Speech [Importance of preserving the Islamic Republic; role of the clergy throughout history; treacherous plan of compromise with Israel]

At first, I would like to express my grief over the death of `Alamah Tabataba'i «2» which is a great loss to the Theological Seminaries and the whole community. I would like to express my condolences to you and the Iranian nation, especially theological seminaries. May God associate him with the servants of Islam and the saints and grant patience to his disciples and surviving relatives.

Before I come here I met Mr. Karroubi «3» who expressed his appreciation to those in charge of the Martyr's Foundation in all the provinces, to the government officials who know about these issues, and particularly expressed gratitude to the Iranian people who care for these issues. I also would like to express my appreciation and hope God will protect and grant health to you, dear youths who are at the service of Islam and the disabled youth who lost their health while serving Islam, I also pray to God to protect families of the martyrs, to grant you health and recovery, and to give all of us patience.

Of course, the Martyr's Foundation is one against which I have not heard any criticism up to now. Mr. Karoubi is a good servant for the martyrs and the disabled. I hope you will all be successful in increasing your service and consider these martyrs their families, the disabled and their families as part of your family and do your best to serve them, as this service is great. Rest assured that the Exalted God will reward you in both worlds.

In your presence and the presence of the nation, I would like to talk about domestic issues as well as issue concerning the region. On the domestic side, as one can sense and I have been informed, there is something going on to create discord among the nation. They have not so far been able to achieve success in any way. They took whatever measure: military action and attacking the country. They created war, created disorder inside the country, assassinated and carried out explosions. They realized that the nation has become firmer and would not retreat from the arena. Obviously, the nation should not leave the scene, because a nation which has risen up for the sake of God and Islam and has been able to materialize the Islamic system will not retreat by these plays and will fight tooth and nail this great treasure entrusted to it. After the enemy was disappointed with these different schemes was not able to gain something, it came to the conclusion that the best way was, which is widely practiced in the world, was to divide and rule. The enemy wants to create discord and the attempts to this end can be easily sensed.

I would like to point out some of these currents and warn the nation to stay alert. If they do not stay alert, it may get too late. I have been repeatedly informed of some of these currents that some youth and some uninformed persons have been deceived and they insult some maraji` (religious reference authorities). This issue has been noticed in different cities. You know that insulting the religious authorities will result in nothing but creating dispute among the nation, something that will not please God. I ask the entire nation to advise these deceived young adults whenever the see them. Anyone identifying these discord-provoking groups infiltrating their rank should report them to the concerned authorities.

Today, we need solidarity more than ever before. Today, we are suffering from all big powers who are plotting from inside and outside to bring the downfall of this revolution and undermine the Islamic Republic. Maintaining the Islamic Republic is an obligation for all; it is more important an obligation than protecting just one person, even if he is Imam of the Time, because Imam of the Time will sacrifice himself for Islam. All the prophets from the beginning of the world up to the last one fought for truth and God's religion for which sacrificed themselves. The honorable Messenger and his household made great sacrifices to protect Islam, that is a divine trust meant to teach individuals and serve them. Everybody is duty-bound to maintain it; that is, we are all duty-bound to keep it till the time when sufficient number of people are there to rise up to maintain it. Then others will not be duty-bound any more. Today, triggering discord, whatever it might be, and discord-generating acts under whatever name and with whatever incentive harmful to Islam and to the revolution.

In the same context, there is a current in progress to insult `ulama' and Friday prayer leaders in different cities. This is a current aimed at taking the clergy away from the people. If such a thing is realized, rest assured that we will be defeated, because the clerics in all cities are guardians of Islam and Islamic objectives, as they have always been.

If it had not been for the clergy, we would have known nothing about Islam. It was the struggle of the clerics, who are part of you, that has kept Islam so far. Whatever problem afflicting Islam, they were at the forefront and rose up. Sometimes, they were successful and at other times were suppressed. As far as I know and as far as I saw there had been different uprisings against Rida Khan and Muhammad-Rida all of which were triggered by the clerics; they all had started from there but because the nation was not united, they either did not succeed or were slightly successful. If you and our nation do not keep the clerics, you should know that our destiny will be similar to the destiny of the constitutionalism where the clergies did this job in the right way and curtailed the hands of oppression, but again because the nation was not united, because there was not any harmony among the clerics and because there was not complete obedience, they orchestrated the constitutional movement, but others came and turned it into a worse oppression in the name of which was a misnomer. They used to say that Iran had a parliament, a constitution, that they were constitutionalists, but dictatorship in its fullest sense governed us, whether at the time of Gajar which I remember- or after that at the time of Rida Khan which was the worst period that this nation experienced or at the time of Muhammad-Rida. You should know that they want to drive the clerics out of the scene and present a bad picture of the clerics to the people.

Just today morning and before I came here, one of the `ulama' from Isfihan came to me and complained about how the clerics are being treated. I do not whether he has been told the truth or not, but the obvious point is that they want to do without the clerics. You saw that prior to these latest republics, at the outset, something was going on to defile the clergies using lies and fraud. Mr. Beheshti- may God have mercy on him- was someone who fought for Islam and suffered. He was an active man, a scholar, a manager with discretion ability, but you saw how he was defamed in the country by the villains who drove the people away from him. Then came a time when the people woke up to the fact that Beheshti was not at fault. I am afraid that- God forbid- there comes a time when our nation wakes up and finds that the clerics have gone and the hegemony of the aliens is back and then there is no point in being sorry; just like what happened at the time of Imam Husayn- may God's peace be upon him- where the image of the prophet's son was projected in such a way that the people of Kufa who saw his father and his struggle competed to kill him and then they woke up and realized when Imam Husayn was not among them.

My fear is that you great Iranian people who rose up for the sake of God, who offered your youths for God, who made enormous efforts and who sacrificed everything for Islam realize that the thing which is happening will banish the clerics who are your servants, bring a tyrannical government in the name of Islam and Islamic government and in the name of the servants of Islam and cause all your blood and efforts go to waste. When Rida Khan came to power he beat his chest in mourning processions, went to religious theatres, walked around them and lit candles. When he firmly established himself, this indecent man worked to remove all traces of Islam. All over the country sessions to recall the tragedy of Karbala were carried out covertly. If there was any session it would be held at midnight and before the call for morning prayer. You should fear that if you do not thank God for this gift; namely, Islam and its unity and if you do not thank Him for the respect toward the saints of Islam, God might take away his gift and- God forbid- we will go back to where we were before and we will go back to past times. This is the point I want to tell to the Iranian people and to perform my duty toward them. You should stay alert about those groups that either have been deceived or are unaware or hypocrites who have infiltrated and want you to disintegrate you by creating different groups such as the followers of this religious authority, the followers of that religious authority, the followers of this crowd and the followers of that mullah. Gradually, they will do without the mullahs and take this victory away from you. This is the point I wanted to talk about.

I was informed of another point, that is disputes among the groups committed to serving Islam. In some countries these same groups have disputes with other groups that are committed to serving Islam too. I warn these groups wherever they are and whoever they are to be careful that the criminal hands of the aliens want to implant disputes in every way possible. If you want to serve Islam, you should be united in order to serve it. But if each one of you wants to work on your own, this will only give way to dispute. Rest assured that though this dispute among the committed groups is well-meant, it will get to a point where at one time- God forbid- it ends in armed war, and your enemies want just that. Well, I am sure that you are more alert than to get involved in such things, but I deem it necessary to remind you. We should discord everything that smacks of dispute and hypocrisy.

Right now you are being targeted from all directions of the world, that is, the revolution has projected such an image in the world that all the superpowers are afraid lest they lose the Islamic countries and other countries because of this revolution and this real image which draws the attention of all. That is why they try hard and with all their power to crush the center of this Islamic revolution and the best way to do this is from within domestic discord and internal strife.

Beware lest you and all Muslims be duped. They might come in such a way as to deceive the young by telling them that this Islamic Revolution is just like the one in time of Muhammad-Rida Shah and even worse and that the clerics do nothing except corruption. They deceive the young with such words. This has got to do with domestic issues which are important.

As far as the issues of the region are concerned, the most important things being discussed now are the plans brewed by America, Israel and their agents. These are the plans which the Islamic states and `Arab states want to impose on all. This plan does not have any positive point. And those who have imagined that this plan has positive points either have no idea about what is going on or have other problems. There is no positive point in this plan. Our country and our nation has offered all these martyrs and all these disabled, many of whom are present here- may God heal them- for Islam and we do not think of Islam as confined to Iran. Islam is everywhere. Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Hijaz, Syria and other places have the same Islam. We cannot think of ourselves as separate from other Muslims. We have suffered all these damages and offered all these martyrs, disabled ones and the homeless for Islam. We did our best for Iran simply because it is an Islamic country.

We cannot consider `Arabs and their destiny as separate from us. Similarly, we cannot consider their destiny as separate from ours either. Everywhere is Islam and we are all Muslims and we are part of them; therefore we are all duty-bound to preserve Islam everywhere. We are duty-bound to guide as much as we can. These Islamic countries are today thinking of this extremely harmful plan and want to have it approved. We must remind the Islamic nations and countries of what they are about to do. I declare this plan dangerous as far as this issue and Islam are concerned.

Those who presented this plan are either ignorant or under the influence of America and Zionism. The same is true about those who see any positive point in this plan. The only point is that Israel will be officially recognized. One of the objections to these proposals is that Israel will be officially recognized and granted security. If all the other points were positive with the exception of these two, these two points outweigh others." To be given security" means that Israel which for a long time has usurped Muslims' lands and committed genocides in Palestine, Lebanon, and other places, displaced Muslims, endangered their honor and lives and victimized them for its own corrupted purposes, should now be granted security by Muslims; that is, if anyone attack this tyrant, all Muslims and all the countries of the region are duty-bound to oppose him in order to keep Israel, the same country that has sucked, the blood of Muslims, killed and plundered them and done many atrocities against Palestine and Lebanon. Now we are all duty-bound to protect and reward it by providing its security. We should officially recognize the country which right from the start entered Palestine and Quds by force and did whatever it could by force. I mean `Arab countries should officially recognize this infidel and corrupt regime and reward it after all the crimes it committed. If by positive point, as some claim, is the article that states Israel should retreat to the borders of a certain war, this is a negative point. This means that Israel should continue seizure of all the places it has captured except a few places. This is like we strike peace accord with Iraq and accept that this part of Khouzistan is ours and that part theirs. This is one of the negative points; all other points are also in favor of Israel. This way Israel will rule over the `Arabs.

I warn Muslim nations, especially `Arab nations and Islamic armies and states that drawing this plan in a secret place way without awareness of the nations will only cause you to be enslaved by Israel. You will then be their slave to the end of your life and have to serve Israel and America handcuffed and blindfolded. As far as Islamic nations and `Arabs are concerned, there is nothing more disgraceful than accepting this plan which is completely against Islam. It is a disgrace to `Arabs to accept Israel as their master. I warn all that if this plan is passed, Israel will tomorrow take Medina and Mecca out of your hands.

O, Nation! Stay alert, wake up governments and oppose the schemed designed by this infidel and profligate man. America has masterminded this plan and is using every possible means to make them surrender. It has deployed its own Commandoes and army in the region. It has conducted maneuvers and demonstrations to intimidate the regional countries. If governments get intimidated, nations should stay alive and fear nothing. If we all get exterminated, it is better than being humiliated by Zionists and America. This is a long stride taken on American orders to humiliate `Arabs and Muslims. It is a disgrace to any `Arab to accept such humiliation just to secure little authority in the country and to gain some benefits. It will also be a disgrace to us if we keep quiet.

Such countries are either mindless of what is going on or deliberately committing an act of treason against Islam, `Arab nations and Muslims by passing this plan that is totally useless because nations are against it. There is no Islamic nation that accepts to be an agent of Israel and America. Suppose that governments pass this useless plan, nations and Muslims are against it. These countries should push this idea out of their mind just as they did before. They should do it now. That is to say, they should value their nations. What right does a Shaykh, a president, a king to govern a country and sacrifice a country for the interests of Israel? Governments should wake up. By passing this plan, they are burying themselves alive. From now on, the idea should not cross their mind that" we are government and nation has nothing to do with state affairs." You are nothing in the face of people. It is the people who should get things approved. Of course, we had this problem at the time of Rida Khan and Muhammad-Rida Khan who did not care about the nation. This mentality that `His Highness' was everything and others were nothing prevailed at that time. But the Iranian nation broke this mentality and made people understand that nation is everything and governments should act according to the inclinations and interests of the nation. Now, our government, our parliament and all military and civil organizations serve the nation. No one of them thinks of governing people and imposing its will on the nation. Other nations must do the same thing. There is no other way except rising up against this contract and crooked plan. Make sacrifices to doom this plan to failure. Assuming that they get the plan passed, people should oppose it. They should know that with their opposition, this plan would not be put into operation.

I beseech the Exalted God to wake up the entire Islamic nations, all governments and the youth. I send this message out to schools and universities in different countries.

These university-going youths, writers, speakers, scholars, army men and all of them should oppose this sinister plan aimed at enslaving the `Arab nations and handing them over to Israel. Whoever does not oppose it is a traitor to Islam. Know that if a nation is dead set against something, governments can not put it into effect. Today is not like yesterday when a government would do whatever damned thing it wanted to do. No, it must act in ways identical to the correct inclinations of the nation; it must be an agent for the nation, not master of the nation. He should not build a golden palace while his nation lives in poverty. May God enlighten all of us, all of you and all the Islamic nations. May God endow upon us a light of guidance so that all of us serve Islam, the Exalted God and obey the Messenger.

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