July 29, 2022
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi says the “arrogant West is becoming weaker” and the Islamic world can soon expect to cast it aside.
In his annual message to the year’s hajis in Mecca, Khamenehi said, “The credibility of capital-driven Western democracy is being seriously questioned, and Western thinkers admit they are at a theoretical and practical impasse.” He didn’t name any “Western thinkers” saying that,
He told the hajis, “The enemies of Islam strive to weaken spirituality by promoting a western lifestyle that is devoid of spirituality and that is rooted in a short-sighted, materialistic vision of the world. They strive to undermine Islamic unity by promoting and promulgating baseless factors that foster division, such as [differences in] language, color, race and geography.”
But, he argued, the power of the Western world is now fading. “Today, liberalism and communism, the most significant contributions of Western civilization, no longer have the same appeal they did 100 years ago or even 50 years ago. The credibility of capital-driven Western democracy is being seriously questioned, and Western thinkers admit they are at a theoretical and practical impasse.
“By observing this situation, young people, intellectuals, scientists, and religious scholars within the world of Islam are able to gain new perspectives on the wealth and value of their own knowledge, as well as on the mainstream political currents in their own countries. This is the ‘Islamic Awakening’ that we continually refer to.” Actually, the term refers to the failed uprisings a decade ago against dictatorships across the Middle East.
Khamenehi then turned to Iran and said it played a central role in this awakening. “The world is currently witness to a successful model and proud example of power and political Islamic governance in Islamic Iran.”
This is not something new for him to say. But this time, he acknowledged that many people around the world criticize the Islamic Republic for ineptitude and corruption. He decided to address that: “The inabilities and at times mistaken actions of the officials of this system – mistakes which have postponed the attainment of all the blessings of Islamic governance – have never been able to shake the solid foundations or to stop the firm steps that have been taken in the path of the material and spiritual progress [of the Islamic Republic].”
Nonetheless, he said, the successes of the Islamic world led by Iran have shaken Westerners. “It is natural for the Arrogant Powers, and the United States more than anyone else, to be worried about such a trend in the Islamic world and for them to employ all their resources in order to confront it. And this is what we are seeing.
“The tactics they employ range from dominating the media and soft warfare, to warmongering and starting proxy wars, political espionage and acts of inducement, and threatening, bribing and other forms of enticement. Each and every one of these tactics is employed by the United States and other Arrogant Powers to separate the Islamic world from its rightful path of awakening and felicity. The criminal, disgraceful Zionist regime in this region is yet another tool they use for this all-out effort.
“These efforts have failed in most cases, thanks to God’s grace and His will. And the Arrogant West has become weaker by the day in our sensitive region and, more recently, throughout the whole world. The distress and failure of the United States and its criminal accomplice, the usurper [Zionist] regime in the region, can clearly be seen in the recent events in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan.”
However, he concluded his message, “We should not neglect the enemy’s stratagems for a single moment. Let us avoid pride and negligence, and let us increase our alertness and efforts.”
