In the Name of God, the Merciful and the Compassionate
Greetings,
I released the attached statement in response to the events of the past few months. We have always felt a need to work with the honorable marjas and devoted clerics, and this encouraged me to send a copy to you in order to ask for your guidance.
The first goal of this statement is that if people feel anger and discontent, they should not direct the negative feelings that fill their hearts toward religion. This reminder is the responsibility of all of those who have been deeply influenced by Islam – especially the clerical elite. They must not allow different social groups (especially the youth, who compose the majority of our population) to be fooled by the shallow, mistaken and selective interpretations of our religion and to distance themselves from Islam based on sudden surges of emotion.
State media persistently attempts to portray us as the source behind the recent unrest. All this, while the behavior of officials (not only in the election, but in years before) has created a mountain of straw that was set ablaze by the recent blunders. The wind of arrogance that was blown through this mountain created bigger and bigger fires each and every day. I personally take the side of a people whose rights have been trampled with illegal, unIslamic and unjustified actions. By referring to undisputed documents, I am certain that without a doubt, there has been systematic fraud in the recent election. At the same time, it would not have been difficult to stay silent for another 20 years if I didn’t feel an imminent threat to the system in the people’s wave of anger.
However, if one [leader] keeps silent and yields, the people will not renounce their movement similar to what they have never done so in the past. Instead, after a brief period of confusion, the movement would start anew. Their movement would start again, this time blind, with none of the devotees of the establishment to rely upon. Then, maybe others who have their eyes set upon our nation would step in to take advantage of this movement with their own intentions and to feed their own greed.
Another goal of this statement, along with my other statements and activities, is to keep the people’s movement within the framework of the establishment so that it doesn’t sink into the dangerous path of bringing down the whole structure. If this danger is turned into reality, it could easily make another Afghanistan or Iraq out of Iran. We cannot forget our duty to prevent such dangers from spiraling, just to make some ignorant people happy. Similarly, we cannot invite people to keep calm if we are unable to prove to them that we stand and speak for their well-deserved rights on their behalf.
In his treatise titled Olfat, the late Mullah Mohsen Feyz Kashani writes that the final goal of most sharia laws is to establish friendship and belonging in society. The result of this friendship and belonging is what modern sciences call social networks – a means to restrain ruling systems and to keep them from repeating mistakes, and a method to create a society infused with life and a platform to gently hold on to ignited emotions and talents and to keep them from descending into the hills of destruction. In this statement, a strengthening of these networks has been suggested. According to the words of Feyz, this network could be perceived as the exemplar of Islam, although those who are grossly unfair portray it as a paradigm of the CIA.
And, finally, I hope you will attend to my suggestions on solving the current crisis as outlined in this statement.
With regards,
Mir Hossein Mousavi
13 September 2009
Speaker or Agency: Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Title:
Language: Persian
Western Date: 22 September 2009
Persian Date: 31 Shahrivar 1388
Physical/Electronic Location: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=144881017605&ref=mf; http://www.amontazeri.com/farsi/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=223&FORUM_ID=2&CAT_ID=2&Forum_Title=%26%231582%3B%26%231576%3B%26%231585%3B%26%231606%3B%26%231575%3B%26%231605%3B%26%231607%3B&Topic_Title=%26%231662%3B%26%231575%3B%26%231587%3B%26%231582%3B+%26%231576%3B%26%231607%3B+%26%231606%3B%26%231575%3B%26%231605%3B%26%231607%3B+%26%231605%3B%26%231607%3B%26%231606%3B%26%231583%3B%26%231587%3B+%26%231605%3B%26%231740%3B%26%231585%3B%26%231581%3B%26%231587%3B%26%231740%3B%26%231606%3B+%26%231605%3B%26%231608%3B%26%231587%3B%26%231608%3B%26%231740%3B
Citation or official document code:
Translator: Facebook (“Khordaad88”)
Date Translated:
Tags: mousavi, ayatollahs, letter
Date Last Updated: 14 February 2010