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Date:January
1978 (
560)
(AD) / Dey 1356 (AHS) I Safar
1398 (AH) .
Place:Shaykh Ansari Mosque, Najaf, Iraq.
Theme:The crimes committed during the fifty years of illegal Pahlavi rule .
Occasion:
Themurder of the people of Qum on January 9, 1978 (Dey 19,1356 AHS)
Those present: Religious students, clergymen and others.
Imam Khomeini (pbuh) saw the martyrdom of his eldest son as being a “hidden blessing from God.” Analysts believe that the death of Hajj Aqa Mustafa actually hastened the victory of Imam’s movement at its most sensitive stage. His death inflamed the people of the holy city of Qum and soon Tabriz, Yazd, Isfahan, Tehran and other Iranian cities were engulfed in the flames of protest.
After the martyrdom of Hajj Aqa Mustafa , many of the maraji’-i taqlid, the ‘ulama, fuzala, clergymen, merchants from the bazaar, university students and some of the political parties and groups, who until that day had no strong pretext or motive for showing opposition or for loud cries of remonstrance, fulminated against the Shah’s regime through statements issued In their individual styles, from the radical to the conservative. When the regime aimed its next blow against Imam Khomeini, protest overflowed into rebellion, and rebellion in turn, matured into revolution.
On January 7, 1978 (Dey 17,1356 AHS) , just one week after President Carter had been in Tehran lauding the Shah as a wise statesman beloved of his people, SAVAK ordered the publication in the Ittila’at newspaper of a scurrilous article written under the pseudonym Ahmad Rashidi Mutlaq and entitled “Red and Black Imperialism in Iran” attacking Imam as an agent of foreign powers. While pursuing a particular aim in the publication of the article, the regime also wanted to avenge itself on Imam and his followers. The particularly pungent parts of the attack attracted the attention of the leader of the movement. One part of the calumnious article read : “The inception of the Shah-People Revolution on Bahman 6, 2521 of the imperial calendar (February 26, 1963/ 1341 AHS) united red and black imperialism in Iran, each one of which apparently had a special plan and design in our country, and this warm-hearted co-operation manifested itself in the riots of Khordad 15 and 16, 2522 (June 5 and 6, 1964) in Tehran Ruhullah Khomeini was a suitable agent for this design and the red and black reaction found him to be the most apt individual for opposition to the revolution in Iran .”
The public reaction was immediate outrage. The following day Qum came to a virtual standstill as the shops and bazaar closed and lessons at the theological centre were suspended. People flooded to the houses of the maraji’ and to the teachers at the theological schools in the city, demanding that something be done to put an end to the overt insolence shown by the regime to Imam and the clerical establishment.
On January 9 (Dey 19), as the people of Qum joined religious students in peaceful demonstrations and the houses of the teachers bustled with activity as people came and went, the protests took on a wider dimension. On the afternoon of the same day, the demonstrators gathered in the streets around the home of Ayatullah Husayn Nunri ( 561) - one of the teachers at the Qurn theological centre. Ayatullah Nun delivered a trenchant and revolutionary speech in which he attacked the policies of the Shah’s regime and by exalting the personality of Imam Khomeini and honoring the uprising of Khordad 15 and subsequent events, he avouched that the upnising of the people in support of Imam’s movement would continue until the final victory. When he had finished his speech, the demonstrators set off again, but as they passed by Shuhada Square (then Fatin Crossroads), armed agents of the regime opened fire on them. The streets around the square and the Hujjatiya Madrasa in Qum became the scenes of further demonstrations and the sound of machine-gun fire and shouts of “Long Live Khomeini” and “Death to the Pahlavi Dynasty” could be heard around the central districts of the city late into the night. The demonstrations were suppressed with heavy loss of life. The hospitals of the city were filled with the injured, and as people flocked there to donate blood, the response of the regime was to send its agents during the night to steal the bodies of some of the martyrs and take away some of the injured. This was the first of a series of demonstrations that progressively unfurled across the country.
The Rastakhiz newspaper as an “unholy alliance of red and black reactionaries” described demonstrations held in Mashhad. On January 7, 1978 (Dey 17,1356 AHS), which coincided with the anniversary of the enforcement of Reza khan’s decree forbidding women from wearing the hijab, the pious women of Mashhad donned their black chadors and took to the streets in protest at the anti-Islamic policies of the regime. This incident attracted the attention of the world’s press and received widespread coverage from the big news agencies. Until the end, barely a single region remained untouched by revolutionary fervour.
As incidents like these continued to take place throughout the country, Muhammad Reza shahand his wife Farah embarked on trips abroad to give the impression that all was under control and events unfurling in Iran were very insignificant and did not warrant concern. As Farah travelled to Egypt as the guest of Mrs Jahan Sadat, the wife of the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, the Shah went to America.
Before this, the US President, Jimmy Carter, had spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with the Shah in Iran as an intermediate stop in his whirlwind visit to Poland and India. During this visit, Carter held meetings with the Shah and King Husayn of Jordan, who had also been invited, and attended a state dinner and New Years’ Eve party. The state dinner proved to be the most notable event of the visit. President Carter used the occasion as an Opportunity to reassure the Shah once again that the US-Iran reIationship would remain sound and during a toast to the Shah, he produced a line that he later had reason to regret when he said: “Iran is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world. This is a great tribute to you, Your Majesty, and to your leadership and to the respect, admiration and love, which your people give to you. There is no leader in the world for whom I feel such deep gratitude and personal friendship as the Shah ( 562) .” Just one week later demonstrations engulfed the country, which were to culminate in the downfall of the Shah’s regime.
Before his trip to Iran, Carter had said that he would demonstrate in Tehran lust how much importance he placed on Iran-US relations ( 563) . The Shah too had accepted with a sense of pride and power the words of the American Ambassador in Iran that the friendship between the two countries had never before been so close and sincere and Iran and America would not be parted from one another under any circumstances ( 564) . The Iranian Ambassador in the United States also reiterated that: “No country has observed the principles of human rights like Iran”!
After receiving news of the events of January 9 (Dey 1 9) and reports of the killings, Imam Khomeini offered his condolences to the oppressed people of Iran in the text of a hard-hitting speech, which he delivered in response to the atrocities. In this speech, Imam also referred to Carter’s recent trip to Iran, commented on the fifty years of crimes by the illegal Pahlavi monarchy and spoke of the corruption in the army, university and imperial Parliament. At the end of his speech, he warned the people against division and disunity and urged all classes to unite together in order to maintain the struggle against the regime. On January 22 (Bahman 2), Imam Khomeini also issued a proclamation in which he referred to the events of January 9 (Dey 1 9) and severely condemned American interference in the country and the crimes of the Shah.
The numerous acts of abomination perpetrated by the Shah during the period from Khordad 151342 (June 5, 1964) until 1356 (1978); the unfolding anger of and increasing protests by the people; the warnings and revelations of Imam and his training of vigilant and revolutionary followers
During this period; the increase in the level of public awareness; and perhaps most importantly the martyrdom of Hajj Aqa Mustafa, created circumstances whereby the killings of January 9 (Dey 19) in Qum and Imam’s speech and proclamation in this regard opened a new chapter in the continuation of the Khordad 15 movement. The repeated demonstrations by l the people of Iran from January 9, 1978 (Dey 19,1356 AHS) until February 11, 1979 (Bahman 22,1357 AHS) led to victory for the Iranian people and the collapse of the Shah’s regime. June 5, 1 964 (Khurdad 15,1342 AHS); November 4, 1965 (Aban 13,1343 AHS); January 7 and 9, 1978 (Dey 1 7 and 191356 AHS) are particularly heart-rending dates and turning points in the history of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.
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I am at a loss as to whom I should offer my condolences on this tragedy, this great tragedy ( 565) . Should I offer them to the Most Noble Messenger, peace be upon him and his family, to the Ma ‘sumin, peace be upon them, to Hazrat Hujjat (the Twelfth Imam) peace he upon him, or to the Islamic Ummat , to the Muslims, to the oppressed in all countries of the world, or should I offer them to the oppressed nation of Iran or the respected people of Qum. Should I condole with the bereaved, with the
Fathers and mothers who have borne so much suffering, or with the theological schools and the ‘ulama ? To whom should I offer my condolences and whom should I thank for the events that have come about for Islam.
The awakened nation of Iran is plundered and dishonored, it suffers many tragedies and yet it stands firm in the face of these and it sacrifices lives. They have opened up fire on the people with machine-guns without right or reason, and so far, according to the information that we have received, they have killed seventy people. However , we have been given varying reports and some news agencies report that a hundred people have been killed; the most oft-repeated figure is one hundred or two hundred and fifty dead, but some telegrams that have arrived here from European countries or America speak of three hundred dead, so it is still not clear how many have actually been killed.
The number of injured is also not yet known. The correct figure will probably come to light later, if that is possible, if the regime has not thrown the bodies of the people into the Hoz-i Sultan lake, as they did on Khordad 15 (June 5, 1964) ( 566) . I wonder if the true figure will ever be discovered? We have received confirmed reports that some people went to the hospitals to donate their blood, but they were arrested and hence some of those in need of blood died. The regimes agents didn’t give the bodies of those killed to their relatives, and if the latter persisted, they made them pay five hundred tumans before they handed the bodies over to them ( 567) . Whom should we thank for this and with whom should we condole? We should be thankful to the Iranian nation. It is an awakened nation; it is a vigilant, renitent nation in the face of oppression. The Iranian people witness so much injustice, they sacrifice so many lives yet still they resist, still they persevere, and this perseverance will bear fruit. There is no doubt that when a nation awakes, when even its women rise up against the government and against these oppressors, it will be victorious, God willing.
I have heard that at the time of Reza khan, the father of this Khan, the late Mudarris told him that he believed Shaykh al-Rais ( 568) had once said that he feared a bull with horns for it had a weapon but no intellect or wisdom (‘aqi). Even if this does not prove to be a saying of Shaykh Alrais, it is still a wise adage, for what heinous acts are perpetrated when weapons fall into the hands of the impious and the unworthy. From the very beginning, man has suffered because weapons have been in the hands of impious, unsuitable people. From the very time that man became civilised, as he believed, weapons have been in the hands of the impious and all the problems which humankind has had to suffer stem from this. So long as these unworthy weapon-bearers remain armed, mankind will not find its ultimate destiny. One of the missions of the prophets was to disarm the unworthy, injudicious weapon-bearers, but they could not, for these people held power and authority. Worthy people too in every age tried to wrest the arms from the hands of the unworthy, but they were also unsuccessful. So it has been the unworthy, injudicious and ungodly people who have always been armed and this is the cause of all the problems that you witness (in the world). From the very beginning, when man first came to this earth and the door of struggle between the just and the unjust was opened, and throughout all ages, arms have been in the hands of the unjust - very rarely has it been otherwise. We do not need to delve far back into history to see what crimes have been committed because of this; we only need to look at the wars, which have occurred over the past hundred years. The First World War ( 569) , the Second World War ( 570) , the Vietnamese War ( 571) of recent history and the killings that accompanied them, these all came about because the arms were in the hands of the unworthy, they were the ones who had the weapons.
I myself can remember and have witnessed the bloodshed that has occurred over the past fifty years in Iran because of the unlawful rule of these crinnals. Such sorrow and bitterness it has caused us. Perhaps some of you too share this sorrow or perhaps you are too young to know of everything that has happened, but I am old, I have witnessed the people’s misfortunes and the crimes and killings perpetrated by these unjust weapon-bearers from the time that the first coup d’etat was carried out ( 572) . I was in Arak then ( 573) , and the English crinnals, the unjust British who possessed arms, armed an unworthy, ignoble Reza khan and imposed him on the people. After World War Two began, and the British had kicked him out of Iran for disobeying them, they admitted in a broadcast over Radio Delhi that they had engineered the rise to power of this blackguard ( 574) . At the time, the people suspected this to be the case, but they did not know all the facts because the evil propaganda of the time did not allow it. I have witnessed the indescribable crimes that he committed during his stay in power. I cannot describe for you the sorrows of those days. I’m sure his heinous deeds have been recorded in the annals of history and God willing, after the overthrow of this evil monarchy, the historical facts will be disclosed and the records will be made available for you or for future generations to read. Then you may be able to understand a little better, that is if these accounts can describe what bloodshed he caused, how many of the ‘ulama he incarcerated, how much pressure he brought to bear on this poor nation in order to impose uniform dress, how he hit the oppressed , how he humiliated the ‘ulama and how many turbans he removed from the heads of the religious scholars.
It is said that when this ungodly man went to Turkey and saw what misdeeds Ataturk had done there, he sent a telegram to his agents in Iran telling them to make the people wear uniform dress. At the time, he used the excuse that the farmers who worked out in the sun should wear a peaked cap so that the sun wouldn’t trouble them - however, it was obvious that this was not the real reason for imposing this law. When he returned from his trip, then the pressures began in earnest ( 575) .
A series of intense pressures and outrageous atrocities followed the issuance of this Uniform Dress Law. The ‘ulama were tormented greatly because of this law, many of them were sent into exile and some of them were killed because of their objections to it ( 576) . The second excuse used to bring pressure on the people came when he called for the unveiling of women, which again he did in intation of the ungodly Ataturk, the unjust, armed Ataturk. What a shameful act this was. God only knows how this nation of Iran suffered when he forced the women to remove their veils ( 577) . The veil of humanity was rent asunder. God knows which women he dishonored way, forced the ‘ulaina at bayonet-point to attend celebratory parties with their wives, which they did with heavy hearts and which ended with the people crying. Other people as well, different groups in turn, were invited and obliged to attend parties with their wives. This was the freedom for women which Reza shahenforced. He used bayonets and the police to compel the respected people, the merchants and the ‘ulama, to attend these parties on the excuse that he himself had organised them. At some of these celebrations - as the regime called them - the people cried so much that those agents with a sense of shame regretted having forced them to attend. This was just one way he used to put pressure on the people, and God only knows what repercussions this measure had.
Another way was he stopped the clergymen from going to the pulpits and delivering sermons of any kind ( 578) . He also prevented them from holding rauzas - indeed at one time in Iran no rauza assemblies were held at all during ‘Ashura. Some fearless people did however dare to hold assemblies, but these had to be held late at night or in the early hours of the morning and they had to end before the call to Morning Prayer was sounded. In this way, he kept everybody in Iran from this From commemorating the sufferings of Imam Husayn and reciting narrations (of the martyrdom of the Imams).
This came about because the weapons were in the hands of the injudicious. Arms should be borne by those who are worthy of bearing them. When weapons are in the hands of the unjust, then iniquities ensue. The crimes that have occurred! The mass murder that took place in the Gauhar Shad mosque and the subsequent arrest of the ‘ulama of Khurasan and their incarceration in Tehran, the trial, imprisonment and murder of some of the great ‘ulama; these events came about because the weapons were in the hands of the injudicious. The ‘ulama of Isfahan and the ‘ulaina of Azerbayjan were arrested and banished merely for uttering a word or standing up to Riza Shah. Apparently the ‘ulama of Azerbayjan were forced to stay in Sunqor ( 579) and the late Aqa Mirza Sadiq (may God grant him mercy) never returned to Tabriz ( 580) . This was another way through which that evil man repressed the people.
The atrocities that he committed cannot be spoken of in one or two meetings ( 581) . now, during your own lifetime, you too are afflicted with misfortunes inflicted upon you by another injudicious horned beast ( 582) .
For do nat be mistaken Shah’s permission. Do not suppose that the head of Qum’s police or the head of Qum’s SAVAK, or any of Qum’s policemen have the nerve to open fire on the people and kill them without his permission. No wise person should suppose that this could he so. All these incidents are reported to him and clearly, this evil man has to give the orders to shoot. It is said that on Khordad 15, he circled above the demonstrators in a helicopter and gave the command to open fire, as if he were giving the command to open fire on foreign armies ( 583) ! On armies that were attacking Iran ( 584) ! This useless lot are so humble and meek before the kings and presidents of other countries, especially the American President, they flatter them and align themselves with them, but in their dealings with their own people, because of the authority they exercise over them, they harass them and cause them suffering. When they go abroad they spend their time grovelling and eulogising, but when they return to their own country, they begin their wickedness.
Previously, when it was said that the shah had granted some freedom in Iran, I told the gentlemen here that if this man reaches an agreement with this evil Carter ( 585) and strengthens his servile position, he will hit the people harder than ever before. But I didn’t think he would do it as soon as this. Almost immediately, after he had finished his talks with Carter and had confirmed his servitude, he created a pretext for showing some muscle. He created a pretext for attacking the people in Qum. Pay no attention to what is written in the regime’s press, those who were there say that the people were marching peacefully to give their requests to the ‘ulama when one of the regime’s own men threw a stone smashing something, the regime’s agents then attacked and began shooting at the people. This is what happened on Khordad 15 too. Of course the people had themselves risen up to call for the injustices to be redressed, but the demonstrations were peaceful ( 586) until a group of the regime’s own agents in Tehran set a library on fire and looted a shop. This created the pretext for the regime to open fire on the people with machine-guns. They created
The pretext then just as they did for this most recent outrage ( 587) , otherwise the people did not want to do battle with the regime. Someone who is unarmed cannot fight an armed bull. The people had no intention of doing battle with the regime. But he had to make us see that he is no longer the man he was before he met Carter , that now that he has met with Carter and smoothed out any differences, now that he has consolidated his servile position, ( 588) the people should no longer suppose that he has lost his support, no, he still has it, and thus he will carry on killing! These vociferations and these threats are made in order to show the people that he has not lost his might. However, he has made a mistake, he does not realize what ignominy he has brought upon himself with these killings.
The people have now risen up against him, against the man who once said that the whole nation was in agreement with him ( 589) , that everyone voted in support of his bloody White Revolution. The uprising began in Qum then spread to Tehran, to Khurasan, Azerbayjan, Kerman, Ahwaz, Abadan until now the whole of Iran is in revolt. The whole of the nation has risen up against this man who claims that everyone is in agreement with him, that the nation wants him, that the people support him. But if one day the bayonets of America were to be removed, then the courtiers themselves would skin this man alive. Carter should put this to the test one day, were he to leave this weak nation alone, leave these people alone, then he would soon see what would happen. The organizations that we hear about are nothing more than a ploy to deceive the people. They are not bothered about security, so why do they send a representative of the Security Council here? It is just a show to beguile the people (590) .
They want to deceive the people, just as the Communists do communism is the opiate of the people, it cannot solve there Problems. Is it possible that someone who himself is not a human being would serve mankind? Would an unjust armed person ever work for the sake of the oppressed? I know that this is not possible. During World War Two ( 591) , when the heads of the Allied governments were to meet in Tehran ( 592) , the American and British leaders arrived in a conventional maimer and went to their embassies, but it was said, and God knows that this is true, that Stalin ( 593) , who at the time was the Russian leader - the same Stalin whose pictures we still see here and there although in recent years his reputation has been sullied somewhat - who was supposed to be equal with everyone else and whom everyone called brother, brought his own much cow along on the plane so he would not have to drink the milk from Iranian cows! They were both injudicious, armed creatures, but God knows he was worse than his cow!
I myself witnessed the state of his troops in Iran. While he entered Iran with his cow, his troops, who controlled the Khurasan region - for at that time Iran was divided into a few regions of control and that particular region was in the hands of the Russians - were begging along the roadside. I myself saw this, we were travelling by bus to Mashhad to make a pilgrimage and on the road to Mashhad just outside Shahrud, Russian soldiers were begging in front of cars; it made them so happy if someone gave them just one cigarette that they went away whistling! Communism is a means of beguiling the people, nothing else. Is it possible for someone who does not believe in the unseen to think about the people and about remedying their affairs? No, it is a deceit.
On certain occasions, these armed people deliver blows, and on others, they deliver both the blows and the propaganda. The propaganda machinery is in their hands. Now you see that in addition to beating up the people and killing them, in addition to all these crimes , they propagate that all the blame for these acts lies on the shoulders of the people, that only six people died in this incident and a few of them, including a thirteen-year-old child, were trampled to death by the people, and that the regime itself had committed no crime! On the one hand, they create such propaganda and on the other, they commit mass murder.
All these heinous acts stem from the unjust being armed; it is the just who should be armed. The God of Islam is just, the Prophet of Islam was just and free from sin, the Imams of Islam were just and free from sin. The judges of Islam should be just , its fuqaha should be just, the person who witnesses a divorce should be just, Islam’s prayer leaders should be just, its Friday prayer leaders should be just, its leaders should be just, its provincial governors, those who were sent to this place and that in the early days of Islam and who also acted as the prayer leaders, had to be just. They are only valid when they are just. If there is no justice and if those who exercise authority are not righteous, then such malicious acts as those we are now witnessing are perpetrated.
The arms are in the hands of the unworthy, the unjust. On the one hand they massacre the people, and on the other they shout about “social justice ( 594) ”. On the one hand, they force the women to remove their veils.In addition, on the other they shout about the “freedom of women!” It’s ridiculous. This kind of freedom is ludicrous, it cannot be called freedom. On the one hand, they carry out “land reforms”, and on the other, they create a market for America! This has been the result of the land reforms. At one time just one of our country’s provinces met the needs of the whole of the country, and what remained was exported. Now whatever you want has to come from abroad! In addition, the regime is proud of this and boasts: “We import our wheat from abroad, we import our barley, our oranges, our eggs from abroad!” This should be lamented. The regime has no shame. This is what its land reforms entailed - all this destruction. Yet the Shah and his regime claim that all the ‘ulama agree with the reforms and the White Revolution. If you can find just one ‘aiim anywhere in Iran who is in agreement with your bloody revolution, then you have the right to say all the ‘ulama are in agreement with you. Try to find one prayer leader from amongst the prayer leaders of Tehran who is in agreement with you and will say that he concurs with you, aside from those whose turbans you yourselves have placed on their heads, whom you yourselves have created, and who dance to whatever tune you play, for they are not true religious scholars, but of course one or two of them can be found everywhere in the country. Try to find one from amongst the provincial prayer leaders who will say he is in agreement with you. Try to find a mullah in Qum who will say he is in agreement with you. The Shah and his regime have no shame. They carry out all kinds of heinous
Acts, all kinds of wrongdoings and then in order to deceive the people they say: “All the ‘ulama are in agreement with us, only one who is not from this country disagrees with us ( 595) .”
The arms are in the hands of the unjust and the ignoble. Consider all weapons, the pen itself is a kind of weapon, which must be in the hands of the just and worthy people, for when it is in the hands of the depraved, corruption and scandalous deeds will increase. At the present time , and in some societies and certain aspects, the pen is in the hands of the depraved who gloss over whatever the head of these profligates does and who palliate his crimes by means of their literary eloquence. This is a crime, which is perpetrated against this nation by dint of the pen. These unworthy writers sit at home with this weapon in hand and with their eloquent style they whitewash the corruption, the crimes and the massacres and present everything to the contrary, they turn everything round. Therefore, the pen too should be in the hands of the just people.
Culture is the source of a nation’s happiness or misfortune. If the culture is not sound then the youth who are trained in this unsound culture will, in the future, create corruption. The imperialist culture produces imperialist youth for the country. A culture which is created by the designs of others - and it is the foreigners who lay their plans for us then hand them over to our society in the form of culture - is an imperialist and parasitic culture. Such a culture is a weapon more lethal than anything else, it is even worse than the arms of these ruffians, for their weapons eventually fall to pieces, as they have done now. However, when the culture is corrupt, our youth, who form the foundations of our society, are lost to us; they are trained to become parasites, to become infatuated with the West. They are trained in this way from the very first day that they enter school and this continues into higher education. If the culture is a correct culture, then our youths will be trained correctly. If the culture is a culture of truth, a divine culture, a culture, which is of use to the nation, which is advantageous for the Muslims, then it does not produce such people as those who now exercise authority over us. But our culture is an imperialist culture, our culture does not lie in the hands of suitable people, the just do not administer it.
If our universities were correct, independent universities and those who taught there were just and were free to do as they saw fit and what was right to do, then our country would not have got into the state it is in today nor would it reach a potentially worse stage tomorrow, God forbid. Some people have seized control of our universities who are they parasites, who are themselves supporters of the imperialists and possess a servile attitude. All this is because of one person, for if a lecturer or a professor at the university wishes to speak out, he is not able to, because the security organization, acting on the orders of “His Imperial Majesty” does not allow him to do so. If our universities were proper universities then when the students there try to speak a word of truth, the police would not suppress them so. The things they do to them! They beat the girls, they beat the boys, and they beat our youth and imprison them. This is because our universities are not independent. We do not have universities. Universities, which are controlled by one person, cannot be called universities. The learning environment should be a free environment.
If this Parliament were a proper, just Parliament, and were a tool in the hands of the just, would the members have allowed such laws as have passed already through Parliament to have been ratified? Would they have allowed the Capitulation Bill granting immunity to the American military advisers, a bill which caused great humiliation for Iran, to have been ratified ( 596) ? We do not have a Parliament. The members of Parliament are appointed; they are just a group of agents, functionaries of the security organization who call themselves a “Parliament.” All of them are agents. If they were independent and if they had been selected by the people, if the Parliament were a national Parliament, then they would never let the regime buy all these arms as it does ( 597) , they would never give away our oil and buy weaponry in return – weaponry which we how to operate. This weaponry baffles us so they have to bring in American advisers and experts to show us what to d\ with it. But these experts won’t show us how to operate it. They are such animals; they will not be satisfied with this. They come here and are paid such exorbitant wages. We do not know how much they are paid every month, and cannot even begin to imagine, we only know that there are very many of them in the country. Their number, including their relatives, probably runs into the hundreds or thousands. It used to be said that there were sixty thousand of them in Iran getting huge salaries from this nation. The regime takes the money from the pockets of this poor, wretched nation and pours it into the pockets of these wealthy people. Even then, they do not train our military properly! They want our armed forces to remain in their present state, so that they can do whatever they want with them ( 598) .
If we had an independent army instead of a parasitic one, it would not allow these advisers to come into the country and give the orders; the army officers would not simply be puppets in their hands. However, our army is not a true army. One man, one corrupt man who has corrupted everything, controls all the armed forces. As it is said, one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel.
The corruption in Iran stems from him, but no one can say this because of the suppression, which exists. Instead, they keep saying the agents, the agents! Who gives these agents the order to kill the people? Who gives them the order to attack the Hujjatiya Madrasa and kill the religious students there? Who gives them the orders to position their machine-guns at the crossroads and open fire on the people ( 599) ? Can anybody, other than this vile man, order such things? All the corruption stems from him. Does the Parliament have the right to say a word without the permission of this vile man? Does the army have the right to say anything without his permission? Do our judges have freedom? Do we have an independent judicial system? Our judges have the weapon of judgement in their hands, but they do not have the justice. They say they cannot dispense justice, so we have to ask them then why did you become a judge? You made a mistake in becoming a judge so leave this profession. Now everywhere in our country, the weapons are in the hands of the unjust and all this corruption goes back to the court and to that man. He should be removed.
I do not know why this army is asleep. Why do they allow themselves to be humiliated so? Only a few days after that abominable Carter left, the regime carried out such actions. In addition, this is only the beginning, if the people let him, the Shah will carry on, unless he is made aware of the consequences of his actions. The people are creating a clamour, which is being heard across the world, the radios everywhere are speaking about it. The regimes own radio can say whatever it likes; the people will no longer be deceived by their words. The nation has awakened. Sir, the people have awakened, if they had not then the bazaars would not have closed down as they have done. It has been said and officially confirmed by the regime that Tehran bazaar closed down on Thursday in a show of protest. The closure of Tehran’s bazaar is not a common practice, it is a very uncommon event, no one can just close down the bazaar 600) . It has been achieved because of the feelings and vigilance of the people. This gentleman who used to say “all concur with me” should look around him, the bazaars in Tehran, Ahwaz, Isfahan and Shiraz are actively protesting against him, and this has become our way of life now.
I hope that all classes, whether the ‘ulama and muftahids, the religious students or the merchants of the bazaar, the traders, army personnel or civil servants, who are sorely grieved by this wicked man will unite together and that our political groups will not work alone but they will co-operate with others just as in this most recent incident when this expression of antipathy was supported not only by some political groups ( 601) , but the ‘ulama, the merchants of the bazaar, students. . All
Classes came together. Telegrams were even sent by foreigners, from America and Europe, expressing their antipathy towards the regime and telling us that three hundred people were killed in this recent event.
I hope that all the fronts will join hands together. If the nation unites in all aspects then these unjust people will be disarmed and the horns of this bull will be broken. They should not disagree with one another or purposely seek reasons for dissent. They should not start fighting one another over insignificant and childish matters. Those who want to keep the people busy create differences, and it is they who benefit from disunion amongst the people. The people should wake up to these things and, God willing, they have already done so. They should unite together, all of them. They should join hands together and, God willing, by the power and strength of God and through your unity, the root of all this corruption will soon be eradicated.
I ask for everyone’s well being from God the Most High. I express my thanks to all classes of people for standing by the ‘ulama of Islam. I thank all fronts, especially the great ‘ulama and the noble merchants of the bazaar. I thank them all and call upon them to pray Islam, to strengthen and unify their fronts, and to come together for one aim, which should be the severance of the hands of the oppressors and foreigners so that this country may prosper. The hands of the foreigners should be foreshortened; the resources, which exist in our country, should be used for the weak and for the good of the country, and all the country’s affairs Should be rectified and put in order. This will not happen unless this regime is disarmed, and I hope, God willing, that it will be. In addition, peace is upon you and God’s mercy.