I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the present crisis with the regime in Iran, and to emphasize that this is an issue of concern to the whole world and humanity in general.
The mullahs ruling Iran are unlike other numerous dictators that unfortunately rule in some parts of the world today. It is the only government in the world that has turned Islam into a destructive weapon that today holds not only the Iranian people hostage to its evil policies, but also threatens peace and security throughout the world.
The systematic violations of human rights, and legalisation of various types of crimes that are committed by this regime, are only part of the tragedy that this regime continues to create. Of course, the extent of this tragedy is truly distressing. I have had 11 members of my closest family executed by this regime, and even now, I am not sure if more have not been executed. Yet this only constitutes a small part of the 120,000 martyrs of the Iranian Resistance. The names of 25,000 of them have been compiled and published so far. I too have been condemned to death in abstentia and have up to now escaped death by having to leave my country. The authorities in several European countries have informed me that they have discovered a list of dozens of people who are targets of assassination by this regime and my name is on that list as well. I should point out that scores of my relatives including my elderly mother have been arrested and tortured in the past in order to gain information leading to my assassination. And yet I am only one of this regime’s many targets.
The regime’s record of human rights violations is not limited to these criminal activities. I believe Iran is unique in the world today for having legalized the numerous inequalities and human rights violations, and cruel and inhuman punishments that exist in Iranian society today. The violation of the equal rights of women, religious and ethnic minorities, and even dissident Shi’ite Muslims, is a systematic matter and codified under the law in Iran under the rule of the so-called Islamic regime of Iran.
But the violation of human rights, however terrible, is not the whole of the problem in Iran. The Iranian regime’s crisis is a problem that concerns the whole world, particularly since the mullahs’ regime has transformed the Islamic faith, which has the following of one quarter of the world’s 6 billion people, into an instrument of terror and insecurity that holds the modern world hostage. It is with concern that we would like to point out to world leaders that it is quite wrong and dangerous to appease and buy time for such a regime through diplomacy and commerce and that this runs counter to the interests of their own nations and all of humanity. This is a reality which should not be ignored by intellectuals, writers, religious leaders, human rights groups and political leaders.
The Islamic faith has been transformed into an instrument for export of terrorism by the mullahs’ regime. The misuse of Islam has taken on great proportions. The regime trains terrorist leaders and helps create and support various terrorist groups all over the world in all five continents. It continuously provides money, arms, and propaganda support for these groups. These groups are active throughout the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, the Far East, and also here in Europe and the West. At present more than 10,000 foreign religious students are studying at religious schools in Qom and other Iranian cities.
The regime’s intervention is not limited to Lebanon and Palestine alone and has now spread to all of Iraq and in particular to the southern part of Iraq where the Shi’ite population is in the majority. This is a clear sign of the misuse of Islam to interfere in other nations’ affairs with the instrument of terrorism. World appeasement of the regime in Iran, and in particular by Western countries, has emboldened the regime to continue its murderous intervention in Iraq. The casualties are not just Iraqis but also Western troops and various journalists, businessmen, and diplomats. This sad chain of events continues to this day.
All this is in addition to the thousands of Iraqis killed, and the thousands of Iraqi women who have lost their security in leaving home to study at universities, work or engage in social activities; and the scores of mosques, churches, and places of worship that have been burnt down and bombed, and continue to be attacked; and the kidnapping of British soldiers in Basra. These are all part of what is going on in Iraq today.
We are also witnessing the interference of the mullahs’ regime in the framing of the Iraqi constitution. A constitution similar to the religiously suppressive law of Velayat-e Faqih (or rule of the jurisprudent or religious dictatorship) in Iran is being forced upon the Iraqi nation.
Officials from countries in the region have expressed concern that Iraq is being forfeited to the ruling mullahs in Iran. This is a real concern that has been expressed cautiously. With the Iranian regime in control of present Iraq, all the countries in the Persian Gulf region shall be in Tehran’s sites. The mullahs’ will certainly make a grab for the Shi’ite Muslim minorities in these countries, just as they have done with the Shi’ite majority in Iraq. Particularly since the Shi’ites in these countries inhabit the oil-producing regions in these countries such as Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf littoral states.
A very important point that is often overlooked is that the Iranian regime, as the sole fundamentalist and terrorist supporting state in the region, plays a much wider role than merely providing money, arms and logistics to terrorists. This role is a much more dangerous role than what the former Soviet Commintern was for various international clients of the former Soviet state. Just as the Islamic terrorists in London and New York have been more dangerous as we have seen in 7/7 and 9/11 than any isolated formerly communist groups. This inherently greater danger must be understood. This regime is the sole successful fundamentalist model in the world that has been in power since after the 1979 revolution in Iran, despite the democratic aspirations of the Iranian nation. And while this regime is rejected by the majority of Iranians, it has clung on to power thanks to the support of powerful countries in the world and the West, and has suppressed its opponents, and used the terrorist label to pin down its opposition.
Up until the recent resolution by the IAEA, appeasement of the mullahs particularly by the West, afforded the sole sponsor of state terrorism, the time to dangerously pursue its nuclear weapons programme.
Allow me to emphasize that this regime and terrorism armed with the Islam, can only be defeated and controlled when it is stripped of its pretensions of Islamic leadership. And this can only be accomplished by Muslims themselves. Muslims who are of a different Islamic belief: a tolerant, peace-loving, progressive and modern Islam. And this is the missing piece of the puzzle that humanity has to solve and this missing piece is in the hands of the Iranian Resistance.
Among all Islamic countries, it is only in Iran that we can be assured of the defeat of Islamic fundamentalists in any democratically conducted elections. For those who closely follow contemporary Iranian history, it is clear that this is a feat we owe to the Iranian Resistance. It has wrested control of all intellectual and religious authorities from the fundamentalist regime, which rules by absolute brutality at home and export of terrorism abroad.
We are not alone in calling for the removal of the terror tag from the largest and most organised Iranian resistance movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. As with the Iranian people, the world community also needs the voice of this resistance to reach the ears of thousands across the globe, and for it to freely engage in democratic activities.