Speech [Influence of imported culture on the society]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

First, I would like to thank you the beloved youth for whom I have as much affection as a father has for his son and a brother has for a brother. I thank you for coming here so that I could see your radiant faces from close. Mr. Rida'i «1» informed me of some of your activities. Because the universities have reopened, and God willing, shall reopen, I would like to start from culture until I come to you; to see what foreign culture did to us and what we must do to counter it.

I shall start from the military; what imported culture did to the military and the rest of the government organizations, and among the masses and our population. The era of Rida Khan was an era when they would claim that the army was at its strongest and was stronger than at all periods. I shall mention a part of history, which I think none of you was present at that time, and felt the issues from close. When the British and Soviet Union armies- Russia at that time- were at war with Germany and its supporters, on their orders they built roads and railways beforehand in Iran in order that they could transit their equipment. Then at an appointed time, they- the British and Russian armies attacked Iran. As soon as, they entered the far-flung border areas, the army of Iran fell into disarray. At the borders, they first claimed that the army resisted for three hours, and when Rida Shah had asked- as is narrated- that why they had resisted for such a short time; they had said that they had told lies about the three hours of resistance, in fact they had fled as soon as they were attacked. At that time, it became famously known that the army, which issued a single communique that had no second one to it, was the army of Iran regarding this attack in which it issued a single communique that had no subsequent one to it. This was at the borders.

In Tehran, in those days, I was in Tehran and near this square close to the railway terminal; there I saw the soldiers that were based in the Tehran runaway from their barracks. Tehran was quiet, the action was only at the frontiers, and the news had reached that such a thing had happened. The soldiers had come out of the barracks and I saw one or two of them pursue a camel that was carrying a load and they were searching it to see if they could take anything worthwhile from it to eat. All or almost all the commanders packed their suitcases and fled; they ran away from Tehran; they ran away in order to get out or perhaps go abroad. Our army, which was spoken so much about that it was powerful, could only do this and likewise were its other police and gendarmerie forces that would only suppress the people. Rida Khan took over all the properties in the province of Mazandaran. All his strength lay in bringing pressure upon the people, upon the nation and especially upon the clergy, and to bully them. However, opposite those forces, although they were not at war with us and wanted to transit from here and occupy this place, yet they could only resist according to the first claim, for three hours, which was the first lie. While according to the second claim that was perhaps more honest, they did not resist at all and when they entered, our forces simply ran away!

This was the condition of the military and the condition of the gendarmerie forces at that time. This even those that served in the gendarmerie of Muhammad-Rida know and needs" no" saying that how it was then. The police forces of that time and the way the police officers behaved with the people. The police officers instead of maintaining security would either bully the people or rob them or take bribes and bring pressure on the people. This was the condition of our police and defense forces- or it was worse than this. Now, you must ask those that have depth knowledge of the situation.

Compare this with the situation now and with our dear Guards Corps, our army, our gendarmerie and our police. Why was it like that in those days; they were servile opposite the foreigners in that manner while now it is such that our youth face up to America and chant slogans and say" Death to America"?!

The point is that this transformation was brought about in the army; this transformation came into being in the Guards Corps. The youth, which before this Revolution were never thinking of fighting a war and being inclined towards combat and being in the military; they raise their head high among the people and protect the people. What is this? What is the difference between these two periods? The difference is in the culture. Our culture in that period differed from the language of our culture in this period. You should start from the university to the government offices, to the military, to the gendarmerie forces in that period and to all of these and to the teeming masses, the youth. You shall see what were the condition of our army and the rest of the strata of the nation and government; the legislative assembly of that time and the government of that time and see how all of these had been influenced by the imported culture.

We should investigate every subject and see whether it is in this manner. If a person is ill, he does not go to the physician until he feels ill. When he feels he is ill, then he consults to the physician. The physician also cannot cure the patient, unless he diagnoses the illness. When a society is ill, it is in this manner. Until the society does not feel it is sick, until it does not feel that it is needs to be treated, it does not think of consulting to the physician; it does not think of being treated. At that time, the society itself did not feel that it was sick; it would imagine that since we were healthy, our society was healthy. The shelter of His Royal Highness was over our heads! Our military would protect us and so forth. Because it did not feel the pain and if it did feel the pain, there was no physician around to treat this disease; rather those that were the administrators were not the physicians; they were criminals who instead of prescribing medicine, were prescribing poison to the people. They could not treat.

If our university were our own; if the university was not a university to imitate the imported culture; then its output would not have been what it was. Those who at that time graduated from the universities- however, I do not say all; there were exceptions but the exceptions were few- when they graduated, they would line up and flow towards England and France and lately, America. See what they trained in the universities! When they would go abroad and return, what they would turn out and what souvenir would they bring for us! Those who would graduate from the universities and had studied abroad and returned to Iran were the same individuals that would become the ministers and legislators of that time. What would these ministers and legislators of the former regime do in Iran? What souvenir would they bring for Iran? All their efforts would be directed at appeasing at one time England and later America. In those days, Rida Khan was at the head and next came Muhammad-Rida Khan; he too spent all his efforts to appease them because he saw that if he would not earn their consent; he would be destroyed. As he was selfish and wanted to stay in power, he was unconcerned with what happened to the nation; as long as he remained in power; it did not matter.

See what would happen to the resources of this country- right from its crude oil to the rest of its resources that praise be to God, is present in abundance. Crude oil was being exported more than in these days. What would Iran gain from it? What would the monarchy gain from it? What would the foreigners gain from it? Who would stand to gain? Those who wanted the benefits to return to Iran would bring back equipment or other things, armaments and ammunitions from America. In lieu of the oil money that we would pay them, they would create bases for their own selves. God willed that they should bring these things to build bases for themselves and thank God, it went against them. At that time, our universities were in the hands of a bunch of people who at one times were English and recently, very American, meaning that they inclined towards America to take orders. There was also a minority of decent people in the parliament or at the university- but they could not speak out and had no following. They would have to suffer in silence and see the crimes being committed in their presence.

It was the same with each one of the former organizations; you name them. Look at the parliament and see what an atmosphere this parliament had brought about in this country. See what a parliament that was named as" National Consultative Assembly of Iran" did to the nation! You all remember in these recent times this last subject that they ratified that those who were American citizens have arrived from America, are military personnel and are citizens of America must not be prosecuted here. This was ratified by the Consultative Assembly. Of course, they would also play games and they tabled a motion, which both of them rejected as was preplanned and so it was done. Our parliament was the one that made us subservient to America and the king rats «2» of our parliament! Our country also was the one that subjugated our country in that manner.

The military also, because the culture was an alien culture and it was the training and imitation of the foreign culture. They would do nothing except fill their pockets. It was not that, for example, we had a four-hundred thousand army and it was an army that was capable of offering resistance. The training was a training that deterred resistance. The comfort and welfare among them was such that it left no room for them to want to do something for the security of their country. In those days, the defense of the nation was the defense of the nation of Iran; was defense of the territory of Iran and so it is now. In those days as I mentioned there was absolutely no resistance, it was corrupt, and it became obvious that the army was ineffective while today you are seeing how these army personnel, these Guards Corps, this Basij are and how heroically they are resisting since the past two years or more; how these youth are resisting.

It is not the nationality that has made them such; was it nationality, and then they had it in them. These men that think these matters are from nationality are not aware. Had they been aware, they would not have been in this predicament. It is faith that has molded them. That revolutionary guard and that military officer who recites his optional midnight-prayers in his bunker; this military officer resists like a lion because it is for the cause of God. That military officer who drinks alcoholic liquors there and engages in gambling there for whom is he performing his duty? As soon as they see a revolutionary guard approaching, thirty-thousand of them surrender and become prisoners of war. Do you think that opposite this same Iraq that all the countries are supporting and the wretched sheikhdoms are pouring money to this criminal and also placing at his disposal unlimited weaponry from all over; do you think that if such a thing would have occurred in the former era- he with the circumstances at his disposal and our country in the circumstance that it was whereby the nation had nothing to do with these issues and only the army would be involved- would the army be able to resist even for a single hour? It was by the will of God that they did not think of it then meaning that it was also because the Shah had submitted to the Americans. They no longer had any reason to create problems for their own servant. Now, you are resisting since more than two years and the people are following you- women and men are backing you and are making efforts for your advancement. It is the culture of Islam that has brought this about and not the national culture and not the culture of the monarchy. Islam saved these youth from the beaches and entertainments that they created for them from the wells, which they had dug for them, gave them happiness, and enabled them to resist all the powers of the world and not show the slightest weakness. This culture made this possible.

God willing, after a few years, you will see the results of the Islamic university. Governments are formed from the university; legislators are molded at the university. The university is involved in the military; it has a hand in it. Culture has an influence on the army; culture has an influence on the common folks of the streets and bazaars. In those days when you would see the newspapers, they were newspapers, which were contrary to the interests of the country; and because they saw Islam as an impediment and they could not forestall it, they were opposed to Islam. During the reign of Rida Khan, you were fortunate not to have lived then for those who lived then were living in aguish. Sir, in the newspapers and magazines that was published then, they openly insulted the honorable Prophet and not a single soul protested! The poets, the writers and the intellectuals of that era had openly joined hands to demean Islam. However, there were exceptions but they were in the minority and could not say a word. The magazines in those days, God alone know what the magazines of those days did to the youth! The cinema, the theatres and the arts in those days had all joined hands to expel Islam from here and bring in America. God has been kind to us, has had mercy on us that this transformation took place. As long as, this issue is present, this transformation is present and remains, you should not be afraid of anything. The difference between you and them is that you are engaging in a holy struggle for the cause of God while in those times there was no talk of God at all. The logic was that" His Majesty had commanded; the command of God was the command of the Shah."

The reason that the clergy are crying out that Islam must be strengthened in a country; that the faith of the people must be strengthened is because they have seen what it is in places where there is faith and how it is in places where faith is absent. Now you yourselves have felt this. These same youth that are present now, their likes were also present in the past. It was not that we did not have the youth in the past. The youth were present in the same numbers except fewer because the population has increased at that time and the same number of individuals was present; the same people but what was the situation? If you would walk in the streets, it was the same immorality. This was an alien culture. It was either partying and so forth or women moving around naked among the people. If you would look at the bazaar, it was the same; it was the same; the situation was the same. When you would visit the schools; inside the universities, the situation was the same. On the walls of the universities, they would slander Islam and the honorable Qur'an.

Even after the Revolution, when the munafiqin and their likes besieged the university, they would write offensive remarks about Islam on the walls. When we stretch our hands to America and eat whatever it gives us and implement whatever policy it gives us and we shut our eyes and ears; when this is how it is then it becomes as you and we have witnessed.

God extricated us from this gutter and this deadly septic tank. It is He that raised you to the status of humanity, a status where you fight for the sake of God and to cause the objectives of Islam to advance. The likes of these holy warriors" mujahidin"; the likes of these youth of this era has not existed since the beginning of history until now. If at all they existed, they were few. From the era of the Prophet of Islam- may God's peace be upon him and his immaculate household- until the era of our Immaculate Imams- may God's peace be upon them- was the period of the growth of Islam. How much would the Prophet suffer at the hands of the people of his own land! How much did the Commander of the Faithful complain about them! How much has the Qur'an complained of those same Muslims! The Commander of the Faithful would complain of the same Muslims and the same people that were in his midst; he would go to the pulpit and implore for death! When the Commander of the Faithful was struck with the sword of that hypocrite he stated that," Verily, I swear by the God of the Ka`bah that I have attained righteousness." He said this because he had been released from the suffering at the hands of the people. He wanted to build an army, a division in the manner that was present in the past to defend Islam. How much agony he went through; how much he toiled; but they would not come forward!

Today, you have volunteers coming forward; volunteers who move towards martyrdom that go to face death. Today, you the Basij, the Guards Corps, the Komitehs, the army and the defense and security forces and the tribes are different from them. Now, they are different. You all are the aspirations of Islam. Islam is honored by your existence. Let them say whatever they want to in the foreign lands. Let them say in foreign lands that the people have reverted and the people have left the arena. When it is the elections- this recent election- initially they said in the foreign lands that the people would not participate; they would scare the people that if they participated, such and such thing would happen! Then when they saw that they participated, now they are saying that it was rigged. Whatever such thing happens one says to the other that it was rigged. They want to make us doubt our credentials. When we say that it was so and that the people were present in the arena, they say `no', the people are not at all present in the arena. When the universities reopen, they say no the people are not going! When the elections take place, they claim that no such thing has taken place; it was a selection! The government forced the people to go to the polling booths! People are congregating in the university to recite the daily mandatory prayers! No, they were paid to attend! They say everything is a lie so that we doubt our analyses. This is how their situation is now.

If these people were human beings, [they would not have done such things]. Truly, one regrets that some individuals that could have been human beings; that could have been useful; that could have been useful for themselves; could have been useful for their country have done such ignorant things; have behaved in such an ignorant manner with all. They had not understood Islam at all. They could not comprehend the power of Islam; they kept on talking of nationality and kept on saying such things. Islam has caused them to forget everything and has enamored them. They have not understood; they have not understood the nation; they have not been able to comprehend the faith of the nation. They thought that they would serve others so that they would attain their worldly objectives; but they themselves also gained nothing. They presumed that finally, America would return and thus they should establish a foothold for themselves; some of them are perhaps commissioned to act on their behalf; but there is no America any more! As long as these people are alive, there is no America any more! Now if at a point in history- God forbid- something happens and Iran forgets the humanitarian scenes; that is beside the point. However, God willing, these matters shall stay and shall remain valid. They are the losers and there is another group upon whom they are bringing misery. They should not do this any more! These youth should forsake these matters! They are seeing that it cannot be done any more; they know that these deviant elements cannot come here and form a government! Whom do they want to govern? Whereas they know that well, they can come and work like normal human beings and repent; return to their previous jobs.

In any case, the thing that builds nations is proper culture. The thing that enriches the university so that it becomes useful for the nation; becomes useful for the country includes the ingredients that make up the university and it is not the academic lessons. Industry outside the sphere of faith brings corruption; knowledge outside the sphere of faith brings corruption;" If a man of learning becomes corrupt, the world shall be corrupted." «3» The greater the knowledge, the greater its corruption. The dwellers of hell are troubled by the stench of the man of learning. The man of learning that has faith is the one whom God praises; whom the Prophet praises; whom Islam praises. If faith is not present beside knowledge, the knowledge will be harmful. If knowledge is present in a country in which there is absence of faith, it will destroy that country and make it to reach a dead-end. We had so many specialists in all fields of study in the former regime; yet what did these specialists do for the nation? Except that they kept on pushing the nation backwards; kept on making it more dependent; everything became dependent; you name it and they would say that we must go to Europe to get it. They knew well how to make pitchers; they would take us in order to teach us; they would not teach us. They would take away our youth and corrupt a group of them and teach them something inadequate. They would leave them to themselves midway. They repeatedly took us for a ride; they repeatedly took our country for a ride; they repeatedly gave false promises to our nation saying that they wanted to reach us to the great civilization! When they left, we saw that there was no great civilization at all; they made us dependent to the extent that all our things were dependent on others. They took away all our wealth. When these people went away, they plundered all the banks here; they went away and left behind such huge debts to the banks. It requires long years of hard work for Iran itself to pay off the debts accumulated by the fugitives to these banks. This was because the culture was not a religious culture; there was no faith in the society; there was no faith in the business place; there was no religion on the street; there was no religion in the university. Whichever place was more influential, they would bring greater pressure over there. The clergy- except a very few of them were aware of the issues that was of concern at the dawn of Islam- remained in their own places. They could not cause them to deviate; hence, they would eliminate them; they would imprison them; they would banish them; they would kill them. They killed a number of eminent clerics during the reign of Rida Khan. They banished them from their hometowns and kept them at far off places. They took away the theologians of Azerbayjan and relocated them. They imprisoned the theologians of Mashhad and brought them to Tehran. In Tehran itself, one of the biggest theologians of that place- I saw with my own eyes- who had permission to come out of his home up to a distance, he would sit and people would come and go but no one dared to greet him. In addition, this same person who was one of the first rate theologians of Mashhad- the late" Aqazadeh Bozorg" «4» who was a first rate theologian was taken for prosecution in the street and they finally killed him.

This nation was that same nation but why it did not protest? This was because the foreign culture would not permit. When the youth would open his eyes and look at the magazines, he would see that it all contained sexual matters when he would read the newspaper, it would contain either diatribe against the clergy or foul language against the priest or Islam or such matters. The child was reared to grow-up into an anti-Islam, anti-national, and anti-religion individual. If the Blessed and Almighty God had not had mercy on this innocent nation, then the dreams that they had dreamt was far beyond these matters. One of the two issues that had taken place towards the end was the marriage of the son of a colonel with the son of another colonel! The marriage of a boy with a boy! This was one of the subjects that had started lately. Later on, too, if they had been given the opportunity, this would have become commonplace such as in other places. Prostitution was rampant on the streets in Shiraz! «5» They had dreamt many plans for us. Then it was the issue of the beaches, which those that had gone there had witnessed or heard about, and the matter of the cabarets, pubs, and casinos that existed throughout Iran. There was no talk of Islam at all.

God had mercy on you and transformed you. He saved all our youth from that gutter and placed us in an Islamic-humanitarian environment that is resisting both the East and the West and is least concerned about the advances that they have made. You should know this that it was always in this manner and it has always been the endeavor of the colonialist to cause the people to fight one another; and always wanted to cause a military coup within the country itself; they have always attempted to create differences in the country. They shall not leave us to ourselves; our nation should be alert! Our military should be awake! Our Revolutionary Guards should be alert! Our Komitehs, our mobilized `Basij' volunteers, our tribes must all be alert! They should know that if there is a murmur of differences arising, it is a specimen of creation of a problem. With the opening of the universities, these youth must be aware that there are certain elements at work to cause you to deviate and project things in a different light. When for the first time you see a professor or a student showing deviant tendencies, you should report them at once in order to nip them in the bud.

I hope that the Blessed and Almighty God grants you dear people that are the beloved of Islam; that are the beloved of the Prophet of Islam; that are the beloved of the Imam of the Time, the favor to endeavor earnestly in the path of Islam, in the part of your homeland. May that `Basij' that is for learning is also for the religious education and learning of the Qur'an and book as well as for military education and so forth; that the country becomes a disciplined and divine country. A country that becomes such can be immune to the greed of others because they know that the harm is more than good from it.

Look at Afghanistan where its communists, its government were opposed with the people. This very group of people that belonged to the nation and belonged to Islam- they follow the path of Islam- this very people have resisted since more than one year causing the Soviet Union to repent for what it has done. One of those that had fled from the armed forces of the Soviet Union mentioned that so far thirty thousand military personnel of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan have been killed. They are seeing that it is not possible to oppose a country whose people want something. Now there their government was also in their favor and the political party was supporting them. Here we neither have a party that is opposed and nor a government that is in opposition and nor a parliament that is in opposition- none at all. What should they come here for? Every street that they pass through- they must cross from beyond the clouds. Ultimately, it is not possible to occupy a country and exploit a country from the heavens; it requires land and they cannot find it.

God grant you the favor to strengthen your faith- the faith of all of us. May God willing, the faith of all of us be strong so that our devotion to the Blessed and Almighty God increases day by day and the unity of our expression and our congregation that is at the head of all affairs increases in matter related to the safeguard of the country, God willing.

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