Imam Khamenei

3 fundamental issues of today's Muslim World, explained by Imam Khamenei

  • Palestine

The issue of Palestine is one of the most important issues or the most important issue of the Islamic world; the pressures on the Palestinian people and the troubles they go through are almost completely ignored. It seems to me that the Western Zionist media empire can be defeated; it is possible to make this a reality; if we all try, we can accomplish this. The defeat of the Zionists during the soft war is possible, just as the Zionists were defeated in the hard war.  As you saw, the Zionist regime was defeated. In Lebanon, the Zionist regime was forced to retreat: it was forced to admit its failure, while everyone thought it was an invincible regime. In the soft war, also, the Zionist regime and their agents can be defeated...

  • Islamic Unity 

The second point is the issue of Islamic unity: we should not allow our racial, regional, lingual and sectarian differences create disputes among us. We have declared this to everyone; we reiterate it today, as we always have said it. We have even told those who were openly hostile towards us, that we are prepared to treat you in a brotherly manner. Of course, there are some countries who cannot do it; they are incapable of acting in such a manner. However, we believe that the World of Islam—with such a large population, with plenty of facilities, with such an extremely crucial status and region that exist today in the World of Islam, whether in Africa, in Asia, in West Asia or in Central Asia—can, undoubtedly, create a great power within the world through unifying this collective community, henceforth playing an influential role. 
We should form such unity; we should converge and help one another; we should send our forces to help one another. Such warmongering, which has become frequent—mostly by the hands of the U.S. and Zionists who are trying to create discord—should be stopped; and we should not allow a safe haven be created for the Zionists via such conflicts. The enemies of the Islamic World wish that conflict, discord, war and bloodshed exists within the Muslim World, so that a safe haven is created for the Zionists. We should prevent this as much as we can.

  • Scientific progress 

The third issue – the third very important point – is the effort to make scientific progress. The western world achieved wealth thanks to science; it achieved international power thanks to science. They made progress in science, and as a result, they dominated the entire world. However, because they did not have faith and because they did not have the capacity to do so, they used it in bad ways. They did something to use science to aid in oppression, exploitation, colonialism and arrogance. We do not want to do these things. We are behind in terms of science. The world of Islam should try to help its youth move forward in the area of science because this is possible. 
We have done this here. We have improved our scientific ranking to a great extent. We have done all these things during the time of sanctions. It has been many years now that we have been under sanctions by transgressing powers. Sanctions helped us to blossom, to think of ourselves, and to benefit from our own resources. Today we are on the borders of scientific breakthroughs in important fields, while in the past, we were behind to a great extent. In medical sciences, in nanotechnology, in stem cell, in nuclear science and in many other scientific fields our youth have managed to blossom: to work and to achieve great feats. In the present time, educated and scientific young adults are greater, in number, compared to many other countries around the planet. Therefore, this is possible. One of the tasks that should definitely be pursued in Islamic countries is the issue of scientific progress. We should help one another in this area as well. Some other Islamic countries, too, have fortunately accomplished great achievements in this aspect.

Jan 16, 2018