In the name of God, the Beneficent the Merciful
To the Youth in Europe and North America,
The
recent events in France and similar ones in some other Western
countries have convinced me to directly talk to you about them. I am
addressing you, [the youth], not because I overlook your parents, rather
it is because the future of your nations and countries will be in your
hands; and also I find that the sense of quest for truth is more
vigorous and attentive in your hearts.
I don’t address your
politicians and statesmen either in this writing because I believe that
they have consciously separated the route of politics from the path of
righteousness and truth.
I would like to talk to you about Islam,
particularly the image that is presented to you as Islam. Many attempts
have been made over the past two decades, almost since the
disintegration of the Soviet Union, to place this great religion in the
seat of a horrifying enemy. The provocation of a feeling of horror and
hatred and its utilization has unfortunately a long record in the
political history of the West.
Here, I don’t want to deal with
the different phobias with which the Western nations have thus far been
indoctrinated. A cursory review of recent critical studies of history
would bring home to you the fact that the Western governments’ insincere
and hypocritical treatment of other nations and cultures has been
censured in new historiographies.
The histories of the United
States and Europe are ashamed of slavery, embarrassed by the colonial
period and chagrined at the oppression of people of color and
non-Christians. Your researchers and historians are deeply ashamed of
the bloodsheds wrought in the name of religion between the Catholics and
Protestants or in the name of nationality and ethnicity during the
First and Second World Wars. This approach is admirable.
By
mentioning a fraction of this long list, I don’t want to reproach
history; rather I would like you to ask your intellectuals as to why the
public conscience in the West awakens and comes to its senses after a
delay of several decades or centuries. Why should the revision of
collective conscience apply to the distant past and not to the current
problems? Why is it that attempts are made to prevent public awareness
regarding an important issue such as the treatment of Islamic culture
and thought?
You know well that humiliation and spreading hatred
and illusionary fear of the “other” have been the common base of all
those oppressive profiteers. Now, I would like you to ask yourself why
the old policy of spreading “phobia” and hatred has targeted Islam and
Muslims with an unprecedented intensity. Why does the power structure in
the world want Islamic thought to be marginalized and remain latent?
What concepts and values in Islam disturb the programs of the super
powers and what interests are safeguarded in the shadow of distorting
the image of Islam? Hence, my first request is: Study and research the
incentives behind this widespread tarnishing of the image of Islam.
My
second request is that in reaction to the flood of prejudgments and
disinformation campaigns, try to gain a direct and firsthand knowledge
of this religion. The right logic requires that you understand the
nature and essence of what they are frightening you about and want you
to keep away from.
I don’t insist that you accept my reading or
any other reading of Islam. What I want to say is: Don’t allow this
dynamic and effective reality in today’s world to be introduced to you
through resentments and prejudices. Don’t allow them to hypocritically
introduce their own recruited terrorists as representatives of Islam.
Receive
knowledge of Islam from its primary and original sources. Gain
information about Islam through the Qur’an and the life of its great
Prophet. I would like to ask you whether you have directly read the
Qur’an of the Muslims. Have you studied the teachings of the Prophet of
Islam and his humane, ethical doctrines? Have you ever received the
message of Islam from any sources other than the media?
Have you
ever asked yourself how and on the basis of which values has Islam
established the greatest scientific and intellectual civilization of the
world and raised the most distinguished scientists and intellectuals
throughout several centuries?
I would like you not to allow the
derogatory and offensive image-buildings to create an emotional gulf
between you and the reality, taking away the possibility of an impartial
judgment from you. Today, the communication media have removed the
geographical borders. Hence, don’t allow them to besiege you within
fabricated and mental borders.
Although no one can individually
fill the created gaps, each one of you can construct a bridge of thought
and fairness over the gaps to illuminate yourself and your surrounding
environment. While this preplanned challenge between Islam and you, the
youth, is undesirable, it can raise new questions in your curious and
inquiring minds. Attempts to find answers to these questions will
provide you with an appropriate opportunity to discover new truths.
Therefore,
don’t miss the opportunity to gain proper, correct and unbiased
understanding of Islam so that hopefully, due to your sense of
responsibility toward the truth, future generations would write the
history of this current interaction between Islam and the West with a
clearer conscience and lesser resentment.
Seyyed Ali Khamenei
21st Jan. 2015
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