Date:April 9, 1968 (AD) / Farvardin 20,1347 (AHS)
/ Muharram 10,1388 (AH).
Place:Karbala,Iraq .
Theme:Unawareness of the redemptory teachings of Islam is the cause of the decline of the Muslims.
Occasion:The anival of ‘Ashura, 1968 .
Those present: The students of Basra University .

One of the most important strategic plans of the Shah’s regime was to attempt to create differences between the university students and the students of the theological centers and to sever any links which may have existed between these two groups. It was generally accepted that any kind of alliance; between these two groups would prove quite dangerous for the regime.

Unfortunately, the vast propaganda churned out by the regime’s skilled experts was such that the efforts of those sympathetic elements in the society - Whether clergymen or others - did not have a great impact. That is not to say that the various publications printed in Qum which was seen as being the base ‘of the clergy in the country - did not contain material interesting to the university students, but such publications did not usually expound on the wants and problems of these students. The students and youth at this time seemed to prefer reading the works of pseudo intellectuals, who had prostituted themselves and were probably SAVAK agents, to perusing the books and other publications even slightly redolent of religion.

The promotion of the phenomenon of “modernism” and the ensuing Predilection, especially amongst the university students, towards Western literature which condemned religion and promoted the ideas of polytheism and Atheism, created dangers and with each passing day increased the distance between the students of the university and the religious students. The extensive and intrepid efforts of the clergy and those affiliated to the universities across the country that were supporters of Imam did not prove successful in countering its effects and advancing the cause.

The Shah’s regime usually facilitated the work of those groups whose poems, stories and film scenarios were antagonistic towards religion. The famous, misnamed intellectuals seemingly carried the standard of Opposition to the Shah’s regime, but when they had to go to Europe to get treatment for their addiction to heroin, the Shah’s wife paid their expenses! As the policy of the Shah’s regime was based on spreading corruption , fornication, libertarianism and irreligiousness, it was not easily offended by the so-called revolutionary poems and writings of the intellectual class; and if by chance a writer or poet from this class was arrested and thrown into prison because of his work, he would, upon giving a half-hearted pledge, be freed after a short time and would return to society. However, were a religious orator to question the regime’s policies, even in symbolic terms, he would immediately be arrested and subjected to the most brutal torture in the Shah’s dungeons, even perhaps being martyred thereby. The reason behind this was that the regime knew that such orations delivered by those devoted to Islam, bore such depth of meaning, couched as many were in cryptic terms, and had a great effect on the people. The writer of a so-called “revolutionary” poem however, when interrogated by SAVAK, had a hundred and one explanations for the words he had used.

The clerics in their sermons and discourses would speak the people’s language and discuss their everyday problems, but the task of the intellectual artist was “art for art’s sake.” The regime feared that if the language of “art for art’s sake” were transformed to the language of “art for the people’s sake”, the ensuing results would prove disastrous for its survival. The Shah’s skilled experts were very well aware that should an alliance be created between the students of the universities and the religious students and both groups found a common language, then this “art for the people’s sake” could come about. Thus they strived, through different means, to create differences and divisions between these two groups.