Islam Wants Governments to Serve the People

November 3, 1979
Imam Khomeini speaks to the Ambassadors from Arab countries on the occasion of Eid-i-Qorban. Imam Khomeini, in congratulating them, said the following:
In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate
I offer congratulations to all Muslim nations upon the occasion of the great Muslim festival of Eid-i-Qorban. I hope that all festivals will be auspicious and blessed for all Muslim nations. I thank you gentlemen for coming so that we can discuss our affairs together at close hand. The festival of Muslims is blessed and auspicious when Muslims find themselves, their independence and glory, the glory which existed at the beginning of Islam for Muslims. While Muslims are separated and in a state of disunity and when everything they have is connected to foreigners, no day is auspicious. A day is auspicious when the hands of foreigners are curtailed from Muslim countries and Muslims stand upon their own feet and they undertake the affairs of their own countries.
I do not know when the problems which take up the attention of both Muslim governments and people will be solved. One of the major problems which Muslims have entangled themselves with is the problem between governments and the people. Another problem is between Muslim states. The problem of governments and the people is that the governments do not know themselves and the people do not know themselves. Governments think that they must rule and people must blindly follow while the problem is that governments want to rule and it is because of this desire to rule that they put down their own people. If this problem is not solved, basic problems which we have will not be solved by the super-powers. While governments do not know their duties, they do know that the problem which exists between them is caused by the very problems and the disorder within their own countries. But because of the interference of some problems or because of bad intentions or treacheries of some groups, these problems will not be solved. For how long must we be entangled with these problems and dependent upon the East and the West? When do Muslim countries want to awaken? When do Muslim countries want to act according to the way that it was at the beginning of Islam between Muslim governments and its people? For how long do we want to remain separate from our people?
Notice these two situations which our people had. One situation existed at the time of the monarchial regime. From the beginning of the monarchy to the end, and, in particular, in the last fifty or so years which I remember in total and perhaps, you do not remember, but you did see some of it. Compare us to then or the time when our people dominated all of the powers and super-powers and they broke this great barrier. Compare us to these two situations. See what they should do. Compare the governments to these two situations. See what they should do.
While the previous regime existed, the people were separate from the government, not an indifferent separation but a separation in which they confronted each other -the government and the deposed shah put all their efforts into pushing down the people. With all his power, he pushed down the people, imprisoned them, tortured them, executed them and did not allow them to breathe. The people, on the other hand, opposed him and if a problem arose for the government, if the people did not increase the problem, they did not decrease it. And if the government was defeated, the people would be happy and if the government and the shah dominated, the people would be unhappy.
The auspicious day is the day when the hands of foreigners will be curtailed from Muslim countries. We saw and you also heard and I heard some of them and I saw some of them. Reza Khan ruled here. He ruled the people in a despotic and unlawful way which history will record. The day when foreign countries took the offensive and they took our country and everything we had was endangered, I bore witness i to the fact that when Reza Khan left Iran -they threw him out -our people, at the same time that they were unhappy, they were happy by the coming of the foreigners. They felt this to be a gift from heaven. I advised his idiot son not to do something so that when he was destroyed like his father, the people would be happy. Then when he left, the people celebrated. They celebrated in the streets. That was a government which opposed its own people and now you see a government which does not confront the people, people do not fear them, imprison them and torture them. Now the people are such that if a problem arises for the government, the people themselves will first step forward in order to solve the problem.
The problems which our people had, because of the previous regime, cannot all be solved. Our people fell together and they are helping each other. Today, before your corning, people who have been active in the Reconstruction Crusade in Qom came to see me and they spoke of their activities without receiving any aid from the government. It was a great deal -buildings had been built, wheat fields had been thrashed, farmers were helped, baths were built, public health was made better and so forth. These people know their country to be a part of themselves. They know its governments to be a part of themselves.
When the country belongs to itself and the government to itself, neither does the government feel that it must use the force of bayonets nor do the people fear that the government might do such a thing. They do not feel that if they help, they are helping foreigners.
Look at these two situations. One is the situation when our former government was separate from the people and now the situation is that the people are not separate from the government. Islam wants that governments serve the people.
The greatest problem which we Muslims face, unfortunately, I must say, is that we grow slowly. Our political growth is slow. We still feel that with the force of bayonets, and with pressure and security organizations and the army, one can correct a people and a nation can in this way achieve its independence. We still think that way. Our governments still think that they must crush the people, in whatever way possible. When will this problem be solved? When will these governments come to their senses?
Be a friend to your people and they will support you and you will serve them. If people feel that governments have come into being to support and serve them, there is no problem that they also are ready to serve and are even ready to serve more. This problem must be solved by the governments themselves, but, unfortunately, they are not. This is one of the problems and until this problem is not solved, there is no hope that we will be able to oppose the super-powers and push them out of our countries.
The second problem is similar. It is the problem of governments. Why is it that Muslim governments should be this way with each other -where they pull each other in different directions? Why should countries who have everything and have all kinds of power, like Israel, with its small numbers, come and rule the way they do? Why should it be this way? Is it not that people are separate from each other, separate from the governments and governments are separate from each other? A billion people -the Muslim population of the world, with all their weapons, are sitting by and Israel commits all those crimes against Lebanon and Palestine. They are sitting by watching, they are viewers. The voices of our brothers from there are so loud, but we are sitting by listening, we are viewers. When will we discover our powers? You have seen in history that Muslims, at the beginning of Islam, with just a few numbers but concentrated and with faith, dominated. In a period of time of less than a half a century, they dominated the known world at that time, because they were together. The weapon of faith was in their hands. We want to take up the weapon of faith which has been put aside and confront those powers with the weapon of faith. You have seen how a nation, small in number, and who had no military weapons, no instruments for warfare, no official soldiers, had the weapon of faith and with this weapon of faith, they dominated upon a satanic force which was supported by all powers.
When do Muslims want to awaken from their sleep and solve the problems between them? Until such time that the problem between them is solved -the problem between themselves and the one between governments and their people and the problem between the governments themselves -you cannot have the hope that you will reach your glory. We have spoken and written about this for many years. With the Will of God, God will awaken us Muslims and will cause us Muslims to become familiar with our Islamic, our divine duties. With the Will of God, God will grant that our festivals (id) will be real festivals, not a festival where we are entangled with the super-powers. May God confirm all of you and give strength to all Muslim countries, give us all faith and help us to solve our problems.
Peace be upon you, and the Mercy and Blessings of God.