Message of ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Leader of The
Islamic Republic of Iran
In the name of God,
the Beneficent the Merciful
To the Youth in Europe and North America,
The recent events in France and similar ones in some other
Western countries have convinced me to directly talk to you about them. I am
addressing you, [the youth], not because I overlook your parents, rather it is
because the future of your nations and countries will be in your hands; and
also I find that the sense of quest for truth is more vigorous and attentive in
your hearts.
I don’t address your politicians and statesmen either in
this writing because I believe that they have consciously separated the route
of politics from the path of righteousness and truth.
I would like to talk to you about Islam, particularly the
image that is presented to you as Islam. Many attempts have been made over the
past two decades, almost since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, to place
this great religion in the seat of a horrifying enemy. The provocation of a
feeling of horror and hatred and its utilization has unfortunately a long
record in the political history of the West.
Here, I don’t want to deal with the different phobias with
which the Western nations have thus far been indoctrinated. A cursory review of
recent critical studies of history would bring home to you the fact that the
Western governments’ insincere and hypocritical treatment of other nations and
cultures has been censured in new historiographies.
The histories of the United States and Europe are ashamed of
slavery, embarrassed by the colonial period and chagrined at the oppression of
people of color and non-Christians. Your researchers and historians are deeply
ashamed of the bloodsheds wrought in the name of religion between the Catholics
and Protestants or in the name of nationality and ethnicity during the First
and Second World Wars. This approach is admirable.
By mentioning a fraction of this long list, I don’t want to
reproach history; rather I would like you to ask your intellectuals as to why
the public conscience in the West awakens and comes to its senses after a delay
of several decades or centuries. Why should the revision of collective
conscience apply to the distant past and not to the current problems? Why is it
that attempts are made to prevent public awareness regarding an important issue
such as the treatment of Islamic culture and thought?
You know well that humiliation and spreading hatred and
illusionary fear of the “other” have been the common base of all those
oppressive profiteers. Now, I would like you to ask yourself why the old policy
of spreading “phobia” and hatred has targeted Islam and Muslims with an
unprecedented intensity. Why does the power structure in the world want Islamic
thought to be marginalized and remain latent? What concepts and values in Islam
disturb the programs of the super powers and what interests are safeguarded in
the shadow of distorting the image of Islam? Hence, my first request is: Study
and research the incentives behind this widespread tarnishing of the image of
Islam.
My second request is that in reaction to the flood of
prejudgments and disinformation campaigns, try to gain a direct and firsthand
knowledge of this religion. The right logic requires that you understand the
nature and essence of what they are frightening you about and want you to keep
away from.
I don’t insist that you accept my reading or any other
reading of Islam. What I want to say is: Don’t allow this dynamic and effective
reality in today’s world to be introduced to you through resentments and
prejudices. Don’t allow them to hypocritically introduce their own recruited
terrorists as representatives of Islam.
Receive knowledge of Islam from its primary and original
sources. Gain information about Islam through the Qur’an and the life of its
great Prophet. I would like to ask you whether you have directly read the
Qur’an of the Muslims. Have you studied the teachings of the Prophet of Islam
and his humane, ethical doctrines? Have you ever received the message of Islam
from any sources other than the media?
Have you ever asked yourself how and on the basis of which
values has Islam established the greatest scientific and intellectual
civilization of the world and raised the most distinguished scientists and
intellectuals throughout several centuries?
I would like you not to allow the derogatory and offensive
image-buildings to create an emotional gulf between you and the reality, taking
away the possibility of an impartial judgment from you. Today, the
communication media have removed the geographical borders. Hence, don’t allow
them to besiege you within fabricated and mental borders.
Although no one can individually fill the created gaps, each
one of you can construct a bridge of thought and fairness over the gaps to
illuminate yourself and your surrounding environment. While this preplanned
challenge between Islam and you, the youth, is undesirable, it can raise new
questions in your curious and inquiring minds. Attempts to find answers to
these questions will provide you with an appropriate opportunity to discover
new truths.
Therefore, don’t miss the opportunity to gain proper,
correct and unbiased understanding of Islam so that hopefully, due to your sense
of responsibility toward the truth, future generations would write the history
of this current interaction between Islam and the West with a clearer
conscience and lesser resentment.
Seyyed Ali Khamenei
21st Jan. 2015
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