Green is a Symbol of Liveliness, Brightness, and Friendship (16 March 2010)

At the beginning of his remarks, Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, who was speaking before a group of members of the Islamic Association of University Professors and referring to the arrival of spring and the Persian New Year, extended his congratulation for Noruz (the arrival of the new year) to all Iranians all over the world.

In his remarks Khatami, while emphasizing that the kind of Islam that Iranian believe in is the Islam of justice and wisdom, stated there are views of Islam that portray a brutal anti-human rights picture of Islam and damage it. Khatami continued that the Islamic Revolution was supposed to create a sort of government in which justice ruled and that people can criticize the government, and if there is any worry it is because of the presence of such views that there is the danger that an distorted view of Islam acts instead of the real Islam that blocks people’s right to elect and does not allow any other views of Islam to be presented.

In another part of his remarks, Khatami added that we have been insisting that everybody should act within the constitution and it is not right to take a portion of it with interpretations that are in contradiction with the spirit of the constitution and ignore the majority of the remainder of it. Khatami added the government cannot act in contradiction to the constitution.

At the end of his remarks, while calling Green the symbol of freshness, brightness and friendship, added that our hope was that by the arrival of Persian New Year political prisoners would be released and reformist parties and groups would be allowed to continue with their work as allowed by law and that there would be a change in the atmosphere. He reiterated that the government should learn from what has happened and find a different approach and added that allowing free elections and releasing political prisoners will solve the problems so that society can move toward a bright future.