Maryam Rajavi’s speech at the conference of solidarity with peoples of Syria and Iraq
Ramadhan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur’an, as a guide to mankind, also clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment (Between right and wrong). Chapter Cow, verse 185
Sisters and Brothers,
On the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, I congratulate all of you, Muslims everywhere, especially those in the Middle East and North Africa, my dear compatriots in Iran and the freedom-loving Mojahedin at Liberty prison.
Ramadan is the month when the holy Koran was sent. It is a month of guidance and piety, a month of delineating boundaries with the world of ignorance and fundamentalism, and the month for underscoring pure human values in opposition to all things that the inhumane, dark and evil forces seek to impose on the fate of humanity.
I want to take this opportunity to, with your permission, call this year’s Ramadan the month of solidarity with the peoples of Iraq, Syria and Iran, who have risen up to attain freedom from oppressive and murderous regimes. As well as for the nations of Palestine and Lebanon who are victims of the daggers and treachery of the velayat-e faqih regime in Iran.
Dear friends,
There are many things that remain unsaid about the hardships that have descended on the peoples of the region during recent years. Despite all this, one should not consider what is happening in the region today as only pain and suffering. There is a more important reality at play:
The mullahs in Iran, who were busy expanding their evil influence in the region and exporting fundamentalism and terrorism by taking advantage of three extensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the windfall gains of these wars over a quarter of a century, have now fallen into the opposite trend, suffering huge regional defeats that have threatened their survival.
The principal slogan and demand of the vast and unprecedented movements that have enveloped the region since the end of 2010 has been freedom and democracy. At its core, this slogan is in defiance of dictatorship and fundamentalism, both of which stem from the velayat-e faqih regime in Iran. But, hoping to prop up reactionary tendencies under the banner of “Islamic Awakening,” the mullahs ruling Iran tried to take revolutions and democracy in these countries hostage and replace them with fundamentalism, terrorism and extremism. They sought to create the same catastrophe for the Arab Spring that they had produced for the revolution in Iran 35 years ago. But developments in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya demonstrated that the level of people’s awareness in the region is far greater than would allow the repeat of the hijacked revolution in Iran. They stood up against religious reactionaries and fundamentalism. Even though the ruling mullahs in Iran and their allies, who form the crescent of extremism and fundamentalism in the region, have not ceased to conspire, fundamentalism and reactionary ideology have received heavy blows from the democracy front in North Africa.
Through their uprising on June 30, 2013, the Egyptian people prevented the slide of one of the most important countries of the region down a path that was desired by the velayat-e faqih in Iran.
Khamenei and his regime acted differently in Syria and Iraq. Since the downfall of dictatorships in these two countries would fundamentally transform the balance of power against the Iranian regime, the regime resorted to an all-out military, intelligence, and terrorist meddling, with the goal of preventing the establishment of democracy.
In Syria, Khamenei and Assad have taken their evil to new heights, leading to 200,000 martyrs, and the displacement of 11 million people, nearly half of the country’s population. On the other hand, the people of Syria and the Free Syrian Army have waged an inspiring struggle, exhibiting a high level of morale, perseverance and bravery. Although the velayat-e faqih regime has prolonged the pain and suffering of the Syrian people, it has itself fallen into a trip as well. With no way forward or backward, it is at a deadly impasse with no other prospect than complete defeat.
The most important development of the reinvigorated Arab Spring is what is happening in Iraq right now. Iraq has for a long time been the mullahs’ launching pad for the expansion of fundamentalism and terrorism. This was the Iranian regime’s motivation for the unpatriotic 8-year war with Iraq.
After 2003, the U.S. handed Iraq to the Iranian regime on a silver platter. In December 2005, the current justice minister in Rouhani’s cabinet, Pourmohammadi, who was then Ahmadinejad’s interior minister, was very pleased about the massive electoral fraud, and said it is the regime’s slogans that are coming out of “ballot boxes in Baghdad and Iraqi provinces.” And he said this is “proof of the realization” of Khomeini’s belief that “the way to Jerusalem passes through Karbala.”
In June 2006, more than 5.2 million Iraqi people said the following about the Iranian regime’s threats and the imperative of expelling the regime from Iraq:
• “The people of Iraq are plagued by the meddling, hidden war and undeclared occupation by the Iranian regime;”
• “The infiltration of the Iranian regime in Iraqi ministries, security organs and service institutions is astounding. Iranian rulers seek to dominate this region of the world and they have turned Iraq into the battleground and the front line of their war against the international community in order to subdue the waves of the main battle in Iraq, which is between democracy and dictatorship, before they reach the shores of Iran itself.”
• “The destruction of the shrines of Imam Hadi and Imam Asgari and the planned subsequent attack against mosques and the killing of religious leaders and people at the time of prayer, brutal mass killings, assassination of nationalist figures and intellectuals of Iraqi society, kidnappings, and a never-ending wave of arbitrary arrests, the discovery of secret prisons and torture chambers, where operatives of the ruling regime in Iran interrogate and torture the children of Iraq,” have all shaken the world.
• The people of Iraq asked: “Is the nuclear weapon at the hands of the Iranian rulers, which is, according to them the guarantor of their regime’s survival, also a tool to annex the oil-producing southern territory of Iraq?”
Increasing suppression in Iraq has served to condense an immense amount of rage, which has engulfed that nation since the February 2011 uprisings.
Since the liberation of Mosul on June 10, the world is still in shock by the collapse of a large military equipped with advanced American-made weaponry and the lightning disintegration of Maliki’s suppressive security apparatus; an apparatus that has enjoyed the full backing and support of the Qom Corps, which the mullahs have through their demagoguery dubbed the Quds Force.
Las week, I read an article published in London’s Sunday Telegraph which said that senior western officials are astounded and are watching helplessly the chaos that is unfolding in Iraq. The writer recalled that in 2001, Jack Straw labeled the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) a terrorist organization and declared it illegal, even though there was no evidence to prove a terrorism charge. He had deliberately smeared a just and legitimate resistance movement through this label in order to please the mullahs. The existence of the velayat-e faqih, meaning the authoritarian rule of the mullahs instead of democracy and popular vote, was being threatened by the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance.
Now this scenario is repeating itself in Iraq. Maliki and the mullahs, who see their survival threatened, want to blame their great defeat in Iraq on extremist terrorists, in order to both justify the meddling of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the committing of crimes against innocent people, while begging the United States to bomb the people in liberated regions. But, with the passing of time, the truth is increasingly unfolding.
This is to the extent that, one after another, western leaders point to the blunders and authoritarianism of Maliki as well as the minimum commitments, obligations and actions that he should have taken but deliberately refused. And each one has in some way admitted that Maliki’s removal from power would be the first step to improving the situation and the establishment of stability and security in Iraq.
It has become clear that what is happening in Iraq is not a war between Shiites and Sunnis but a war between the people of Iraq on the one hand and Maliki and the Iranian regime on the other. The leaders of the uprising declared that they do not intend to attack Iraq but are seeking the removal of Maliki and the expulsion of the Iranian regime.
The Muslim Scholars Association, led by Dr. Sheikh Hareth al-Zari, wrote in a 12-point statement to the fighters: “Since February 25, 2011, the people of Iraq staged peaceful protests in 16 cities. But, Maliki responded by firing on them. Then, protests began in 6 provinces and the Iraqi people staged sit-ins for more than a year where they announced their legitimate demands. But, Maliki attacked them with metal, bullets, tanks and heavy weaponry, killing and injuring hundreds. And, in return, the Iraqi people had no other way but to respond accordingly.”
The Muslim Scholars Association said: “We are all children of one nation and work shoulder-to-shoulder to remove oppression for all Iraqis regardless of their religion. We do not recognize any differences among individuals or religions, because we all share this land equally and will determine its future together. All discrimination against minority religions must be lifted. Protecting and guarding minorities and their beliefs is an imperative. The slogan of revolutionaries is the same as the guidance provided by the Prophet of Islam in Mecca, which is compassion and mercy.”
Sheikh Ali Hatim Soleiman, the chief of the Dulaim tribes, said: “ISIS has ties with government organs. ISIS is a creation of the Iranian regime, and the Maliki government wants to use it as the pretext for fighting terrorism. We express hatred toward ISIS in front of God and the people of the world. … Our fundamental goal is to remove Maliki’s injustices.”
The spokesman of the Revolutionary Military Council has repeatedly said, “This revolution does not belong to ISIS, but it is the revolution of tribes that have risen up against injustice. … This revolution is the new Iraqi spring to end injustices and has nothing to do with terrorism.”
My Sisters and Brothers,
Seven years ago, the Leader of the Iranian Resistance, Massoud Rajavi, said in his message to the “Congress of Solidarity for Peace and Freedom” in Iraq: “The fundamental issue is the struggle and fight between two principal alternatives in Iraq: the ruling mullahs’ alternative against the Iraqi alternative: The alternative of the fascist velayat-e faqih regime, with all its networks, operatives and supporters, against the anti-fascist Iraqi alternative with all the movements, organizations, parties and democratic and patriotic figures and their advocates in the Arab and international arenas.”
He said that the “real solution against reactionary ideology and fundamentalism and the dictatorship and religious fascism under the banner of Islam is indeed a tolerant and democratic Islam. The PMOI is in this context the ideological and political antithesis and the most effective social counterweight against the velayat-e faqih regime.”
In all the Islamic countries, from Egypt to Iraq and Afghanistan, the solution is the true Islam, the Prophet’s Islam, the tolerant and democratic Islam, which according to the Koran does not endorse compulsion and coercion.
By taking account of this standard of Islam, one can clearly see that the problem in Iraq or anywhere else in the region is nothing but the evils and crimes committed by the velayat-e faqih regime.
Who is making provocations and creating obstacles in Yemen, Bahrain and Afghanistan? The velayat-e faqih regime.
Who is consistently harming the Palestinians and has been the source of divisions in recent years? The velayat-e faqih regime.
Who has, in the words of the Bahrain government spokesman, “supported more than one hundred radio and television stations whose goal is to disseminate poison in the region”? The velayat-e faqih regime.
Who but the mullahs ruling Iran has persistently fomented religious and sectarian conflict in the region in the past 35 years? Who but the mullahs’ regime is interfering in and breaches the sovereignty of other countries? Let me emphasize once more that the first and most important step in ending this situation is the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime and the establishment of a popular and democratic government in Iran. The future Iran will be the harbinger of friendship, fraternity and peace in the region. The interests of the Iranian people lies in their solidarity with their neighbors and Muslim and Arab brothers. Undoubtedly, in tomorrow’s Iran we will be able to overcome all the outstanding issues through the spirit of brotherhood and resolve all differences through dialogue and fraternity. Together, we can create a region devoid of hostility and discord, which would mean a powerful and advanced region.
To reach that point, It was this time last year and in this very location that I recommended the formation of a unified front against extremism and fundamentalism which is headed by the Iranian regime, its puppet government in Iraq and the Syrian regime, as the only way to save the region from bloody sectarian wars. I am delighted that together we have made great strides in this regard during the past year. It shows that we and our peoples, as well as all Muslims, need a strong unified front. God says in the Koran:
Say: “I do admonish you on one point: that ye do stand up before Allah, – (It may be) in pairs, or (it may be) singly.” Chapter Saba, Verse 46
And, the promise of victory and righteousness comes at the end of these verses:
Say: “Verily my Lord doth cast the (mantle of) Truth (over His servants). He that has full knowledge of (all) that is hidden.” Chapter Saba, Verse 48
Yes, in this common front, we have a shared destiny and vital ideological, political, social and historical interests against the export of terrorism, fundamentalism and reactionary ideology, and in favor of the Islam and revolution that the velayat-e faqih has usurped, with the people of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan and other African and Asian countries.
Please allow me to use this opportunity to address the region’s governments by saying that while the rulers of Iran are preparing to expand their evil war and burn the entire region down, any delay and procrastination against them would end in catastrophe.
It is time for you to completely isolate this regime, cut your political and economic ties with it, expel it, its agents and its affiliates from your countries and remove its bases of intelligence and terrorism.
And it is time that you support the perseverance of the Mojahed freedom-fighters at Liberty who are paying a heavy toll for the struggle against the main enemy of the entire region.
I pray to God that in the holy month of Ramadan He bestows upon our peoples His blessings and compassion.
Thank you.
