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
