Leader: Imam Khomeini Proved Superpowers Not Invincible

The address came on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the demise of Islamic Revolution founder Imam Khomeini. Due to the coronavirus, people will not gather in the Mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in Tehran as the focus has been diverted to social media.

“Imam Khomeini caused the US leaders at that time to admit that Khomeini had humiliated them. Imam Khomeini proved that superpowers can be broken and beaten. You saw how the USSR collapsed, and you can see the status of the US today,” the Supreme Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that late Imam Khomeini revolutionized people’s view of religion, adding that the religion developed from being a personal matter limited to prayers and fasting into being a matter for building a civilization, a society and human beings as such a change was even produced in the jurisprudence.

“Nations resemble an ocean. Creating a storm in an ocean is not something anyone could do. Imam Khomeini created a storm in the ocean of the Iranian nation, turning the Iranian nation that had abandoned self-determination into a determining, influential nation in the world,” he added.

The Supreme Leader said that during the Pahlavi rule, the Iranian nation had a contemptuous outlook towards itself, not only before world powers but also before government officials, adding that it didn’t occur to people they could rise up against the Pahlavis and global powers. “Imam Khomeini inspired this belief in people.”

“The Iranian nation regarded a despotic government to be a natural matter. Imam Khomeini turned such a nation into a nation that determined their own type of government. People’s demands progressed from trivial, limited requests to great, global demands.”

The Supreme Leader then pointed to the recent developments and nationwide protests in the United States which erupted after the brutal murder of an African-American, George Floyd, by a white US police officer last week.

“What is seen today is the appearance of truth that was always hidden… this is the sludge remained in the depth of pool that is now surfacing,” Ayatollah Khamenei said

He went on to say that the US police’s brutal act is an instance of American characteristics and nature. “This is what Americans have done to countries that they have entered to like Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Vietnam.”

The “I can’t breathe” slogan used by the American people today is taking the words out of the mouth of all nations that the US has oppressed, added the Leader. 

America is falling into disgrace due to their own behavior, he said, also pointing to American officials’ mismanagement of the coronavirus outbreak.

“Despite the fact that the US was infected with the virus later than others, the US officials’ failed to use other countries’ experiences and the result was many times more fatalities,” he said. 

Ayatollah Khamenei said that despite all their crimes, Americans still pretend to back human rights, adding, “It is as if that black man was not a human.”

He reiterated that the American nation is feeling embarrassed for its government and they have the right to feel so.