In the case of essential and fundamental developments in society, we might act in the wrong way sometimes. We might forget our independent national identity instead of preserving the foundations, instead of insisting on providing what we lack and need. Unfortunately, this long and tragic story goes back a long way in our country as well as in many other Islamic countries. I might briefly discuss this issue later on.
What is more dangerous than this is that the control of these international developments might fall into the hands of the wrong people. These people might decide to achieve their own personal goals - either wealth or power - by riding the wave of these international developments and changes. Such people do not have any respect for national identity. Unfortunately, this has been the case in the world over the past 100, 150 years. That is to say, the developments in Asian, African and Latin American countries have fallen into the trap of the machinations designed by international gangs of power, by the Zionists and international capitalists. Therefore, what is important for these people is achieving political power so that they can infiltrate European and non-European governments and countries, accumulate wealth and establish big companies, cartels and trusts. This has been the goal of such people. Whenever it was necessary to spread moral corruption among the people, they would easily do that. Whenever it was necessary to promote consumerism among the people, they would easily do that. Whenever it was necessary to promote a tendency among the people to ignore national identity and cultural foundations, they would easily do that. These have been their major goals. They have always had a host of cultural and media facilities as well as numerous newspapers and different tools of propaganda. These things are being disclosed in the world little by little. Yesterday I read a newspaper article about the establishment of a "cultural NATO". Of course, I had seen the article three, four months earlier. The Americans established NATO - which is a powerful military organization - in Europe and they announced that they needed it to counter the former Soviet Union, but they have been using it to suppress all dissenting voices in the Middle East, Asia and other places. Now they have established a cultural NATO as well. This is a very dangerous thing. Of course, it is not a new development: they did this several years ago. A group of interconnected media outlets - including websites, satellite channels and TV and radio stations - are moving in a particular direction in order to take control of the developments that happen in different societies. And their work has become very easy and straightforward.
When a political transformation took place in Georgia, which led to a transfer of power, a Jewish American capitalist - who is famous, but I do not want to mention his name - announced that he had spent ten million dollars in Georgia in order to give rise to a political upheaval. As simple as that: they spend ten million dollars to remove a government from power and replace it with another government. They influence the people by establishing certain communities. They did the same in Ukraine as well as in other places. Sometimes they even play a more determining role in other ways. I might have said this before in a meeting with students: Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia who was a very hardworking, meticulous, serious and committed person, made a trip to Tehran years ago. He met with me on the trip. At that time, different developments had taken place in East Asia. Great economic transformations had taken place in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The Zionist capitalist I mentioned earlier and other capitalists managed to make several countries go bankrupt with banking and financial games and schemes. In the meeting, Mahathir Mohamad told me, "Long story short, we lost everything overnight!" Of course, this is what happens when a country becomes economically dependent and tries to implement the prescriptions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are in fact two pieces of this big puzzle. If the control of global developments falls into the hands of international gangs of power, the situation becomes very dangerous. And this is what has happened today. The people who are in control of these developments are Zionists and capitalists most of whom live in America and Europe. These were a few points that I wanted to discuss regarding the change. Therefore, it is wrong to run away from change. It is wrong to be afraid of change. Change must not be confused with chaos and anarchism. Change is both good and necessary.
The main point that I would like to raise today is that reactionary attitudes and suppressing innovation will not get us anywhere, and neither will unprincipled deconstruction and economic, ideological and cultural anarchy. Both of these are wrong. As for freedom of thought, I raised the issue two, three years ago and our students welcomed my comments about arranging free debates, but my suggestions were not really put into practice, neither in our Islamic seminaries nor in our universities. I said that our students should arrange free debates. Of course, I just remembered that in reports related to the universities of Semnan, I read that active student communities in Semnan arrange free debates with each other. These activities are very constructive and good, assuming that the report I received is accurate.
Imam Khamenei, Nov 9, 2006
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