Anniversary of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei’s Letter to the Youth of Europe and North America

On the anniversary of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei’s letter to the youth of Europe and North America, you may ask what the goal of the letter was.

In his letters dated January 21, 2015, and November 29, 2015, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei elaborated on the truth of Islam and malicious attempts by certain Western leaders to use terrorist acts as a pretext to distort the image of Islam. The letters written by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution asked Western youths not to judge Islam based on the Charlie Hebdo attacks and other terrorist acts. Ayatollah Khamenei’s message in his letters to Western youth is “that we, in cooperation with the others, can apply such a model in all countries of the region and encourage the countries to follow common interests and common security.

The goal of these letters that Ayatollah Khamenei penned to young people in Europe and North America was to bypass Western media that do not present facts to their audience and society as well as young people in Europe and the United States. Ayatollah Khamenei addressed the youths directly with the aim of encouraging them to find out facts through a message from the heart of the Islamic world. The idea of writing these two letters was to shed light on the reality of the Islamic world, extremist movements, and the role of Western youth in understanding what is going on and in order to open a horizon for fair and just relations with the Islamic world.

Since the political officials in Western countries, in general, do not recognize the other and non-Western, and they consider other peoples and other countries, especially those in the Islamic world, as inferior, less civilized, and lower culturally and even in human values, they are not ready for an equal dialogue; a dialogue that recognizes the other side as a true partner. Therefore, they deal with these countries as places to obtain more wealth or dictate our governments their orders.

For this reason, the idea of going to the youth was to go beyond political officials and Western media, and their published writings and literature that insult the Islamic world and portray it as a backward world. That is why Ayatollah Khamenei bets on young people because they can understand this message; they can think about it and compare what was mentioned in these two letters and what the media present in terms of distortion or in an attempt to distort the facts.

Unfortunately, the Western media completely controls public opinion, and there are many studies that suggest the absence of free choice in the West. Though there is an emphasis on free political choice and election in the West, indeed, these processes are directed by the media that highlight a certain personality organizing various interviews with him to present him as popular and desirable. The media cover only what they want. It is possible to present half a minute about what is going on in Palestine, whilst presenting 10 minutes about Israeli achievements and technical development. Mainstream media prefer to present the activities, policies and relations established by a European country while they hide what is happening in the Islamic Republic of Iran and its reality.

The media is not sincere in reflecting the truth about what is happening in the world, and therefore it is not possible to bet on this media, and unfortunately in the Arab world, many media persons and the information sources are influenced by Western reports.

They accuse the resistance of undermining the stability in Lebanon when Hezbollah confronts Israel or challenges the Zionist occupation. Consequently, these media do not convey any truths and are concerned about the power and influence of the resistance. On the other hand, these achievements are real achievements. No one can claim that they have not been realized or deny that Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon under the blows of the resistance movement. No one can deny that the Palestinian resistance has achieved great achievements by its steadfastness, and Israel has failed in successive wars on Gaza.

The Leader of the revolution always talks about the youth and sends the message to the youth because he believes that they are the source of hope and they are the future.

This is the message of the Islamic Republic, which is to preserve its existence and use its experience, and to tell the peoples of the region that this is the Islamic experience that must remain and continue.   It says that we, in cooperation with the others, can apply such a model in all countries of the region and encourage the countries to follow common interests and common security.