Speech [Importance of creating awareness in the downtrodden people of the world]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I extend welcome to the very beloved brethren of poets, theologians, intellectuals, and writers who have come here from various countries of the world. You are welcome to a country, which was crushed under the weight of the monarchial oppression in the course of history and the oppression by the Pahlavi regime in the past fifty years. You are welcome to a country that is being invaded with or without an intermediary by the big powers because it has arisen for the sake of Islam and wants Islam to rule over this country. You are welcome to this country that because it is opposed to the superpowers and their influence and has announced its opposition is being attacked by the enemies of Islam that has begun with Iraq- meaning the Ba`ath Party of Iraq- with the assistance of America and the help of almost all the countries of the world. A country that wants to establish divine justice in the world and initially in its center which is Iran so that everywhere there is Islamic rule and wants that the hands of the big powers be taken off from Muslim countries. You know that the big powers from the beginning of the Islamic movement of Iran until now- and especially in the course of the great Revolution of Iran- have opposed it with all their strength. They have caused disruptions, launched a military attack, and have helped the enemies of Islam in launching a military attack in certain regions of the beloved country of Islam, as sin of being Islamic. You are aware that right now a war is in progress between youth devoted to Islam and the men of the Ba`athist Saddam that have turned their backs on Islam. In addition to the big powers that see the danger to their interests in this country and the other Muslim countries and throughout the world and in the undeveloped countries, all of them have rushed to the aid of this Ba`ath Party of Iraq. An extensive military, financial and propaganda aid is being given to them. Our country is a country, which, we must say, has no protection except the Exalted and Glorious God. Nations who are on friendly terms with us and that strata of the downtrodden of the world that are acquainted with Islam and are interested in justice and human dignity are being pressurized by the governments that for the sake of enjoying a few days of worldly pleasures have put aside Islam and have arisen against Islam. They are bringing pressure on their own nations out of fear lest they also seek justice and seek humane culture.

Today, the duty of all of you sirs that have come from abroad- your poets, your writers, your orators- is that the poets should communicate the circumstances of this Revolution through their verses. If they can, they should express them in public gatherings and if they cannot then even in private gatherings so that it is safeguarded for future generations of which some of them are the infants who were born on the 22 nd of Bahman (February 11) and for those that come in the course of history. The people, the people of the world must be made aware; the downtrodden of the world must be made aware- we should make them aware of what tragedies have been inflicted on them and under what conditions they are living; those that are governing them are of what circumstances and what their financial circumstances are. Those that are of the Islamic governments are spending their resources in what manner and putting them in the pockets of whom at the same time that their nations are starving; their nations are poor and many of them have died of starvation. This is while they are submitting all their resources to the enemies of Islam instead of spending them on their own nations so that even if they spent a fraction of the resources that belong to their nation on them, they would have developed. The poets throughout history must write these matters in verses and awaken the people. If they can the writers should communicate the problems of Iran in their speeches and writings and in the gatherings that they attend in their respective cities and respective countries. If they cannot, they should record them in their books and treatises so that later when the people of future generations come, they see who their enemies are and who their friends are and what their obligations vis-a-vis the friends and the enemies are. If we are neglectful in our publicizing, if we are neglectful in speaking and writing and reciting and in all forms of writing and speech, we shall be indebted to the future generations. This is because it would be possible that with the writings of you dear writers and your verses they would have awakened and become aware about what all has passed on this nation in this period and what sufferings we have gone through so that they would undertake to find the solution. Today, we must find the solution, too.

All of you and all the oppressed nations know the pains; they know from where they are being harmed and who is dealing the harm to them and which regime is putting pressure on them. They must know the treatment so that so long as the world is afflicted with these criminals and those dependent on them, it shall see the light of happiness. We and you, who are all writers and especially the poets- for the language of verse is the most potent- must create awareness among the people, the present generations and the future generations. If we assume that it cannot be done in public gatherings, then we must start from private gatherings and start with those individuals with whom we are acquainted and inform them of a part of these problems, which has been inflicted on Iran; that has occurred. You must inform the people of the tragedies that have befallen during the reign of the previous regime- and perhaps many of you are aware- of the tragedies that have and are taking place in this period. You must inform them of the manner of struggle that has begun here from the start and that by the grace of the Blessed and Exalted God it has reached to this point and has been growing day by day- you must communicate to them this style of struggle. It is not necessary that it be a large gathering from the beginning; rather small gatherings and few individuals drop by drop can gather and form a sea.

We started from zero; Iran started from zero. At a time when everything of it was in danger and suppression was such that neither the wife could speak a word to the husband nor the husband could speak a word against the regime to the wife- from zero. Individuals that were and became aware started from zero and this zero gradually became large, and these drops gradually became big, took shape, and turned into clenched fists and that too without their being an organized body and without possessing a single weapon. The people under no circumstance had any weapons but they started from scratch and reached the stage where they grabbed the weapons from the enemies and gradually with their cry for Islam, many people from the army and many factions joined them and they are present even now and are serving. Among the nation, also a large group was mobilized and is being mobilized even now.

We are hopeful that Iran will have an army in proportion to its population; to the number of youth that it has. A national, Islamic and humane army that whenever required can mobilize several million individuals ready to serve. Other countries, too, that are aware; those that are concerned about the problems; those that are neither oriented towards the West nor the East; those that do not regard their interests to lie with the East nor regard their interests to lie with the West; those that regard the East and the West as plunderers, they must also begin even if it is from zero. In the same manner that it started from zero in Iran and for approximately twenty years, they constantly came forward and served and suddenly the Revolution came into being; an explosion took place. With the Revolution and the explosion, the regime that was armed to the teeth and was armed by them and all the big powers were backing it, yet when the ordinary people of our country were transformed into divine human beings and monotheistic individuals, the regime was defeated and following it also the hands of America was cut off from this place and the hands of all the great powers was cut off from our resources. At this time when you are here, we are doing our job; our government is doing its job and the task of Iran in a befitting manner, is restarting the factories, and is solving the problems it is faced with one after the other. In a span of four years, we have all the things that an independent country must have. All this was at the same time that we were always under pressure and were always facing economic sanctions and military sanctions. Do not despair of God; know that God is present and the power of God is active everywhere. Refer to the advent of Islam when a complete single person who in the sight of the faithless was weak and downtrodden, arose and created a revolution of such a magnitude that it has influenced the world. Do not be afraid of the unity of individuals and their numbers for the Blessed and Exalted God shall assist you. When you seek the assistance of the Blessed and Exalted God, He has promised you His assistance and the smallness in numbers will not be a cause for weakness when the spiritual power is at work and there is cohesion and devotion to Islam.

At this moment that you are witnessing the men of Saddam are rejoicing and claiming that in this last battle, they say they killed seven thousand and sometimes they claim to have killed and destroyed fifteen thousand Iranians meaning the soldiers of Iran while we had not sent more than four-thousand soldiers to the battlefield. Our armed forces are right now behind the frontlines. We want that these governments that are assisting a criminal in history; a criminal who came to the forefront from the beginning of the establishment of this party in Iraq and who came with the thesis of" there must be no Islam" to desist from supporting him. How can these governments that claim to be Islamic gain our acceptance; how can the world accept this claim that you make verbal claims to Islam whereas in practice you are crushing Islam and strengthening the enemies of Islam. America that is the enemy of all religions including Christianity; America that pays no heed to religions and only safeguards its own interests and has set fire to the whole world and is setting it on fire, you accept it with open arms in the region and accept its army in the Islamic regions in order to intimidate Lebanon and intimidate Iran. What must the Muslims do with such people whose objectives are based on this subject? What must the Muslims that are suffering from such governments do? Should they remain silent and be spectators? If the Iranians would think in this manner and say that it did not concern them and that they should mind their own business and have nothing to do with such issues, that God alone knows what would have happened here to Islam by now if that regime had remained in power. If it had the time, this inhuman regime would have emptied Islam totally of its contents and would have left a hollow facade or not even allowed a hollow facade to remain of it. It is hoped that history will record the catastrophes that occurred during his reign and the intellectuals and those that are aware of the issues write them down and document them for future generations. It was decided to obliterate Islam from here; they began by changing the history of Islam and wanted to distance our youth from Islam. Narcotics and drugs that kill human beings was being purchased by this same Pahlavi family and distributed by them. It was not only for material profits, it was in order to obey their orders which was that Iran must remain backward for a bunch of opium and heroin addicts cannot safeguard their own country and while they slept and snored, they would empty their coffers.

With His invisible power, the Blessed and Exalted God favored this nation and transformed these youth into mystical human beings that sacrifice their lives for the Blessed and Exalted God and for the love of the Blessed and Exalted God. Their parents submit their children and this sacrificing has resulted in the fact that although we have lost many of our great personalities and many of our invaluable youth and suffered huge losses at the hands of the enemy, nevertheless what we have gained is the beloved Islam. Islam is worthy of sacrificing our everything in the manner that the Prophets of God had done. The Prophet of Islam gave away whatever he had in the cause of Islam; this leader never had comfort throughout his life. Husayn Bin `Ali (`a) sacrificed all he had for Islam and at the dawn of Islam, everything was sacrificed for Islam. We, too, must follow them and we are the ummah of that same Prophet and Shi`ite followers of those same personalities that lived at the dawn of Islam. Nations must arise. It is a mistake if they sit down and wait for others to solve their spiritual and material problems, as this will result in their being incapable of doing anything. If they remain as they have been in the course of history and their offspring also be likewise then nothing will change whereas if they have faith in God and with faith in God get busy and work for Islam, then the Blessed and Exalted God shall open the pathways to them. Perhaps history will not be able to write about the pathways that were opened for Iran, that guidance was imposed upon us without us being aware of them. We wanted to do one thing when suddenly we would notice that we were doing another thing and that other thing was what we must have undertaken. This cannot be recorded in history; this is a science that pertains to the hearts.

Endeavor to make your nations Islamic; awaken your nations and narrate to them the history of the dawn of Islam and reflect therein their efforts for Islam and the subject of Iran. We do not have the means to engage in propaganda; we cannot engage in it to the extent that they are able to indulge in propaganda. All the mass media are in the hands of our enemies and every day they engage in propaganda and every day they condemn Iran: organizations that are all servants of America and its likes, Amnesty International and so forth, Security Council and so forth. You are observing how they react throughout the war that Saddam and the men of Saddam have imposed on us. They have bombarded so many of our cities, killed so many of our youths, and have buried under debris so many of our young and old, men and women; yet they mentioned not a word on these issues- and how I wish they would not mention. Today, they are condemning us instead! Today they are accusing us and based on the accusations are condemning us. Our enemies quote these organizations and sometimes they also forge their own documents if they do not have in hand anything they organize an interview on the radio or their publications. Interview with whom? Interview with the one who has plundered here and has fled. They make this document and use against us in their propaganda. All the propaganda of the world is against us. It is possible that the nations are also deceived; a group also is aware. The duty of you sirs is to reflect what you have seen- even if gradually- in your countries. Mention the situation here to your friends and mention to them that it is not as if you cannot walk on the streets because they would be killed; it is not that everyday children are being killed on the streets here; it is not that we engage in torture in our prisons and so forth; it is not that we who attacked Iraq; it is not Iraq that has left our territory completely- but God willing, it will leave and it will also surrender. The superpowers cannot save him. I have a fear that if these small neighboring countries continue in this manner they will one day repent but it will be of no use for them. I hope that the Blessed and Exalted God grants His blessings to all of you dear sirs that spent your time in this oppressed country and witnessed the injustices that was done to them; witnessed the strength of our youth and their motivation and their faith in Islam. I thank you and thank you more for being the messengers of Islam in the face of these many messengers of faithlessness and tyranny. May God grant success to all of you and save the Muslim countries from the hands of the tyrants and deliver all the oppressed nation of Islam and non-Islam from the oppressors.

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