And of the same category of plots -and perhaps more malicious than the rest -is the hostile propaganda by way of rumor-making which regularly festers the air throughout our country, boiling down in essence to such insinuations that the Islamic Republic, like its predecessor, has not done anything for the people; that the 'poor' people, with such fervor and enthusiasm as they had, did acts of self-sacrifice to rid themselves of the tyrannical rule of the oppressors only to find out eventually that they were plagued by a worse regime; that the arrogant moneyed class has become even more arrogant, that the oppressed masses have become more oppressed, that the prisons have become crowded with the young people who were the hope for the future of the country, that acts of torture are now more common than and more beastly than they were during the past regime, that everyday a number of people are executed in the name of Islam, that the government here would have been wiser if it did not call itself 'Islamic', that these times are ever more terrible than it was during the times of Reza Khan and his son, that the people are being drowned in a deluge of agonies, hardships and 'high cost of living, that the people at the helm of the state are transforming this government into a communist government, that the personal properties of the people are being expropriated, that they are being denied civil liberties in every aspect, and the likes of such rumors which are being published as a strategy for a malicious scheme.
That they are the tools for promoting a conspiracy can be readily witnessed. Rumor making is undertaken as a periodical and regular device, each rumor being published for several days until another is in the air; the usual platforms for airing them being our taxi cabs, our city buses, and wherever a small gathering of people presents itself as a potential form for airing those rumors; and once one rumor has lost its credibility another is invented and aired.
And it is unfortunate that some of our ulama who are unsophisticated about satanic devices are likely to fall prey to publishers of rumors and allow themselves to conclude that what they hear in the form of rumors is true, because they are uninformed about the state of world affairs, about the world revolutions, and about the developments and the inescapable hardships that have followed other revolutions elsewhere in the world, and about the developments which are in the interest of Islam, and who listen to those rumors with blind eyes and who out of no ill will, or perhaps with deliberate ill will, promote the same insinuations.
I ask of you all not to try to find fault with the Islamic government and not to try to discredit the government or indulge in scurrilities against the system without first having studied the present status of world affairs and compared the Islamic Revolution in Iran with other revolutions elsewhere in the world, without first having studied the situation in other countries during and after revolutions, without first having looked at the afflictions inflicted on this country by Reza Khan and his son Muhammad Reza as a result of their plundering of the wealth of this nation, without first having studied the destructive pre-revolution dependence [on foreign powers], as well as the ruling system in government ministries at that time, without first having studied the status of the nation's economy before the revolution, and of its armed forces; without first having looked at the centers for corrupt fun-making, and recalled the places for dispensing intoxicants [liquor stores] and for promoting an abandoned way of life and irresponsible attitude, in every aspect of the people's daily life, without first having recalled the shabby status of education in the pre-revolution time, and the ruling situation in high schools, and in our colleges and universities; without first having recalled the status of our movie houses, and recalled also the professional places for debauchery, the status of our youths, our women, and the afflictions of the holy, the religious people and self-committed freedom-lovers and our oppressed but virtuous women during the past regime, without first having recalled the status of our mosques at that time and also studied the cases of those who were executed after the Islamic Revolution or who were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms, without first having investigated the performance of public officials, and observed the collection of data on the assets of capitalists and big landlords and on the status of hoarders and profiteers, without having investigated the condition of the post-revolution courts and revolutionary tribunals against the status of our justice system before the revolution.
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