He is a traitor tothe nation, the country and Islam. If you give him a respite, then neither Islam nor your country will remain for you. Do not give him time, squeeze this throat (of his) until it breathes no more.

The Iranian nation accepted Imam’s message whole-heartedly and only three months after he had delivered this speech, the dictatorial Pahiavi regime was overthrown by Imam and the umma and the last remnants of oppressive monarchical rule in Iran were swept away.

SPEECH NUMBERFIFTY-EIGHT

I SEEK REFUGE IN GOD FROM THE ACCURSED SATAN

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL

Once again, the Shah has resorted to two means in an attempt to save himself: one is deceit and the other the bayonet. The first means, deceit, was employed in his (recent) address when he swore an oath, when he promised the nation that he would not repeat past mistakes and would make up for them, and that henceforth he would act according to the letter of the constitutional law. In this address, he asked the people to cease in their opposition; he called on the great clergymen and the most learned ulama to guide the people and calm them and appealed to other classes of society, among them the workers, students and the youth, to stop their opposition and think about Iran!^{( 451)} His words provoke many questions, one, which requires investigation, is: Were his actions up until the present mistakes or deliberate acts? His violation of the law and the opposition which he has shown to Islam, the treason which he has perpetrated against the nation, and the crimes which he has committed, were these all mistakes as he claims? Take for example the oil that he has given to America; did he think that the Americans were one of the tribes of Iran, or that America was one of the Iranian cities so he was giving the oil to Iranians? These weapons he received in return for oil, which are of no use to us and were used to create bases for the Americans, did he think that these were foreign currency? Did he make a mistake? Did he take these weapons under the mistaken impression that he was getting dollars’?

The crimes that he has committed in Iran up until now, the imprisonment he has ordered, the persecution and the torture he has carried out, the massacres he has perpetrated, were all of these mistakes? When he sent his commandos to the Fayziya Madrasa where they burnt copies of the Quran, set alight the turbans of the theological students, broke their arms and legs and destroyed their chambers, did he think that he was attacking somewhere in Russia, so it was a mistake? Did he think that the Fayziya Madrasa was foreign territory? Did he presume that the people he had imprisoned had been taken away to a garden somewhere and only now he realises that this was not the case and that they were taken away to a prison cell not a garden? The members of the ‘ulama and the political figures who were imprisoned and either killed or had their legs immersed in boiling oil or, as we are told, had their legs sawn off,^{( 452)} was all this the result of a mistake? Were these incidents just pure imagination? Now he promises that such mistakes will not be repeated, but didn’t he make pledges and swear oaths at the beginning of his rule? Someone who wants to rule has to do this; he is making the same pledges now as he did at the beginning of his rule, pledges which he later broke. Are the pledges he is making now any different from the ones he made then? Are they pledges which can’t be broken’? He broke them then, hut would he have us believe that now things have changed and they can’t be broken? How has he made up for his mistakes’? Indeed, can he make up for them’? How can he make up for the ten or fifteen years, or more, that so many people lost in his prisons’? How can he compensate for the torture, the suffering and the humiliation they endured during that time? Do his promises compensate for this? Can someone who has committed so many crimes now expect everything to be forgotten as soon as he makes new promises?

Let us suppose that his promises are sincere, we will suppose this even though “it is obvious” that they are not. (When Riza Shah visited Najaf, he met with the late Firuzabadi in the holy shrine there and told him: “I am your follower sir,” to which the late Firuzabadi replied: “It is obvious.”) (The audience laughs). His promises today remind me of the book ‘The Cat and Mouse’^{( 453)} The Cat and Mouse is a useful book, an instructive book, which discusses the tricks kings and rulers play at the time when they enjoy power and when their power begins to wane. As the story goes, the cat one day threw down his prayer mat, performed his namaz, repented and asked for God’s forgiveness vowing never to repeat his past actions. After a while, the poor mice were taken in by his promises and began taking the cat gifts and the such like, until one day the cat pounced on five of them at once. Whereas previously the cat could only get one mouse at a time, now he got five at a time! Well, we know that your (addressing the Shah) repentance is the same as that of a wolf or a cat! The nation knows this so Do not trouble yourself by continually repeating it! These most learned ‘ulama that you are now calling upon to guide the people and calm them are those very same ‘ulama whose words until recently you described as “black reaction.”^{( 454)} until recently these ‘ulama were, according to you, “reactionaries,” “black” reactionaries. When I was in Qum, he delivered a speech in one of the Iranian cities in which he spoke about the ‘ulama saying that one should avoid these reactionaries like impure animals!^{( 455)} these impure animals have now become the great clergymen and most learned ‘ulama^{( 456)} ! If these great clergymen and most learned ‘ulama give him time to breathe, by the second breath they would be the same impure animals once again! These mistakes, as he calls them, were all in fact intentional acts, these acts of treason were all intentional, and if this nation gives him a respite, then he will repeat these same “mistakes” again.

He is trying to trick the people; on the one hand, he promises not to repeat past mistakes, and on the other, he calls on the people to think about Iran! It is because we are thinking about Iran that we are speaking out now. It is because this nation realises that you are taking Iran away from them, because you have allowed the world powers to dominate us, and because you have exhausted our resources, that they have risen up and have embarked on this movement against you. It is precisely because we are thinking about Iran that we are opposing you and struggling against you, for you are the source of these “mistakes” as you call them but which as far as we are concerned are intentional acts. Our concerns about Islam, about a Muslim country and about the poor have forced us to oppose you in this way. “Come let us think about Iran!” We want to think about Iran, we are thinking about Iran; just because we are opposing you does not mean that we have stopped thinking about Iran!

This person will just not stop saying these things. What kind of a person is he? How does his mind work? Who does he think he is trying to fool? Who believes him when he says that if he were to no longer be around, then Iran too would cease to exist? According to him as soon as he dies - and the day will come, God willing, soon (the audience laughs) -Iran too will cease to be! So it seems that we have lost Iran! According to him, after ten days, a few months or whatever, Iran will be destroyed because it was he who preserved Iran and when he is no longer around we too will cease to be!^{( 457)} (The audience laughs). He should cease to exist, not Iran!

So deceit is one of the means that he has resorted to; deceit, as demonstrated yesterday by his minister^{( 458)} when he said - and perhaps this was dictated to him by his masters - that mistakes had been made and when, among other things, he called on the youth to make their peace (with the regime). But the people paid no heed to his words, and the situation in the various parts of Iran, in Tehran and other places, is the same today as it was before.

The second means that the Shah has resorted to is the bayonet. He now turns to two means for protection, one is the bludgeon, the bludgeon of seditious mercenaries who have been given money to set upon the people with bludgeons, and the other is the bayonet of those people (the army) who are on the streets. Well, the bayonets are nothing new! The Iranian nation has been living under the shadow of the bayonet for a while now! For some time now, he has had no recourse other than the use of bayonets and bludgeons. This is the man who until recently described the nation as a king-loving people - and given half the chance he would say the same thing again, indeed I am surprised that he is not doing so today (the audience laughs) . . . (As the cries of “Death to the Pahiavi monarchy ”were being raised in the city of Isfahan) the Shah in his speech called the inhabitants of Isfahan a king-loving people!! One of his aides or his agents said that if the truth be known, the Iranian people bear an intrinsic liking for the monarchy. This is his logic; he thinks that the people want the monarchical regime! What can the poor things do? The people are now pouring into the streets and shouting out because they fear that, God forbid, the monarchical regime will be toppled!!

So he is seeking recourse in the bayonet and the bludgeon, and he has been doing so for a while now, but to no avail. Martial law was announced under which gatherings of more than two people were banned, but this did not stop the people and just after it was announced, seventy thousand, a hundred thousand, three hundred thousand people came together and set off from one place to another saying what they had to say! This martial law could not influence the people. Someone who is ready to give his life cannot be stopped by martial law. A man who gives his child and then says he is honored to have done so, a woman who sacrifices her child and then turns around and says that she is proud to have performed such a service to Islam, cannot be stopped by bayonets. Does the bayonet do anything other than kill people? Well, these people are saying that they want to be killed! They cannot be stopped by bayonets.

The establishment of a national ‘reconciliation’ government first of all, and then now a military government^{( 459)} are foolish attempts to solve the situation. A military government! Has your government up until now been anything other than a military government? Yes, we can say that the head of the government was not a military man, he was a lawyer who became a politician, but the method of government was that of a military government for all of Iran was under martial law, in some parts it was official and in others unofficial! The people have had experience of a military government, it is nothing new to them, they are not going to be frightened by it, it is something quite normal for them! One should not think that a military government is the answer. America should not presume that by carrying out a military coup d’etat and replacing this regime with a military one that the problem will be solved. Is it possible? Will it have an effect on the people? They are used to military governments. Yes, at one time, it was something new to them; if a military man went into the bazaar and began doing whatever he pleased, nobody would tell him to stop. If someone had two stars on his shoulder, it was disastrous! He would go wherever he wanted, do whatever he wanted and perpetrate whatever evil he wanted, and no one would stand up to him. Now, however, if the Shah himself enters the arena they will tear him limb from limb! Times have changed and the nation has changed. The people have undergone a transformation, which has changed them, changed their nature. They are no longer afraid of martial law; the thought of a military government coming to power holds no fear for them because they have already experienced life under military rule, they have confronted the military and suffered blows and death at the hands of the military. When the regime wants to kill the people, it makes no difference whether it does so through martial law, a military government or a civilian government. The people are ready to be killed, so these moves do not offer the solution to the problem nor will they cure the people’s pain.

An article appeared in a Russian newspaper, and has been corroborated by an American attaché who is also one of the Shah’s friends, stating that many different interpretations of the crisis are going around. One person says that these clergymen who are now opposing the Shah are doing so because the ‘land reforms’ were detrimental to them and endangered their interests! Another one says that so-and-so (Imam himself) harbors a personal grudge against the Shah! As I said yesterday, I have no personal grudge against the Shah, this is not the problem; and as for clergy enjoy a much better life now than they did before the reforms were implemented! Whoever wishes can go and see for himself. If they are talking about the conditions under which the clergy live, then their situation is one hundred percent better than at that time! They haven’t lost anything, their influence remains as it was, as we are witnessing, otherwise why would he (the Shah) appeal to the great maraji’ and the most learned ularna to guide the people? Suddenly he has a change of heart! In the early days (of his rule) when he replied to letters from the maraji’ he would write telling them to concentrate on guiding the populace,’^{( 460)} meaning that they had no right to interfere in the affairs of the country! Someone should tell him that this is just what we have done (the audience laughs), the masses have now been guided and you were asleep while this was happening! Now that they have been guided in the right direction, you resort to telling the ‘ulama to “think about Iran and protect me!”

These are just contrivances, they won’t work! There is only one solution and that is for this regime to go, for America, Russia, Britain and all those who sit down to eat, free of charge, at the banquet of Iran, to remove their rapacious hands. We do not want to stop giving them oil so that they have to struggle and some of the nations suffer from the cold.^{( 461)} No, we wish to be in control of our own oil and sell as much as we want to sell. And sell it we will, for no matter what kind of regime comes to power in Iran it will want to sell its oil, but not in the manner it was previously sold. We oppose the plundering of our oil, not its sale at its true price. We will sell our oil at its true price and get currency for it; we need the money, we need it to spend on the people. Our oil is being extracted now at a much greater rate than it should be and they (the Iranian government) do not get money in return for it, they get either scrap metal or buy aeroplanes at exorbitant prices! As for the small amount of money that they do receive in return for the oil, it is not spent on the nation; what does this poor nation have? Do not just look at the situation of a few wealthy merchants of the bazaar in Tehran or some of these landlords who live off their prey (the villagers), go take a look at the shanty towns and the villages. Go to Khuzistan and look at the situation in the villages there. God knows what a sorrowful state of affairs is to be found there. A river runs through Khuzistan, a large river, it is not a stream but a river on which boats sail, and the land there stretches for as far as the eye can see, yet it is devoid of agriculture. Once, about thirty years ago, when I was passing through Khuzistan on my way to the ‘atabat^{( 462)} , I stopped and pondered over the land there and thought that perhaps the soil was not suitable for farming, but when I took a closer look, I saw that it was very good soil and thus I realised that it was the hand of treason which did not allow the land to be cultivated. The water of that province is being wasted, as is the land! The people of Khuzistan have no doctor for their sick children, they have nothing. Sometimes one sees that ten villages, twenty villages even, do not have a clinic. Is this the great civilisation?^{( 463)} One clinic for twenty villages while other villages have to go without and the people there do not even know what a doctor is. In one of their (the regime’s) own newspapers they wrote that there is so little water that when the people wake up in the morning they have to wash the trachoma-infected eyes of their children - a condition brought about by this corrupt regime -with urine so they can open their eyes! This is what was written in the newspaper. This is the kind of life our people have to endure because of this man’s ‘mistakes!!’

Up until now he has made mistakes but now he claims that, they won’t be repeated and Iran will become the great civilisation! But your mistakes do not number one or two or ten! Your premeditated acts do not amount to one or two or ten! These newspaper reporters continue to ask us why we are at odds with the Shah. Need they ask? Ask the people what this man has done to make them oppose him so. Listen to what these children and adults alike are shouting. Do they disfavor him because they have a personal grudge against him? Do thirty million people have a personal grudge against him?

He has perpetrated so much treachery and committed so many crimes in this country that there is no room for compromise. He has left no way open for someone to say that his mistakes are forgotten or that from now on, please God, he will not repeat them; this is impossible now. If a clergyman, a politician, a merchant from the bazaar or an academic were to try to tell the people: “The Shah has repented today so let’s compromise with him, he has asked for God’s forgiveness so give him your forgiveness,” the people would regard him as a traitor! Why should we forgive him? Is what he has done worthy of our forgiveness? Should we forgive him for spilling the blood of our children and youth or for the fact that he has brought our country to rack and ruin? Why should we forgive him? What will he do from now on? He has plunged the families of this nation into a state of mourning. Now should we say: “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful let’s forgive him and finish the matter?” “Forgive me I made a mistake.” What on earth does this mean? At whom are these words directed?

In any case, the aim is this, if anyone thinks differently he is a traitor to the nation, the country and Islam. If you give him a respite, then tomorrow neither Islam, country nor family will remain for you. Do not give him time; squeeze this throat (of his) until it breathes no more. May God grant you all success? May He lift the evil of these overlords from us for the overlords are worse than they (the regime) are.