Statements in Meeting with Members of the Islamic Advertising Coordination Council

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen progeny, especially the Awaited One on earth, and upon his honored companions and those who follow them with goodness until the Day of Judgment.

Welcome, dear brothers and sisters, officials of the great advertising movement of the people throughout the year, and officials of the institutions that assist the Advertising Coordination Council and carry out these great works. We congratulate you on the birth of Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him), which coincides with today, and we commemorate and honor the great popular movement on the ninth of Dey, hoping that the Almighty God will bestow His grace, mercy, acceptance, and blessings upon this popular movement and its resulting blessings.

The important task of the Advertising Coordination Council is advertising. Advertising has a Quranic root; it is not something we have invented or learned from anyone in the world. The Almighty God states in Surah Al-Ahzab: "Those who convey the messages of God and fear Him and do not fear anyone except God; and sufficient is God as a Reckoner." And in Surah Al-Ma'idah, He says: "O Messenger, convey what has been revealed to you from your Lord." The Lord of the worlds commands the Prophet to convey the message, and in the noble verses of the Quran, the issue of conveying the message is repeatedly mentioned by the prophets: "I convey to you the messages of my Lord and advise you." What does advertising mean? It means conveying. Conveying what? Conveying a message, a correct word; this is the meaning of Islamic advertising. However, the condition for this advertising is that it must be sincere, heartfelt, trustworthy, and responsible; this is the meaning of advertising; in fact, the great work you are doing is this.

In materialistic governments—mainly in the West—there is also advertising; [so-called] propaganda; which is fundamentally and essentially different from this. Propaganda is for controlling public opinion, in order to gain power, profit, and money. The Westerners are indeed good at this; they know how to do it well. They are very skilled at Western-style advertising—Western propaganda; they make money and gain power. How? By controlling public opinion. However, Islamic advertising is not about this; Islamic advertising is about understanding with the people; it is not about control, it is about understanding; directing minds towards a lofty and noble goal and bringing minds closer together. What is the effect of this understanding? The effect of understanding is that people responsibly engage in essential and good works; this is how it is. In Islamic advertising, the issue is not about gaining power, nor about obtaining money; rather, it is about bringing people to a position of responsibility; they feel responsible themselves, they engage themselves, and consequently, the benefits of this great popular movement will also be directed towards the people themselves. This is the meaning of advertising; therefore, it is entirely different from what the Westerners do. In Western propaganda, deceiving public opinion is permissible, acting is permissible, actor-like behaviors are permissible, lying is permissible. Anything that leads a person to that material result is permissible in Western propaganda; however, in Islamic advertising, it is absolutely not. In Islamic advertising, honesty, trustworthiness, and a sense of responsibility are required. Well, this is about the essence of advertising.

Naturally, when public opinion becomes active and knowledgeable about an issue, it naturally mobilizes bodies, it mobilizes minds, it brings innovations into the field. Naturally, in Islamic advertising, opportunities and threats are presented to the people; enemies and friends are identified for the people; self-confidence is instilled in the people; these exist in advertising. Look at the advertising of the prophets in the difficult conditions they faced; in the hardest conditions during the Battle of the Trench, when they were digging the trench—on an important side of Medina, the Muslims were digging the trench—they were hungry, the weather was very hot, the Prophet himself was busy with them; at one point, the Muslims reached a very hard stone that they could not move no matter how hard they tried; they said to the Prophet, "O Messenger of God, there is a very hard stone here, and we cannot move it." The Prophet himself came there, took the pickaxe, struck it hard, and a spark flew from this important strike; the Prophet said, "I saw in this spark the palace of Khosrow that you will conquer." Look! The Prophet, in such conditions, in the hardest conditions, says, "I see the palace of Khosrow that you will conquer; I see the emperor of Rome—in another strike—that you will defeat;" meaning hope, self-confidence. Of course, the Prophet's perspective is vastly different from that of people like us; his hope-giving and news-giving is based on real observation, while we analyze. Hope and confidence must exist in advertising. For a nation, the worst incident is to lose its self-confidence and hope for the future.

Dear brothers and sisters! Know that today, the greatest plot of the enemies is aimed at making the Iranian nation lose this self-confidence it possesses. Now I will address this issue and elaborate. The important effort of the enemy's soft war is currently aimed at making the Iranian nation lose its hope. From the verse we mentioned—"Those who convey the messages of God and fear Him and do not fear anyone except God"—it is clear that this advertising has enemies; when it says they convey the divine messages, fear God, and do not fear anyone else, it is evident that there are those who stand against these divine messengers, the conveyers of God's messages; it is a matter of conflict. Or in that noble verse, "Convey what has been revealed to you from your Lord; and if you do not do so, you have not conveyed His message; and God will protect you from the people," it is clear that there is an enemy front against the Prophet's advertising. Dear brothers and sisters! What does this mean? It means that when you advertise, when you do fundamental advertising, when you do Islamic advertising, an enemy front will line up against your advertising; you must know this.

Advertising is a battlefield. Some people dislike the term war; as soon as it is said economic war, soft war, or advertising war, they dislike it, saying, "Why do you talk so much about war? Talk about peace!" Well, there is war. It is our negligence that if the enemy is focused on us—the enemy front is aimed at us to launch its arrows—we remain oblivious. Amir al-Mu'minin said, "Whoever sleeps, the enemy does not sleep from him." If you fall asleep in the trench, it does not mean that your enemy is also asleep; he is watching you, he is monitoring you, he is waiting for you to fall asleep. One should not fear the term war; well, the enemy is currently at war; the war is not military—of course, they are wrong if they want to engage in military action—but there is war, there is soft war, there are wars that are more dangerous than military war; the enemy is at war with us. Well, therefore, be aware that advertising means confronting the enemy; correct advertising means standing face to face with the enemy of truth, with oppression and darkness; this is the meaning of advertising; this is the truth of advertising.

Well, we are approaching the fortieth year; the fortieth year of what? The fortieth year of a phenomenon that was able to change and shake the structure of power in the world. Do not look at the fact that a certain loud power in the world is still in its place; yes, our claim is not that we want to eliminate all the powers of the world—this is not our job; one day it will happen; through a divine hand, this will be accomplished—but our job is to eliminate the structure of power and the system of domination in the world; and we have already done so. The system of domination means the world is divided between two groups of countries, two groups of nations: one group, the dominating group; one group, the dominated group. We have disrupted this system, this erroneous formula in the world. We have shown that no, there can be a nation that is neither a dominator nor a dominated; it neither wants to impose its will on anyone nor submits to any oppression; the Iranian nation has practically demonstrated this; well, it is written in books; thinkers and political analysts talk about this; however, where are the books and writings, and where is the reality! This reality was brought about by the revolution. The Islamic Revolution broke the structure.

In the face of this structural breakdown, they did not remain idle; from the very first day, hostilities began; and it has been nearly forty years since then. Throughout these forty years, various forms of enmity—of which you are already aware; of course, for the new generation, these things need to be explained—ranging from war, sanctions, insults, accusations, infiltration, conspiracy, security operations, cultural actions, and creating internal discord, they spared no expense in Iran; and in all cases, they failed. Forty years have passed. If their conspiracies were to have an effect, by now the Islamic Republic should have been toppled a hundred times; it should have, in common parlance, been buried seven times; however, today we have forty years of power; the Iranian nation has been able to resist against hostilities, malice, and pressures for forty years and has overcome them.

The Iranian nation has passed through seven trials that other nations could not even pass through one; compare. Do you remember the Islamic Awakening? Movements began in countries, greatness was seen, nations stood up, they moved; what happened to their fate? Where did they end up? What could they do? The Islamic Awakening movement in Arab countries—in North Africa and in the West Asian region—ended in civil war, internal strife, brother killing, sectarian disputes, ethnic disputes, and they are still trapped; this was the first trial. They could not pass through the first trial; however, the Iranian nation has powerfully and proudly passed through these stages.

Dismantling and uprooting the monarchy was not a small task that was accomplished in this country. This country had been raised for centuries under monarchy; absolute power, indifferent to the people, without relying on public opinion, acting as it pleased, ruling as it wished; we had lived like this for centuries. The Islamic Republic, the Imam of the Ummah, the nation behind the Imam, were able to uproot this root; it was a very great task; however, some of the actions that occurred after the uprooting of the monarchy were greater than the original task. Preserving the Islamic system over these forty years, you know what immense pressure it has placed on this country and this nation? And this nation has been able to endure, to stand firm. This comparison between the Islamic Revolution and the turmoil, riots, and revolutions that occurred in Arab countries is an instructive comparison. Those who succeeded—such as some of the North African countries that were able to gain independence in their struggle against France—after a short period, they were absorbed into the culture of the same colonial group. The Prime Minister of one of these countries—whom I do not want to name—came here to meet me during my presidency; he started talking to me in Arabic; he wanted to say something, but he did not know the Arabic word for it, so he turned to his advisor and companion who was next to him and said the French word for it, and then that advisor told him, "Yes, the meaning of this word in Arabic is this!" This is how these countries got stuck; this is how they remained in the middle of the road; the path that the Islamic Republic has been moving forward with power for forty years. Well, there has been enmity, and it still exists today.

Be aware: it is important that in every period we understand how the enemy's enmity manifests and what it is doing to us; we must understand the enemy's plans; just like in military warfare. In military warfare, if you can guess what the enemy's plan is, you prepare yourself, you get ready; either you defend well or you make a preemptive attack; this is how it is in military warfare. In advertising warfare, in economic warfare, in cultural warfare, in security warfare, in infiltration warfare—these are all wars—in all of these, the issue is: you must guess what the enemy wants to do. Today, there is no guessing; it is clear to any aware person. Thousands of artillery—artillery of falsehood, artillery of exaggerating problems—are firing at this nation from ways that exist today and did not exist yesterday. We say this about the virtual space; we say be careful of the enemy's artillery firing in this space; be aware. In this space, the enemy should not use it against your identity, your existence, your system, your revolution. They provide baseless statistics, they lie, they attribute falsehoods, they defame accepted figures—whom the people should believe in—they conceal the successes of the revolution, they exaggerate failures, weaknesses, and shortcomings; if there is one, they present it as a thousand, if there is one place, they generalize it to everywhere; these are the actions of the enemy; these are the actions of the enemy; for what? Because the enemy has understood the secret of the Islamic Revolution's victory; its secret is the belief of the people and the faith of the people; it wants to destroy this faith. Now, if it could not do so among the older generations, it wants to destroy this belief among the youth and the new generation so that the people no longer stand behind this revolution and this system; this is its goal. The aim is to make people hopeless, to make people pessimistic, to take away the self-confidence of the people, to show the future as dark; this is what the enemy is doing today.

Unfortunately, inside the country, some groups are doing the same work as the enemy; now some understand what they are doing, some do not understand and do it; they are doing exactly what the enemy does: making people hopeless, accusing this and that, presenting the enemy's outrageous lies as if they were the truth in the minds of the people. These are actions that, unfortunately, some are carrying out inside. Those who are doing the enemy's work inside lack piety; their religion is political, instead of their politics being religious; their religion is political maneuvering. Our politics should be religious, not that we move our religiosity towards political maneuvering, towards lowly and despicable political goals; these are like this; they lack piety; they do the enemy's work to strengthen a certain faction, to undermine another faction; to elevate one person, to bring down another. These are actions that, unfortunately, are being carried out inside.

Some are without media, some are media owners, they own news outlets, they have advertising platforms and can speak; they speak, but without consideration; they do not observe God, nor religion, nor fairness; they do what the enemy wants. The enemy, with great enthusiasm, as soon as it sees such things exist inside, today when they say these things, you will see it widely reflected in the BBC and American radio. These make the enemy happy; these make the enemy happy against the nation and against the Islamic system; at the cost of making the people hopeless, making the youth and the new generation hopeless. Especially those who have all the managerial capabilities today or had them yesterday; it does not matter. There are those who are observed, and one can see that either today all the managerial capabilities of the country are in their hands or they were in their hands yesterday, and then they take on the role of opposition, as the Westerners do. Those who have the country in their hands or had it in their hands no longer have the right to speak against the country, to take a position; they must take a responsible position; they must be accountable. A person who has resources at their disposal cannot claim; rather, they must be accountable and answer what they have done with these resources. Instead of being accountable, they come and play the role of accuser against this and that; this cannot be accepted; the people do not accept this. Now, someone may think that it influences the people; no, the people are aware, they understand, they do not accept this state.

All the managers of the Islamic Republic, from the beginning of the Islamic Republic until today, have performed important services. Well, we have seen, we have been close, we have seen the services they have rendered; of course, there have also been some damages; there have been services, and there have been damages. The services of the government officials, the judiciary, and the parliamentarians over this time should be appreciated, thanked; most of them are indeed servants. Damages should also be criticized, but the criticism must be fair and responsible, not criticism accompanied by insults and accusations. Criticism and the ability to accept criticism are obligatory; slander and defamation are forbidden; criticism is different from slandering, it is different from defamation, it is different from repeating the enemy's words; criticism must be fair, it must be rational, it must be responsible. Blackening is not an art; that one takes a stone and breaks the windows without any distinction; well, anyone, even a child, can do that; that is not art. The art is to speak logically, to speak fairly, not to speak for the sake of personal desires, not to speak for the sake of personal interests, not to speak for the sake of gaining power, keeping God in mind; "Indeed, the hearing, the sight, and the heart—all of those will be questioned." Know that this very word you are saying will be manifested before you on the Day of Judgment, and the Almighty God will hold you accountable, will question you; one cannot say every word just because of one's own desires. Pretending to be revolutionary is different from being revolutionary; pretending to be revolutionary means acting in a way that seems we are revolutionary; being revolutionary is a hard task; it requires commitment, it requires piety. One cannot be the one who runs the country for a decade and then become an opponent of the country in the next decade; it cannot be like this. The ninth of Dey, which has such greatness, was the nation's response to these games. The ninth of Dey was a defense of the values of the revolution, of the values of religion. The stand we took there was a stand in defense of the elections. I explicitly said they are pressuring to annul the elections; I will not go along with annulling the elections; I announced this. The discussion is about the values of the revolution and the values of the Islamic system; it was then, and it is still today. We must be very careful about ourselves; we must be very vigilant. The Imam said that the criterion is the current state of individuals; what does this mean? The Imam was wise; it means that no one has the guarantee of remaining steadfast until death; one must be vigilant; the ruling of concealment and intoxication is all about the outcome. We have seen many things in these forty to fifty years since the beginning of the Imam's movement—from the year 40, 42 onwards! Ups and downs; extremes and moderation; we have seen strange things during this time! We must be very careful about ourselves.

One of the things that must be done in advertising is responding to the doubts cast among the people. Of course, our advertising institutions must all be vigilant and act; the Ministry of Culture, the Organization of Advertising, the Office of Advertising, the institutions responsible for communication and media affairs, the broadcasting organization, and others. All must be vigilant; the enemy is constantly creating doubts; doubts are accumulating one after another! These knots must be untied, these doubts must be removed, minds must be freed, and made at ease. Our youth should not feel confused and bewildered; one from this side, one from that side; constantly creating doubts, constantly creating problems! The youth must be helped; minds must be assisted.

Well, the enemy creates doubts, and it also exaggerates. The way our enemies speak in their communication and advertising devices is such that they present a thousand times more audience than they actually have; they introduce a thousand people as a million; this is how they portray it. One should not be deceived by these; one should not be deceived by the enemy's exaggerations either. If the analyses they make regarding the Islamic Republic—that this part of the Islamic Republic is ruined, this part is destroyed, this part has been annihilated, this part has been lost, it has become a disaster—were to be real analyses, as I said, we should have been buried a hundred times by now. From the very first day, they said the Islamic Republic would collapse within six months; then after six months, they saw it did not happen, they said it would collapse within two years; forty years have passed! By God's grace, everyone should know that we will ground our enemies, the criminal America and its accomplices, by God's grace.

Our main enemy is the regime of the United States of America, one of the most corrupt and oppressive governments in the world; it supports terrorists, from ISIS to the extent they could, they supported them—now, despite all the bluster they make, as it is reported, they are still secretly aiding ISIS and Takfiris like ISIS—they support terrorists, they support dictatorial governments, they supported the Shah of Iran, they support the oppressive Saudi dynasty, they support some oppressive dynasties in the region. What could be more wrong and corrupt than this! They support criminals; whether those criminals are committing atrocities in Palestine, meaning the Zionist regime, or those criminals who are committing atrocities in Yemen, killing people every day. They commit crimes within their own country, oppressing black people; the police in America, without any justified excuse, beats black women, black men, black children, and young black people to death, and American courts acquit them, letting them go back to their business. This is their judicial system, and then they criticize the judicial systems of other countries and the religious judicial system of our country! Of course, our judicial system is not without faults. Know that I am not unaware of the problems in the judiciary or the executive branch; my information may be more than many others, but I also see the positive points. In the Ziyarat of Amin Allah, we say, "A reminder of the abundant blessings of Your favors"; one must consider God's blessings. Yes, we have corrupt judges, but we also have just and trustworthy judges; we do not have the right to negate everything. We have ambitious, shameless, money-seeking executive managers, but we also have honest, hardworking executive managers; we do not have the right to dismiss all of them with one brush; we must be vigilant. In front of us are these forces and judicial systems of the Western world—among them America—whose prisons are full of disgrace, whose troubles are strange troubles for the people—bribes and other issues—but in Hollywood films and others, they portray it as if it is a clean and pure system. An example of this is what we just mentioned: if a black person is killed in America, there is no guarantee that the killer will be punished; this is the American government.

Well, this [enemy] is in front of us, and it is making all its efforts, spending a lot of money, and making many plans. They are trying to create discord among the people—whether political discord, religious discord, ethnic discord, or linguistic discord—they are making all their efforts. The wealthy around us are also being exploited and are being used for help against our country. They do everything they can; however, by God's grace, their noses have been rubbed in the dirt, and they should know that we will move forward with power. By God's permission, in all arenas, we will disappoint America; those who were previously at the head of the American government were not idle; they also worked hard. Reagan was stronger and wiser than Trump; he also acted against us; now with threats and noise. He was an actor, and his acting was better than this; he also acted against us, and they shot down our plane and did that; today, where is Reagan, and where is the Islamic Republic? Today, the Islamic Republic has advanced and grown several times compared to the time of Reagan; in all aspects. He is now suffering from divine punishment, his body has decayed and turned to dust, and his soul is, according to our principles, likely undergoing accountability before the divine justice system; these will be the same. The Islamic Republic will remain standing by God's grace, and they will carry the burden of the shame of the Islamic Republic's weakening or exiting the scene on their hearts. Of course, some managed to keep some of us busy with the velvet glove; for a while, they managed to keep us somewhat occupied with superficial softness or with the velvet glove—they had a hard hand underneath—but they were soon exposed. Today, the truths regarding the wicked intentions of the United States government against Islam, Muslims, and the Islamic Republic have become clear.

[We must] know what they can do; they impose sanctions, we must internalize our economy, make it endogenous, and implement a resistant economy so that sanctions do not have an effect. The respected officials must take the resistant economy seriously, not just in words; a resistant economy cannot be built with reckless imports, nor with weak production; they must strengthen domestic production. Government and state agencies should prefer domestic products over similar foreign products. A major buyer in the market is the government agencies that buy everything, need everything; they should prefer what is produced domestically. The people should favor domestic production. All of these are the antidote to the enemy's sanctions; these may not yield results in six months or a year, but the real remedy is nothing else. The same goes for advertising work, the same goes for psychological warfare, the same goes for countering infiltration; they must be careful that the enemy's infiltrators do not enter decision-making and decision-taking bodies. They should not take the enemy's flattery seriously; they should not take expressions of affection and expressions of goodwill, and the like, seriously; they should know what the enemy wants to do. If you know these, if we know these, if you observe these, if we observe these, know that the Islamic Republic will continue to move forward, and these problems that exist—which I know are problems of inflation, problems of recession, and various problems that people face in terms of livelihood and economic issues—can be resolved with the efforts of the officials, and the Almighty God will reward this effort, and God willing, will open the knots. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, guide and assist us to what pleases You and Your victory.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.