the elimination of an Islamic upbringing from our universities, no matter what else replaces it. They do not want the university and the seminaries to ever unite together because this could result in the Islamization of the universities and will eliminate all the bad blood that they had spread over the years between the academicians and the students of Islamic sciences. If this cynicism had to disappear, and once the university had to work actively alongside the seminaries, the hands of all those who look toward the East and the West would be severed. Therefore, they tried and are trying with all the might to cause rifts and bad blood between these two groups. Once these two groups get distanced and cynical toward each other, they can get a free hand to carry on with their activities. They have still not given up their main objectives. Even today, the group that wants the universities to reopen without any amendments and as it is, and as they prefer it to be, and within the same previous conditions, comprises the same people who have lost their souls to the East and the West. They wish to sacrifice their own nation either to the Eastern bloc or the Western bloc.

The university should remain aware and alert about these conspiracies. And our beloved university youth should remain alert over this issue that the university of a country can be the cause of the uplift or destruction of its nation. The university and the academic training can drag our youth either toward the West or the East and alienate them from their own identity and infatuate them with the West and the East until the East gains domination over every aspect of Iran and the land of the Muslims or the West gains domination and robs us of our culture and everything else, replacing it with an Eastern or Western ideology and dragging the country to destruction.

However, our nation has awakened with the grace of God and will never give their consent to matters that will serve the interests of the East and the West. Our nation has now gained awareness on the fact that the university can either make a country independent or rob it of its independence.

Students and academic scholars should join hands and reopen the universities as soon as possible- universities with an Islamic and national identity and universities that truly belong to an Islamic nation- and sever the hands of all those who want to drag the university toward the East or the West. The Islamic teachers and professors should take the destiny of the university into their own hands and should ensure that the university proves to be a national university in service of national interests. It should not be that all the trouble is taken by the nation and all the expenses of the university are borne by the nation while it turns into a university whose graduates emerge worshipping the East or the West. The universities should reopen but with an atmosphere in which its teachings are Islamic, national, and human. We should not simply insist on its reopening without considering everything else. Well, it was open for the past fifty years. What kind of graduates did it churn out?! The same people who ruined this country and are still not sparing this nation. We want our universities to liberate our nation from the domination of the East and the West instead of dragging it toward them- an independent nation, with an independent ideology, with independent universities because it is the independence of the universities that ensures the independence of a country. Universities that hold hands with the seminaries and sidetrack the Eastern and Western blocs and instead work in the interests of their own country and beloved Islam and bring up our children in a way that they no longer need to look toward Moscow, London, or Washington as their Mecca. Let them look toward the Ka`bah and focus upon God Almighty and welcome Islam with open arms because only Islam guarantees their independence and dignity.

The importance that Islam gives to knowledge is probably not given by any other school. The importance that Islam gives to scholars is probably not given by any other school. Islam gives the utmost importance to knowledge but not the kind of knowledge that drags us to ruin and not the kind of scholars that drag us into the arms of the East and the West. Islam strives to foster knowledge within independent minds and minds that serve Islam. Such independence can ensure the independence of our country. The independence of our country depends on the independence of the universities and the seminaries. The university and seminaries should join hands and protect the independence of their country. They should cut off all their hopes from both the Islamic universities and the seminaries. They should not pay heed to their objections to fostering harmony between the universities and the clerics. They are fearful even of the shadow of a cleric. Their plans are to keep the universities away from the seminaries.

They had tried for long years to foster a rift and animosity between these two groups that are the think-tanks of a nation and in whose hands lie the welfare, grandeur, and independence of this nation. All of us saw how these two groups had been turned into enemies until the Islamic Revolution following which Islam held out its invitation. Islam invites all groups to unity and especially the universities and the seminaries. And as long as these two groups remain united, your country's independence is guaranteed.

Both the universities as well as the seminaries should open their eyes and know that there are still hands at work trying to cause rifts between these two groups. The imperialists and their followers and all those whose Mecca lies in London, Washington, or Moscow see a unity between these two groups as a threat to their own interests and, thus, try to keep them apart. As you all saw, the fifty years of the ominous Pahlavi rule that had proved its dedication to foreign powers fostered rifts and animosity between these two groups while the ill-wishers of this nation took advantage of the situation. The wealth of this nation during the last fifty years and especially during the times of Muhammad Rida was washed out. And all this happened as a result of the animosity between the universities and the seminaries. And if, God forbid, the earlier animosity between these two groups has to be revived, it will only guarantee the interests of the superpowers.

My dear academicians and my dear clerics! Stay alert since the enemies are trying their best to create rifts between you. And do not forget that if reform is brought about in the universities and the seminaries, the independence of your country will be ensured. The Mecca of all those whose pens and words are trying to cause rifts between you two is either Moscow or Washington. Stay alert not to lose this great blessing of the unity between the universities and the seminaries. I am hopeful that you will succeed in managing the affairs of your country independently and that you will no longer need to stretch your hands toward the East and the West and that the mischief they create in our country, boomerangs back to them. May God Almighty help and support the seminaries, the universities, and the entire nation!

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