American-Style Democracy for Arabs, Muslims as Destructive as Their Bombs

Tehran Times, 10 February 2003

TEHRAN—The democracy that the Americans claim they want to offer to Islamic and Arab countries is as destructive as their bombs and missiles, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said in his annual Hajj message yesterday.

The message distributed during the Hajj ceremonies in Arafat, said, the U.S. real aim is to appropriate OPEC and swallow up the region's oil resources, to offer a closer support to the Zionist regime and to plot more closely against Islamic Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

Global imperialism—that is the closely-knit network of oil cartels, arms manufacturers, world Zionism, and their ally governments— threatened by the awakening of the Islamic ummah, is in a state of aggression accompanied with panicky moves. This aggression, which has political, media, military and terrorist dimensions, is today clearly visible in the violent and unabashed conduct and statements of the militarists in charge of the United States government and the Zionist regime, it said.

WHAT FOLLOWS IS THE TEXT OF THE MESSAGE.

The gathering of millions of Muslims during the Hajj ceremony is a wonderful and an unparalleled phenomenon. All Muslim nations from all over the world and from all walks of life gather here for several days in the House of Allah and the birthplace of Islam and its magnificent Prophet to perform the symbolic rites of Hajj. These observances, full of grandeur and meaning, teach Muslim nations, practically and allegorically, the hearts' communion with Allah the Almighty, their sense of empathy, of a constant movement around the axis of tohid (divine unity), of collective effort and endeavors, of rejection of Satan and disavowal of taghut (false gods), of remembrance, supplication and humility before Allah, and of honor and grandeur under the banner of Islam. Hajj rituals are embodiments of qualities such as compassion and coexistence amongst brethren, firmness and fortitude in confrontation with the enemies, liberation from the accretions of egoism and merging in the ocean of divine honor and greatness.

Hajj represents a model for the Islamic ummah, and teaches the kind of conduct that the great ummah must adopt to achieve happiness. Hajj can be interpreted as a collective, purposeful, conscious and versatile movement in the same direction. The basic thrust of this movement is remembrance of Allah and harmony among His creatures. The purpose of this movement is establishment of a strong spiritual bulwark for a happy life of mankind.

Allah has made the Kaaba, the Sacred House, a
[means of] sustentation for mankind, and
[also] the sacred month, the offering and the garlands...(5:97).

Today the Muslim ummah is in need of a great purposeful movement in its real life corresponding to the model of Hajj, and one and all share this responsibility, Muslim states and nations alike.

The Islamic countries have suffered irreparable losses during the last century. The tide of colonialism and expansionism released by the Westerners inflicted the biggest damages on Muslim nations, whose wealth and material resources had made them the target of the all-round aggressions of the colonial states.

The outcome of these encroachments on the Muslims was political and economic slavery and backwardness in scientific and material spheres, and exploitation of the material and human resources of Muslims for the colonialists, who sought to enhance their wealth and power through usurpation, oppression, warmongering and violence.

After a long time the Muslim nations woke up. The tide of Muslim awakening that spread through the Islamic world and the struggle for freedom and justice opened new promising horizons and, finally, a new era dawned on the Islamic world with the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran.

Obviously, the world's hubs of power and wealth will not submit to truth and justice so simply.

The Muslim nations have a long and tough journey—though finally a happy and rewarding one—before them. But if those who travel on this road are steadfast, they will rescue themselves and the future generations from the humiliation of political, economic and cultural slavery and backwardness, and will attain to a refreshing life under the shade of Islam.

This path is one of struggle in the fields of science and politics and that of a powerful defense of clear truth. In this arena, the Muslims defend their own honor, dignity and usurped rights. The human conscience and innate sense of justice is a keen and an uncompromising judge that endorses this struggle of the oppressed and the wronged, and Allah's modus operandi gives the good news of its definite success: Those who are fought against are permitted [to fight] because they have been wronged, and Allah is indeed able to help them (22:39).

Global imperialism—that is the closely-knit network of oil cartels, arms manufacturers, world Zionism, and their ally governments— threatened by the awakening of the Islamic ummah, is in a state of aggression accompanied with panicky moves. This aggression, which has political, media, military and terrorist dimensions, is today clearly visible in the violent and unabashed conduct and statements of the militarists in charge of the United States government and the Zionist regime.

Palestine, oppressed and drenched in blood, is a daily victim of the most ruthless measures of the usurper regime. The people of Palestine are victims of murder, plunder, destruction and torture, humiliation and insults and suffer every kind of hardship merely for the crime of having obtained the courage to make a serious demand for their usurped rights after half a century.

The people of Iraq receive threats of war because the U.S. regime considers it necessary to establish itself in Iraq and take the destiny of its people into its hands and, as a consequence, the destiny as well of all countries of the Middle East, in order to establish its control over the vital flow of oil and to plunder the remaining oil resources of this region and to establish an effective presence close to the borders of Palestine, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

The people of Afghanistan were made to feel the brunt of American and British bombs and weapons of mass destruction for the past year and several months with their soul and body and to suffer the humiliating presence of their occupying forces because the U.S. administration has chosen to define its illegitimate interests in these terms.

The greed of this imperialist and anti-human network knows no bounds. If during the last fifty years the United States wanted to be the master of Latin American countries, now it wants to be the absolute sovereign and dictator of the Muslim countries of the region in the current half century. The extravagant international objectives and plans of the United States are all indicative of this arrogant yet stupid ambition.

There is no doubt that the United States and its allies will fail and once again the world will witness the collapse of a powerful yet drunken emperor, as we saw that his miscalculations came out wrong in Palestine and Afghanistan. However, if the Muslim ummah, the states and the peoples, do not take timely, wise and courageous decisions, they will suffer heavy damages which will take a long time to remedy.

In the recent bout of its insane measures, which began after the strongly suspect incident of September 11, the United States has also launched a propaganda offensive. With the pretext of defense of democracy and war against terrorism it addresses a tirade to Muslim nations condemning chemical arms and weapons of mass destruction.

Don't you think that the Muslims will ask as to what governments and companies have supplied these arms to Iraq in the first place? As 13,000 of the 19,000 chemical bombs, which according to you were formerly in the stockpiles of the Baathist regime of Iraq, were dropped on the heads of the Iranians, there must still exist 6,000 of them.

You are justifying your future attack on Iraq on this basis. But from where did the Iraqi regime get these weapons and chemical arms? Who else than you and your allies share the guilt for this historic catastrophe? Do they not reflect that the claims of war against terrorism and accusing an unknown and obscure group cannot deceive Muslim nations who witness United States' support of the most barbaric terrorists of the world, the Israeli regime? This expensive and insane propaganda has led the United States to become a prime symbol of mendacity, deceit and chicanery in the eyes of the Muslim nations.

The arrogant and imperialist United States has not realized its objectives in Palestine and Afghanistan, and its stupendous financial and human outlays have brought it nothing but loss. It will be the same story in the future, God willing.

Also, in the case of Iraq, the U.S. claims that its objective is elimination of Saddam and the Baathist regime. This is, of course, a lie. Its real aim is to appropriate OPEC and to swallow up the region's oil resources, to offer a closer support to the Zionist regime and to plot more closely against Islamic Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. That which is certain is that in case of American control of Iraq, with or without war, the primary victim of this hostile occupation will be the Iraqi people and the honor, dignity and wealth of that historic nation. But if the people of Iraq and the neighboring nations are vigilant, the U.S. will not attain these objectives either, God willing.

Imperialism knows that the source of the resistance of Muslim nations and states is Islam and its liberating teachings. This is the reason why they have started a wholesale psychological war against Islam and Muslims. After the incident of September 11, wherein innumerable circumstantial indications pointed the finger of accusation toward clandestine Zionist networks, the names of Islam and Muslims were hastily affixed on the list of the main accused and repeated day and night. In Afghanistan, America and other places, a number of Muslims were taken captive and dispatched to frightful prisons and torture cells. Neither the charges against these individuals were established, nor did any accused of note and established identity fall into the hands of the Americans. However, the psychological war against Islam and Muslims did not end, nor does it appear to end in the near future.

Islam is a religion of freedom, justice and quest for truth. Real democracy is religious democracy established on the basis of faith and the sense of religious duty. As witnessed in the case of Islamic Iran, it works in a manner much more reliable, sincere and democratic than in democracies such as that of the United States. The democracy that the Americans claim they want to offer to Islamic and Arab countries is as destructive as their bombs and missiles. When the enemy offers us even a date, one cannot be sure that it has not been soaked in fatal poison. The Muslim ummah has experienced the truth of this in Africa, Middle East and West Asia recurrently in the past as well as in the more recent years.

In this crucial and critical situation, the Muslim ummah needs, more than ever before, to take lesson from the model of Hajj: A purposeful movement, versatile, aware, and universal in the direction of Qoranic objectives on the straight path of Islam. Allah, the Most High, says: Those who have faith fight in the way of Allah, and those who are faithless fight in the way of the rebel. So fight the friends of Satan; indeed the stratagems of Satan are always flimsy (4:76). And God, the Most High, says: Moses said to his people, 'Turn to Allah for help and be patient. The earth indeed belongs to Allah, and He gives its inheritance to whomever He wishes of His servants, and the outcome will be in favor of the Godwary' (7:128).