Imam Khomeini’s last will and testament
The colonial powers have so frightened us through their satanic might and advancement that we dare not venture into any initiatives. Rather, we have submitted our minds to them and placed our fates in their hands and have become their followers with our own eyes and ears shut.
This vacuity and artificial mental inanity has prevented us from trusting in and relying on our own knowledge and thinking and made us blind followers of the East or the West. And whenever and wherever we did have and made manifest our own initiative, our own industry and culture these came under such heavy barrages of criticism and ridicule by Communist or Westernised writers and commentators that the net effect was to suppress our native abilities.
Foreign customs and ways, no matter how trite, hackneyed or redundant, were promoted and propagated and imposed on nations through actions, words and eulogies. For example, if books contain a number of foreign words and terms they are accepted right away with wonder and awe regardless of their meaning. The writer of such a book is deemed erudite and broad-minded. Whatever is tinted with Western or Eastern terminology is good, noteworthy and a mark of progress and civilization. If elaborated in native terms, it is regarded as decadent.
… Our children whose names smack of foreign Western roots are honored and progressive. if they carry traditional names, then they are looked upon as retarded. Streets, alleys, firms, drugstores libraries, textile materials, and other commodities, if manufactured locally, should have foreign names so that people may be pleased with them and receive them well.
Manifesting Western ways in all facets of life and in all aspects of social intercourse is cause for pride and regarded as tokens of civilization and progress. Meanwhile, traditional modes of conduct and customs are deemed as retrograde and ancestor-worshiping. Going abroad for treatment of minor ailments that are easily cured at home is the thing to do, disappointing our own scientists and physicians.
Making a trip to England, France, U.S.A or Moscow enhances one’s dignity, while going to Mecca to perform the Hajj or visiting other holy shrines is considered backward and old fashioned. Disregard for all that is related to religion and morality is a sign of open-mindedness and civilization whereas commitment to these issues is a sign of being backward and antiquated. I do not say that we have everything. In the course of recent history especially during the recent decades we have been deprived of any progress.
The treacherous statesmen of the Pahlavi regime and their propaganda belittled every domestic product, created inferiority complexes in us and withheld all means for advancement. The importation of all types of goods and commodities from abroad provided channels for our young men and women and specially our youth to preoccupy themselves with such trivial things. They became engaged in childish competitions and pursuits with imported objects as toilet articles, and games of chance. At the same time they became consumers of such things as well as items of luxury which has a long, sad story. No effort was spared in diverting the attention and the minds of our youth from thinking about their own fate and the destiny of their country.
