Chairman: Today’s programme is marking the event which took place 36 years ago. Because I am of a certain age I remember this month vividly way back in 1979. I was wandering the streets of London – I was working in Oxford Street at that time and it was really quite bitterly cold again. This particular event was really a heart warmer for people of my age who were either in their 20s or in their teens. It was certainly a marker or a change that was occurring. Those of us who were students in the 60s and 70s in London only had the Marxist/ socialist model to offer. There wasn’t an Islamic model to offer to the world.
There was a new sort of language a new conversation that one was having with fellow students at that time and after. And it was a particularly interesting model. I remember Mr David Owen who used to be our foreign secretary at the time in the Labour government coming on tv and saying ‘I don’t think that it is going to last more than two weeks.’ Where are you Mr Owen? It has lasted 36 years – perhaps it could last a lot longer. I suspect David Owen did not last more than two weeks after saying that and the Labour Party lost the election soon after that with the Winter of Discontent.
And what was this revolution. I don’t want to take the fire out of my guest speakers but just set the scene. Here was an individual who was pale and frail arriving from Paris on 1st February in 1979 in Tehran. He was not seen as a politician and certainly if one looks at the history of Imam Khomeni one sees he was a writer, a scholar, a poet, an academic and a spiritual leader. In the heat of discussion Imam Khomeni is spoken of a political leader but he had many dimensions that we quite often forget.
Even those of us who have been immersed in the conversation about the revolution quite often forget that Imam Khoemini was a remarkable character. I was reading a recent paper which said that to become an ayatollah or a merga of that level requires about 18 PhD’s to be acquired from Western universities.
So you are talking about the stature of an individual who was intellectually phenomenal and gave the world something quite different so it was not a socialist model or a capitalist model but it was a model that was based on religion and it put religion right on top of the agenda.
Since then the world has been trying to dismantle this particular revolution. What the West – and our powers and our elites in Washington and Paris –really cannot fathom is another model being successful. That is why when there is a challenge from something new coming out on the horizon the West wants it to be destroyed.
Dr Ali Elkabbany: An Arab impression of my first visit to Iran: A Muslim like myself who has visited the majority of the world’s countries should be embarrassed to admit that he visited very few Muslim countries. When I moved from my country of birth Egypt to live in London in the mid-seventies I was fortunate to meet in my new host country Muslims from all over the world – more than I could dream of meeting while I was living in Egypt a Muslim country. So in a way people like me meet more Muslims and recognise and interact with more Muslims in Western countries rather than Muslim countries.
In the old days Muslims used to travel from Jakarta to Tanger without any problem, without the need for a visa. Now with an Egyptian passport I need a visa to go to any Muslim country but with my British passport I do not need a visa to go to any of these countries with the exception of Saudi Arabia. But I also get a Saudi visa easily with a British passport.
All these facts came to fact came to mind while travelling for the first time in the middle of my seventh decade of age to Tehran, Iran. I was responding to a generous invitation to attend the 28th annual conference of Islamic unity, a unity which the Muslim world badly needs. It is a necessity to save the Muslim nation from the deterioration it suffers from these days.
It was a long and exhausting trip of 24 hours which should not have taken more than a few hours. We were kept in Istanbul against our wishes for unknown reasons . Finally our UK group arrived in Tehran to a very warm welcome at the airport and a very comfortable trip to the hotel.
In Tehran a Muslim feels at home among his own people. The people are hospitable, warm and very welcoming and very soon I realised that the young dynamic Iranian Muslim nation is working very hard towards Islamic unity.
The leadership there is part of the nation. There is no difference between the leaders and the citizens of the nation in Iran. They are surprisingly very modest compared to the arrogance of the shah and his leadership. They go around and move among the people without a big entourage and hundreds of body guards and security men. Besides the obvious modesty the observer would quickly notice that they are very intellectual, shrewd and very well informed about world events and world policies.
I noticed those qualities in the majority of the Iranian people I met, especially the youth: the young journalists and the young students who attended most of the conference session. The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran launched the conference which shows how the Iranians give great attention to the noble goal of Muslim unity and the normalisation of relations with all Muslim countries.
He gave an excellent speech about the needs and benefits of Muslim unity. So did the speaker of parliament, the majlis al shoura, Ali Larijani who addressed the conference on the final session and presented to us the foreign policy of his country in general and relations with most of the Muslim countries today.
We were also privileged to visit the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, again a supreme model of modesty, intellect and very easily approached by all his people and all the visitors. One would have imagined a man of his status in the state would have been given one of the most luxurious palaces of the deposed shah as an official residence. But any mosque in Tehran was more luxurious than the simple place of Ayatollah Khamenei.
We heard his speech in the presence of the president of the republic and the chief of the experts council Ayatollah Rafsanjani. It was a Friday but those people do not spare any time to welcome and meet their visitors and their people.
I observed how the Iranian leadership was working very hard giving time, effort facilities and money for the sake of Islam, Muslim unity and Muslim causes, at the heart of which was Al Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem and Palestine. Compare that to all the Arab rulers who are really making their countries client states to the enemies of Islam and having a close relationship with Israel but not Muslim countries.
They are scared of a programme which may in the future may produce an atomic weapon through the Iranian leadership confirmed more than one hundred times that this is against Islam and that they have no intention whatsoever and they are not scared of Israel’s existing atomic arsenal with more than 300 warheads.
Despite everything Iran is stretching its hand towards all Arab and Muslim nations and even the rulers of these countries who are giving their back to Iran and stretching their hands to the Zionists seeking their help and support to protect their seats and their thrones.
In Iran the observer can see clearly a young, dynamic, Muslim nation trying to build the country and reshape the future of the coming generations. The young Muslim nation is facing a big challenge from the imperial super powers of the world with their illegal and unfair sanctions but they are using this siege and punishment for their benefit. It is a catalyst to build their own industries and work towards self sufficiency. We all saw for ourselves the best productions in busses, cars and other commodities.
Last time I addressed the Gulf Cultural Club we were talking about the achievements of such conferences. Some people were saying that it is a waste of time and money to gather without achieving anything. But I call tell you as a member who attended that conference for the first time that one of the greatest achievements is for Muslims to sit together, talk to each other and know each other as sons of one nation.
Even our small UK group was one unit which lived in this journey and in the conference as one family and we were from Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia but we did not feel any differences between one another and we had a brotherly trip having discussions, enjoying meals together, even joking together. So Muslims have to come near to each other to regain their nation once again – a nation which was destroyed by the separation and creation of nationalities, borders and visas but when Islam came it sparked the greatest civilisation of the whole world and united these nations from different races, colours and nationalities. Actually there were no nationalities. Nationalities are an 18th century invention after the French revolution.
So we have to bring our nation together and we have to put a plan and target. I was embarrassed that I never visited Muslim counties when I was young. Now we have to put a plan to let our children during their school days visit at least two Muslim countries. I know they are poor and do not have the money to travel but organisations like the Islamic Organisation of Muslim countries or charitable organisations or grants from government should help them to go and visit other Muslim countries and build relations.
I would suggest that five percent of each and every university in the Muslim world should be given to students from other Muslim countries rather than the host country so they can exchange information and visit each other and know each other.
When I was in the conference I met people from Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh and they had very good relations with Egypt and very good memories just because they studied in Al Azhar and that brought the idea to me that our students should travel and go to universities in other Muslim countries to bring these people together. These are the leaders of the future and once they meet and have a dialogue in their youth they can have very good dialogue when they are in charge of their countries.
This is the way to build unity followed by a common market and then a union like the Europeans created after the Arab League was established. They established a common market because of the common interests. Despite their wars and conflicts throughout history they united because the world we live in now is a world of big powers and has no place for small powers or mini states like the ones we have been suffering from since the First World War, when Sykes Picot divided our nation into mini states and now after the Arab Spring they are trying to divide the divided and keep the nations separate from each other to stay retarded and in need of Western support and Western aid.
Chairman: I think the point that you made about the leadership of modesty and intellect shows that there is a lot to be learned by all of us especially in the West where we see the pomposity and arrogance of our elite. Only yesterday you saw a picture of the Greek Finance Minister arriving in 10 Downing Street in his jeans and a shabby type coat. Even when he was speaking he spoke with some humility while when Mr Osborne speaks he has a degree of arrogance which you can smell from a mile away. That sort of intellect and modesty and humility is a key which is a message Iran is trying to give. No matter where you are, what position you hold in life in front of the creator you are nothing therefore you must have humility. That is the key message.
Hojjatul Islam Javad Esmaeili. Spirituality, Change and Revolution: I have only been in London for two months but I have been in some other countries for teaching and giving lectures in different universities. Tonight I am going to share some thoughts on the role of leadership in the Islamic world and in all situations that we have throughout the world.
One of the problems is the lack of good leadership. The problems that all of us saw in some countries like Egypt and other Islamic and non Islamic. The only thing which they need and they do not have is a good leader to lead them in a true way. This is very important. One thing that is said in our Islamic tradition is that all the people are waiting for a new leaders. They have everything and they experience everything and after all the years they are waiting for a new leader to lead them to a true way.
In this respect one of the very important things that happened in the Islamic revolution of Iran was the very important role of the leadership of Imam Khomeini. So what were the elements and facts of Imam Khomeini’s leadership and what made Imam Khomeini very successful in his leadership? In Islamic culture the word imam means a role model and an example as we have in the Holy Quran. Imam Khomeini through this role model led the Islamic nation, the Iranian nation according to the role model of the Prophet.
Imam Khomeini said that the role all prophets and messengers was to come to this world to maintain justice. He said that our high purpose and goal is the goal that the prophets and messengers came for. He always used to say to the nation that the example comes from all the messengers and prophets, especially the Shia imams. Muharram and Ashura are very significant for the Iranian people. When Ayatollah Khomeini used to speak about Imam Hussein all the people already knew about Imam Hussein.
Our role model is a person like Imam Hussein. When Imam Khomeini used to speak about Imam Hussein and all the prophets all the people knew what should happen and what his message was. The Iranian nation is very familiar with the imams and prophets so when Imam Khomeini used to speak about Imam Hussein and all the prophets they immediately go the message.
Another point which Imam Khomeini made was that he emphasised the humanistic aspect of the human being. The reason Imam Khomeini wanted people to carry out the Islamic Revolution is very important. He wanted the people to discover their humanistic aspect not their materialistic aspect. When people in other countries wanted to make a revolution he emphasised what the benefit would be after this revolution.
In lots of countries when they want to encourage people to do something they ask what is the benefit? Imam Khomeini says that the most important thing is that you yourselves discover your dignity and your humanistic aspect. Unfortunately we see now in some countries that people are used for benefits which are not humanistic. They put the naked photo of a woman to increase the sales of a product. Imam Khomeini says we do not want the new nation to do this.
Imam Khomeini said he had a duty to do and he always did his duty. He quoted a verse from the Quran: Nothing will happen in this world without God’s permission. All the pressure was on Imam Khomeini in doing his duty. When a person has to do his duty he should trust God Almighty. If my way is the true way nobody can prevent me from the true way.
Also in our supplication there are many verses which show that Imam Khomeini just thought about his duty – what it is. He had a very strong sense of duty and he wanted to inform the people of the Iranian nation about this. He urged them to do their duty without being afraid of what will happen in future. The future is in the hands of God Almighty it is not in our hands.
He also emphasised that there is no defeat when you are doing your duty. He emphasised the role model of Iman Hussein. During the battle of Kerbala when Imam Hussein only had 80 soldiers and the enemy had 10,000 soldiers all of Imam Hussein’s companions were killed.
They were never defeated because they only had two options: to defeat the enemy or be killed. Imam Khomeini by providing role models and examples prepared the Iranian nation for an Islamic revolution.
We can also refer to the relationship of Imam Khomeini with the Iranian nation. It was a symbiotic relationship. He knew about the needs of the people. Allah sees that you are gentle with the people. If you had been harsh they would have scattered from around you. The mercy of God shows that a leader can be merciful to his people and in this way he can gather the whole nation around himself.
After the first day of the revolution when he travelled to Qom from Tehran he said to the people I am your servant. And the leader of the Revolution said to the people: ‘I am the servant of you. I spend all my time in the way of Islam and in the way of the Quran.’
Imam Khomeini was humble and invited the people to come and speak to him. He gave lectures to the people and he spoke to them. He always said that all of us are the soldiers of God Almighty. All of us together are the soldiers of God Almighty and the soldiers of Islam.
In conclusion I want to say that the role of leadership is very important and in all revolutions, especially religious revolutions, such leadership is needed. We can see what a good leader can do for his nation.
Chris Bambery: Iran and the West; relations marred by suspicions: Since the revolution of 1979 and the subsequent creation of the Islamic Republic, Iran has been cast as a great “bogeyman” by the United States and its allies, portrayed as being motivated by religious zeal and irrational extremism. In many ways it shadowed the way the old Soviet Union was portrayed at the height of the Cold War and how Cuba has been caricatured by the US (I am not trying to compare these with Iran except in the way they were cast as great “bogeymen”).
In reality the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) has been generally cautious and free of “extremism,” despite the rhetoric which has sometimes come from Tehran.
Famously Iran has not been involved in any invasions of its neighbours or any other states for several centuries. In contrast Britain consistently violated Iranian sovereignty in the early 20th century in pursuit of economic and strategic gains and in 1941, in league with the Soviet Union invaded and partitioned the country in order to impose “regime change.”Most famously in 1953 MI6 and the CIA engineered the coup which overthrew the elected government of Mohammad Mosaddeq (guilty of nationalising Western oil interests) and imposing the autocratic and despotic rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
It is important to remember how big a blow the overthrow of the Shah’s regime was in 1979, and added to that the humiliation felt in Washington over the subsequent hostage crisis. Iran was, along with Israel, the main US ally in the region and the Shah’s forces had been used in Yemen and Oman against Arab nationalist movements. Tehran was home to the CIA’s regional HQ. The Shah provided good business for Western companies, chiefly the arms dealers, and the Americans, who encouraged him to develop a nuclear programme.
The hostage crisis was not simply an “irrational” act, it followed the former Shah being given asylum in the US and its refusal to countenance him returning to face trial or the handover of the fortune he fled the country with. The humiliation America felt over this episode has gone unrevenged (except in Hollywood with films like “Argo”) and that still resonates in ruling circles in Washington today.
Finally, we should not forget that the US, Britain and other Western powers and their regional allies encouraged, armed and funded Saddam Hussein to invade Iran in 1980. In 1988, with Iran looking to emerge victorious from a long, bloody conflict in which Iraq had used chemical weapons, in part supplied by the West, the US intervened attacking Iranian warships and oil platforms and shooting down a civilian airliner.
This record of Western intervention in Iran is well remembered in a country which is proud of its independence and national sovereignty, and which is suffering from American and European Union sanctions.
Today the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Javad spells out Iranian foreign policy as centring on, “the preservation of Iran’s independence, territorial integrity, and national security and the achievement of long-term, sustainable national development.”
Despite the fact that Iranian Supreme Leader Muhammad Khatami has repeatedly made clear Iran has no interest in nuclear weapons and is convinced that such weapons would not enhance its security, the United States and its European allies have simply dismissed this, creating difficulties in resolving the dispute over Iran’s current nuclear programme.
Hopefully we are nearing a deal but this has not stopped the US and EU imposing fresh sanctions of the Islamic Republic and previously when a deal has seemed imminent the US has added new conditions knowing they were unacceptable to Iran.
While the nuclear issue continues to be the focus of media attention on Iran in the West, it has rather ignored the Javad’s description of his country’s foreign policy as being one of “prudent moderation.”
For him that centres on: “Beyond its borders, Iran seeks to enhance its regional and global stature; to promote its ideals, including Islamic democracy; to expand its bilateral and multilateral relations, particularly with neighbouring Muslim-majority countries and nonaligned states; to reduce tensions and manage disagreements with other states; to foster peace and security at both the regional and the international levels through positive engagement; and to promote international understanding through dialogue and cultural interaction.”
Nevertheless Javad points out: “Meanwhile, there has been a recent surge in the activities of extremist and violent non state actors in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, with a clear and unmistakable anti-Iran, anti-Shiite platform. A well-orchestrated campaign has promoted Islamophobia, Iranophobia, and Shiite-phobia and depicted Iran as a threat to regional peace and security; extended support to anti-Iranian claimants in the region; tarnished Iran’s global image and undermined its stature; armed Iran’s regional rivals; actively supported anti-Iran forces, including the Taliban and other extremist groups; and fomented disagreements between Iran and its neighbours.”
In response we have seen Iran take such initiatives as President Muhammad Khatami’s “Dialogue Among Civilizations” and President Hassan Rouhani’s recent proposal for a “world against violence and extremism,” which was adopted as a resolution by the UN General Assembly December 2013.
Yet there will be no retreat on one of the corner stone’s of Iranian foreign policy since 1979, support for the Palestinians: “Iran will continue to support the cause of oppressed people across the world, especially in Palestine, and will continue its principled rejection of Zionist encroachments in the Muslim world.”
Javid has said to the USA and the West, regarding the nuclear talks, that Iranians “respond very positively to respect. Try it. It won’t kill you.” That applies more generally in any approach to Iran.
In terms of regional interests the Islamic Republic has, as a priority, a very real interest in preventing any further escalation of the sectarian conflict so evident in Iraq and Syria. Its immediate neighbour has done much to fuel this conflict but now is having to take into account the simple fact that the rise of the Islamic State represents an immediate danger to the House of Saud.
Iran’s willingness to confront the menace of the Islamic State has received little recognition in the West.
The Islamic Republic will continue to support the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, but the portrayal of Iran as pulling this organisation’s strings is simply another caricature. Hezbollah has its own base of support within Lebanon.
Similarly while Iran will continue to support the government of Syria (which had sided with Iran it is war with Iraq) it is not pulling the strings of President Bashar al-Assad. It is clear that Iran is capable of countenancing a solution to the civil war which involves some compromises currently unacceptable to Assad.
In a region of growing instability Iran remains an island of stability. It is difficult to see why this largely seems to pass Western policy makers by.
Finally I have focused on Iran’s relations with the West but we live in a world very different from that at the end of the Cold War when America could declare “the end of history” – in other words their dominance for eternity.
Iran has established warm relations with emerging economies like Brazil and India, established players like Russia and, above all, the new economic super power, China. The Chinese foreign minister will soon be visiting Tehran and there is talk in Beijing of a “new silk road” linking the two countries, and potentially Russia.
In Western business circles there is a growing awareness of Iran’s economic potential, particularly if and when sanctions are lifted. There must be a fear too that the policies of their governments means that they might not benefit. Relations between China and Iran deserve our attention.
*Chris Bambery is an author, broadcaster, journalist and political analyst. Born in Edinburgh he graduated from Edinburgh University. He comments on political and current affairs for a variety of media outlets including BBC Radio Scotland, Russia Today, Press TV, IRIB and the Islam Channel and writes for a number of publications including The Guardian’s Comment Is Free, Military History Monthly and Scottish Review.
**Hojjatul Islam Javad Esmaeili , is a lecturer at the Islamic Seminary and the Islamic College, London. He was born in Iran in 1985, undertook his religious studies at the seminary of Qom and studied English at various institutions. His thesis was on "The consistency of reason and faith in Shiism and Catholicism". While he is attending higher religious studies he is also preparing his PhD thesis. For the past five years he has taught English language and religious studies at the Imam Hasan Askari seminary, Noor and Amouzesh Zaban Howzeh . He also lectured on religious topics inside Iran and in other countries including Indonesia, South Africa and Ghana.
*** Dr Ali El Kabbany is a journalist and a political analyst of Middle East affairs. He was working from 1978 to 1981 as a journalist with Al-Hawadess, a weekly socio-political Pan Arab magazine. From January 1982 to June 1983 he was working with 2000 Magazine, a monthly futuristic magazine. From July 1983 to 1990 he was the General Manager of the ”Islamic Press Agency”, publishing five different magazines. From 1991 to date: Freelance journalist and political analyst on ME affairs contributing to radio and television.