The following is the full text of the speech delivered on May 17, 2009 by Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei the Leader of the Islamic Revolution to students and academics of Kurdistan province.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
The meeting arranged in this university with you dear youth, students, and luminaries has been very fruitful and promising. The meetings that are arranged with the youth - especially the meetings which are held in academic atmospheres with students, academics, and luminaries - are promising for those who attend them as well as the entire country. I am familiar with the dynamic and innovative spirit of our students because I am constantly in contact with them, and I will hopefully maintain this relationship in the future. But seeing this large gathering and listening to what our dear friends - including students, youth, and academics - said today made me more hopeful. If you maintain this spirit and this dynamism, everyone should be assured that the future of the country will be far better than its present conditions. Everyone should be assured that the country and the Islamic Republic will make many more advances in the future. We have made constant progress since the very first day of the Revolution. And thanks to the awareness and sense of responsibility of the youth and their attention to knowledge and the [national] ideals, I predict that the rate of our progress will be doubled in the future. Some people say negative things about our young generation, and their comments are rooted in the fact that they are biased and unaware. They say our youth are turning their backs on our ideals, but I do not believe what they say. Our youth are moving forward, and they are goal oriented and hopeful. And by Allah's favor, their youthful energy will help them shoulder the responsibilities in the country.
Before I discuss what I have in mind, I would like to consider what the dear friends said. The comments that were made were enjoyable. Appropriate and useful solutions were proposed, which were mostly concerned with knowledge, technology, qualitative improvement, and the academic atmosphere. Our friends stressed the importance of supporting "knowledge-based" industries as well. I would also emphasize all of these points. There were some novel points in the statements of the friends who spoke, and I hope the government officials who are present in this meeting - the Minister of Science and the Minister of Health as well as the Presidential Deputy in charge of scientific affairs - will pay attention to the points concerning the employment of elites and the other issues that were discussed here. I believe some excellent suggestions were made and all of them should be taken into consideration. When I return to Tehran, I will ask the officials to report to me on the implementation of these suggestions.
The young lady who spoke suggested that a "student parliament" should be established. That is a beautiful name, but such measures - which are only for show - will neither help students nor the country. We should pay as little attention as possible to superficial and trivial measures. Instead, we should divert our attention towards the fundamental and effective measures that will help us make progress. For the sake of argument, let us imagine that the student parliament has already been established. Just imagine the amount of time our students throughout the country have to spend on electing the members of this parliament! We should also determine which universities, which cities, which tendencies, and which political and intellectual orientations should be represented in this parliament! Currently, all our efforts are focused on kindling the enthusiasm for research and acquiring knowledge in academic atmospheres. Besides, my dear daughter also said that the student parliament should have executive power. The student parliament is supposed to be a parliament after all. Why the executive power? The student parliament is supposed to make laws, and then put them into practice! Just imagine the consequences of dragging this issue into universities. I absolutely agree that students should be supported and treated kindly. I absolutely agree that they should be allowed to express their views. But this is not how it should be done.
The young lady expressed her views beautifully and enthusiastically. As an old man, I feel young when a youth speaks in an enthusiastic manner. She said that the student parliament will help students make their voice heard. I think the present meeting is better than the student parliament in this regard. In order to convey your message to government officials, you should try to increase the number of such meetings. That is one of the reasons why I always feel duty bound to arrange a meeting with our students on my trips to various parts of the country - I visit different universities in Tehran as well. Through these meetings, I want to encourage government officials to talk to university students face to face. What you said today will be broadcast by the IRIB all over the country. As a government official, I heard your views. The university officials also heard your statements. Your views will be conveyed to our government officials as well. Do you know a better way to make your voice heard? You should try your best to increase the number of such sincere and friendly meetings. And of course you should try to avoid standing on ceremony the way you normally do! I do not really like it when some of our friends come to me and say exaggerated things about me. Let our relationship be a little friendlier and more natural. Let students talk freely to government officials. You should also let government officials freely talk to students when they have something to tell them. In any case, this meeting was a very good meeting. I would like to thank each and every person who spoke here.
What I want to discuss now is totally consistent with the nature of the youth and students of our country. It is about the future, and the future belongs to you. Your presence will be an effective and decisive factor in the future. What I want to discuss is the slogan of the fourth decade of the Revolution - that is, "The Decade of Progress and Justice". This decade has already started. I named the fourth decade of the Revolution as "The Decade of Progress and Justice". Of course it is not possible to achieve progress or justice through talking or selecting a name. But both progress and justice can be achieved through clarification, reiteration, and making determined efforts. We should all try to turn the issue of progress and justice into a national discourse. As long as we do not make efforts, our plans will not be translated into action, and we will not achieve our goal.
The issue of justice and progress should be clarified. I would like to talk about this issue for a few minutes. Justice itself requires a long and detailed discussion as well. First, I will try to outline the discussion as succinctly as I can. I will discuss some elements of progress to present a general outline of my conception of progress, which will be the main portion of the discussion. Then I will enumerate some prerequisites of progress. Finally if there is enough time, I will touch on the obstacles in the way of progress and the problems we may encounter.
Regarding the first issue - that is, presenting a general outline of progress - I will mention a number of points, and these points will show us the general outline.
The first point is that our discussion of progress should not be associated with the western sense of the word "development". In political and international discourse, development is a household word today. What we mean by progress may have some things in common with what is understood of the concept of development in the modern world. But the word progress should be defined in our terminology so that it is not confused with the western conception of development. What we are trying to achieve is not necessarily the western type of progress. For many consecutive years, westerners used a clever propaganda tactic and divided the countries of the world into three groups: Developed, developing, and undeveloped. At first, one may think that developed countries are the countries that enjoy advanced knowledge and technology. The terms developing and undeveloped may be understood along the same lines. But the terms are used in a different way.
The word "developed" is a value-loaded term. The same is true of the other two terms that normally follow the term "developed" - that is, developing and undeveloped. In fact, when they say a certain country is developed, they mean that country is a westernized country with all the defining characteristics of the western culture, traditions, behavior, and political orientation. That is what they mean by developed countries. Developing countries are the countries that are in the process of westernization. Undeveloped countries are those that are neither westernized nor in the process of westernization. That is how they interpret the terms. When westerners encourage countries to achieve development, they are in fact encouraging them to become westernized! You should take this point into consideration. Of course the developed western countries have their own positive points. I may touch on some of these positive points during my discussion. If we are supposed to learn these positive points, we will learn them. We are even prepared to be their students to learn these things. But we believe there are a number of things that go against our values. Therefore, we are absolutely opposed to becoming developed in the western sense of the word. The kind of progress that we are seeking is something else.
The second point is that there is no uniform model of progress that can be applied in all countries and communities. Progress is not an absolute concept, and it is affected by different factors - including historical, geographical, geopolitical, natural, human, temporal, and spatial conditions. A particular model of progress may be appropriate for a certain country, while the same model of progress may be inappropriate for another country. Therefore, there is no uniform model of progress, and we should not search for such a model and try to prepare the ground for adopting its elements in the country. There is no such thing as a uniform model of progress. Our country has its own model of progress, a model that is appropriate for our historical, geographical, and cultural conditions. We should search and find the model of progress that is appropriate for our country, and that model of progress will help us achieve progress. Prescriptive models will be useless. Neither American nor European models of progress - including the models of progress applied in Western Europe and Scandinavian countries - are not appropriate for our country. We should look for an indigenous model. All we have to do is find an indigenous model of progress that is appropriate for our own situation. I am discussing this in an academic atmosphere, which means that you students and academics should research and investigate this issue in a determined manner. By Allah's favor, you will succeed in finding this model.
The next point is also important: Intellectual principles affect the desirability of progress. Each community and nation has a set of intellectual, philosophical, and ethical principles that determine what kind of progress is welcome and what kind of progress is unwelcome. The incompetent person who foolishly urged our people to become totally European ignored the fact that Europe's progress is based on its own cultural background and intellectual principles. We may not accept some of those European principles. We may consider those principles wrong and criticize Europeans for adhering to them. We have our own intellectual and ethical principles. In the Middle Ages, European churches used to fight knowledge. We should not ignore the reactive motive behind the scientific renaissance in Europe. Intellectual, philosophical, and ethical principles exert a dramatic effect on the kind of progress a society makes. Our intellectual principles tell us whether a certain kind of progress is lawful or unlawful, welcome or unwelcome, and fair or unfair.
Imagine that a society is profit-centered - that is to say, everything is evaluated against money, and its people only think about financial value of things. That is the case in a large portion of the world, where everything is evaluated against money. In such a society a certain action may be considered a value simply because it helps people make money, while the same action may be considered an anti-value in another society in which money and profit are not the criteria for judgment.
Similarly, imagine that a society is hedonistic. When you ask them why they consider, say, homosexuality as legitimate, they say, because it is pleasurable. That is what hedonism is. When pleasure has primacy in a society, certain things become legitimate. But when you believe in a philosophy, ideology, and ethical system that does not give primacy to pleasure, certain things may be prohibited and unlawful while they are pleasurable. In a society that is not hedonistic, pleasure cannot justify actions, decisions, and lawfulness. In such a society, you cannot make the same decisions that you would make in a hedonistic society because the intellectual principles are different.
In the same way, in another type of society or ethical system, people may have a high regard for money, no matter how it is gained. It does not matter if it is gained through colonialism, exploitation, or plundering. The only thing that matters is that it is money. Of course in the societies that suffer from this problem, if these things are pointed out in an explicit manner, they may deny them. But when you consider their history, everything becomes clear. For instance, preserving personal wealth is the root of the individual freedom and liberalism that are considered a source of honor and a value in America. That is to say, considering the environment in which America had been established and the people who had established it, it was necessary to attach an absolute value to individual wealth in order to preserve the activities [of the early American society]. Of course from a sociological point of view and from a context-based perspective on the American society, the case of America is a long story. When America turned into a place for earning money due to its rich resources, those who had assembled there were mostly European adventurers who had managed to cross the turbulent Atlantic Ocean into America. Not everybody was prepared to go to America. Those who had a good life, a job, and a family in Europe were not prepared to go to America. Those who went to America had serious financial problems, or they were outlaws or adventurers. Those who went to America had to be truly adventurous to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
The majority of the early population of America consisted of these adventurers. In order to help these adventurers coexist and generate wealth, it was necessary to attach an absolute value to individual wealth, and that was exactly what they did. In some western movies, you see that people are sentenced to death for stealing a cow from a cattleman! That was because individual wealth and personal ownership had become an absolute value. Of course these movies are not totally based on reality, but they contain some traces of reality. In such societies, it is not important where the money comes from.
The majority of western societies have gained their wealth through colonialism. The wealth that the English obtained in the 18th and 19th centuries had been gained through colonizing eastern countries, especially the Indian Subcontinent. They plundered the Indian Subcontinent and Siam [Thailand] as well as other countries in that region. England used this wealth to make its policies dominant in the entire Europe as well as other places. You should read the history of English colonialism. It is not really possible to summarize what they did to India. The English accumulated their wealth by squeezing India - which was a very rich country - of its wealth. They did not ask where the wealth came from. This wealth is to be respected! Progress has a special meaning for such a country. But in a country where colonialism, exploitation, plundering, usurping, and violating other people's rights are considered haraam and prohibited, progress will have a different meaning. Therefore, intellectual, ethical, and philosophical principles play a key role when defining progress in a country.
The next point is that when considering the differences between Islamic progress and western development, we should not ignore the similarities. There are some similarities between the two. The spirit of risk-taking, innovation, taking action, and discipline are essential for making progress in all societies. To be fair, the spirit of risk-taking is among the good characteristics of Europeans. These are essential requirements. We will learn them if we have to. We should learn these requirements and put them into practice.
The next point is about the issue of justice. This decade is "The Decade of Progress and Justice", which is a very meaningful name. Increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is one of the most important criteria for all countries. It is not right to reason that just because a particular country's GDP is several thousand billion dollars, it is more developed than another country whose GDP is much less. The large value of GDP does not in itself show how much progress a country has achieved. It is necessary to see how this GDP is distributed in the country. If a certain country's GDP is extremely high, but some of its people sleep on sidewalks and many people die when the temperature rises to 42 degrees centigrade, that country is not developed. You sometimes read in newspapers that several people die just because the temperature rises to 42 degrees centigrade in a big western city - in America or other countries. Why would some people die when the temperature rises? Those who die are homeless. If there are some homeless people in a society, and if there are some people in a society who have to work 14 hours a day just to feed themselves, that society cannot be called developed even if its GDP increases by ten times. According to Islamic thought, this society has not achieved any progress. Therefore, justice is extremely important.
Of course regarding progress, there are many other things I would like to mention. Basically, the Islamic view of progress is based on Islam's view of man. In Islam, man is considered to have two stages of life: One in this world and the other in the hereafter. This is the main criterion and the basis of everything that should be taken into account in Islamic discussions of progress. If a civilization or a culture considers human prosperity as limited to this material world and considers man to have only one stage of life, naturally its conception of progress will be totally different from the Islamic conception of progress - in which man is considered to have two stages of life. Our country and Islamic societies in general will achieve progress only when they help their people achieve prosperity in this world as well as the hereafter. Prosperity in this world and the hereafter is what prophets wanted. Prosperity in this world should not be ignored under the delusion that one is seeking prosperity in the hereafter. Similarly, prosperity in the hereafter should not be ignored because of seeking material prosperity. This is a crucial point. This is the kind of progress that Islamic societies should be after.
Several kinds of deviation may creep in. One kind of deviation is to focus one's attention on this world at the cost of ignoring the hereafter. That is to say, in this kind of deviation, all the efforts of officials and politicians of society are focused on providing material prosperity for the people - making sure that the people have money and comfort. In such a society, all efforts are exclusively focused on alleviating housing, financial, marital, and employment problems of the people, but their spiritual situation is not at all taken into consideration. This is a kind of deviation.
Another type of deviation is to ignore material prosperity. Ignoring material prosperity means being indifferent to the blessings of worldly life. Throughout history, this kind of deviation has caused many problems for the religious people who focus all their attention on religious and spiritual aspects of life and ignore the blessings that Allah the Exalted has bestowed on this world. "He brought you forth from the earth and made you dwell in it." [The Holy Quran, 11: 61] Allah the Exalted has assigned man to make the earth prosper. That is to say, we have been assigned to discover the potentialities of the material world and help mankind utilize them and move forward. Knowledge and generation of knowledge are also related to this point.
Another type of deviation is to underestimate and ignore worldly blessings and material needs in one's personal life. Islam has not asked individuals to ignore their material needs. On the contrary, it has urged the opposite attitude. "Those who abandon their life in the hereafter for their worldly life and those who abandon their worldly life for their life in the hereafter are not one of us." If you give up your worldly life or your life in the hereafter, you will fail this divine test. This is a very important point. Once the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) came across a person who had abandoned his family and given up his all in order to worship God. Imam Ali (a.s.) told him that he was the worst enemy of himself. He told him, this is not what God has asked you to do. "Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah, which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good provisions?" [The Holy Quran, 7: 32] This ayah refers to the same point. Therefore, it is necessary to keep a balance between one's worldly life and one's eternal life in the hereafter. That is one of the important criteria for progress.
These were some of the criteria for the kind of progress we are after. As I said, progress is not limited to what I discussed here: It is an open question that has to be investigated carefully and persistently. Academic intellectuals should make a concerted effort to investigate this issue. Islamic progress has to be scientifically defined and modeled so that we can put it into practice and achieve tangible progress in approximately ten years' time.
All models of progress should ensure our national independence. This is one of the requirements, and it should be considered a criterion. Any model of progress that leads to humiliation and dependence of the country is unacceptable. Any model of progress that makes us politically, economically, and militarily follow powerful countries is unacceptable. That is to say, independence is one of the indispensable requirements of progress in "The Decade of Progress and Justice". Superficial progress that is accompanied by political and economic dependence is not progress at all. Today there are some countries - particularly in Asia - that have achieved superficial progress in technology, knowledge, and manufacturing. These countries have also managed to dominate various parts of the world, but the problem is that they are dependant. In global policies, international economic policies, and important international plans, their people and government do not have any role to play. They only follow. They often have to follow America's lead. Their progress is not genuine progress, and it is worthless.
Another point that I would like to discuss here is the issue of globalization. Globalization is a beautiful name. All countries think that globalization will open up global markets to them. But when it means that an independent nation should become a cog in the wheel of western capitalism, it should not be accepted by any independent nation. If genuine globalization were to be practiced, all countries would be able to preserve their economic and political independence. Otherwise, the kind of globalization that was introduced by such organizations as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization - all of which are the American means of arrogance - is worthless. Therefore, independence is one of the most important criteria. In the absence of independence, progress is only a mirage. It is not possible to achieve genuine progress in the absence of independence.
Generation of knowledge is another issue which is closely related to the academic world. Fortunately, I see that generation of knowledge and crossing the boundaries of knowledge have turned into a popular discourse in our universities. This is very promising and pleasing. The suggestions that these dear students and academics made regarding such things as knowledge, research, establishing research centers, and educating new intellectuals are all in line with the issue of generating knowledge. You should put these suggestions into practice. We should persistently tread this path. We are backward in these areas. Our current rate of progress is good. However, considering the backwardness our country has suffered in the past, our rate of progress will never be too much. There is a long way to go. We should take short-cuts and increase our speed. We should generate knowledge in all areas.
Relations between countries in the area of knowledge should be like trade relations. That is to say, there should be a balance between imports and exports. In the area of economic and business affairs, it is not profitable for a country to import goods more than the amount it exports - it leads to a trade deficit. In the same way, it is not good for a country to import knowledge more than it contributes to collective human knowledge. Nothing is wrong with importing knowledge from abroad, but you should generate at least as much knowledge as you import. Knowledge should flow in and out of the country. Otherwise, if you just consume the knowledge generated by other countries, you cannot make progress. You should learn the knowledge generated by other countries, but you should also generate knowledge and let other countries use it. Take care not to let your country encounter a "knowledge deficit". Unfortunately, we have suffered from a knowledge deficit for a couple of centuries - that is, the period of scientific blossoming in the world. Good measures have been taken since the Revolution, but we should step up these measures.
Of course I am not just talking about natural sciences. Human sciences such as sociology, psychology, and philosophy are not less important than natural sciences. Some people consider western sociological theories as reliable as the Quran, and even more so than the Quran! Just because such and such a sociologist has said something, they think it is indisputable. Why? They should think and present theories. We should use what these fields can offer us. We should try to add something to these fields and disclose their weaknesses. This is one of the indispensable requirements of progress.
Resistance is another requirement for making progress. If you want to make progress you should fight. Laziness, sitting around, and watching the world go by will never bring about progress for a country. You should take action. Fighting is not necessarily limited to a battlefield. In the modern world, political and ethical battles are more important than military confrontation. If their political and ethical record were fairly judged, many of the so-called developed countries, governments, and societies in the world would be embarrassed.
Take the case of Gaza. The people of Gaza were besieged in a small area of land. The necessities of life were not allowed to go in or out of that area. They used warplanes, missiles, and artillery fire against the people of Gaza. They used their armored units to massacre more than five thousand people in a matter of twenty days. But the world only stood by and watched. It was only in the middle of this massacre that some useless objections were raised here and there. At the end, the United Nations Secretary-General surprisingly declared that the case of Gaza was closed!
Today there is oppression in the world. There is discrimination. There is a double standard. Our nuclear issue is one manifestation of these things. Military attacks against our neighboring countries are another manifestation of this global oppression. Dropping bombs on civilians and killing them is something normal in the modern world. For example, last week 150 people were killed in Afghanistan as a result of an American air strike. It was as if nothing had happened. They just said, "Sorry, it was a mistake!" What kind of justification is that?
The world should have taken Saddam Hussein to court for dropping chemical bombs on Halabcheh. The world should have dragged the American commander to court after he shot down Iran's passenger plane in the Persian Gulf and killed hundreds of Iranian and non-Iranian passengers. Instead, the then American President gave him a medal of honor. See how degenerate they are. The world should have put that American commander on trial after he ordered the bombing of a wedding caravan in Afghanistan. If the world had done these things, such events would not have happened in the world - or at least the number of such events would have been declined. The current situation is unacceptable and inhumane. Any conscientious nation should fight these events.
We are proud of the fact that our nation, government, youth, government officials, and intellectuals have not been indifferent to these events throughout these years. They have declared their position. They have expressed their hatred towards these events. The Iranian nation should not lose this spirit. You - especially you dear youth - should not lose this spirit. Some people want to stand reality on its head. They protest, "How much longer are you going to shout these slogans?" They protest why we use international meetings to publicly discuss the crimes committed by America, the Zionists, or their allies. We must tell the world about these crimes. World nations will learn a lesson. A number of newly-liberated countries - particularly, a famous African country - have followed the model set by Iran. I cannot prove this, but I know that they followed the model set by Iran - I have seen it with my own eyes. They adopted the same method that had been used during the Revolution. The revolutionary leaders came to Iran, and they learned about Imam Khomeini's method. They went back to their country and put the same method into practice. Thus, they managed to achieve independence and wipe out apartheid in their country.
When they see that a nation is resisting like this, nations are inspired, governments learn a lesson, and leaders are emboldened. Why would we feel ashamed? Before the Revolution, when someone had to say his prayers in a public place, it was so strange that those who were accompanying him used to exclaim, "You are embarrassing us!" Praying was a source of embarrassment. You dear youth did not experience those days. At that time, if a religious youth said his prayers in a public place, his friends were embarrassed. Before the Revolution, if a speaker started his speech with "In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful", his friends were embarrassed.
Due to Iran's anti-arrogance positions, today is a glorious time for Islam, the Islamic Republic, and the Iranian nation. But when someone stands up to America, Israel, and their allies and criticizes them in an explicit manner, some people feel embarrassed in our country. They exclaim that they are embarrassed - just like the people who were embarrassed before the Revolution when their friends said their prayers in public. Why would we feel embarrassed? The clear stance of the Iranian nation, especially the youth, against international oppression and injustice should not be abandoned.
Dear people, you should all make efforts to make progress. Most of the students of this university are Kurdish students. I am proud of the fact that our enemies are furious at Kurdish students of Kurdistan for preserving Islamic slogans so well. I am proud of the fact that Kurdish students of Kurdistan are so strongly committed to our national ideals that they make our enemies furious. This is a source of national honor. The enemies worked a lot on Kurdistan province. They used their mouthpieces, political leaflets, and newspapers to publicly and secretly promote ethnic segregation among Iranian ethnicities. Today's meeting shows that their efforts have backfired. You also saw the failure of their efforts in the meetings that were held in Sanandaj and Marivan. Our people are unified. They are pursuing the same ideals. Iranian ethnicities have solidarity. I believe what our Kurdish countrymen said today about national solidarity and commitment is obviously right. Some people may not know the realities, or they may misunderstand the situation - they should revise their views.
Different ethnic groups that live in our country are an opportunity for our country. It would be really good if we could encourage Iranian ethnicities to compete for righteous deeds. All Iranian ethnicities - including Kurds, Persians, Azeris, Baluchis, Arabs, Turkmen, and Lors - should try to help our country achieve national progress. This is an excellent opportunity. A couple of days ago, in my meeting with the elites of Sanandaj and Kurdistan province, one of our Kurdish friends made a good comment. He said, "Just as Shahid Motahhari wrote a book on the mutual services of Iran and Islam, so it would be very good if someone wrote a book on the mutual services of Kurds and Iran." You should clarify the great strides that different Iranian ethnicities can take towards national and Islamic ideals. If you manage to encourage Iranian ethnicities to take part in such a competition, it will be the best national competition and it will reveal how talented Iranian people are. That will be an opportunity for us. Of course the enemy can turn ethnic differences into a threat. But fortunately, you are all vigilant. Narrow-minded tribal confrontation is totally inconsistent with the Islamic view. This confrontation is totally inconsistent with the broad-minded perspective that we all need to adopt.
I hope Allah the Exalted will bestow His grace and blessings on all of you.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings