Speech in Meeting with Commanders of the Basij Resistance Force

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

Dear brothers! Welcome. God willing, you are not weary from these valuable efforts. I sincerely thank each of the responsible brothers at various levels of the Basij Resistance Force.

The issue of the Basij is a very important matter. Of course, this issue has always been taken seriously in the Islamic Republic system. Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) and other officials and the people took the Basij seriously, and from now on, we must strive to ensure that the issue of the Basij continues to be taken seriously and that a psychological state of commitment to the Basij remains at various levels of officials and throughout the lives of the people.

All the programs that our dear brother Mr. Afshar mentioned are good, and they will only be realized in the shadow of the existence of the Basij, the seriousness of the Basij, and the growth of the Basij. Therefore, the main point is that the Basij, in the true sense of the word, is a revolutionary phenomenon, and this country, this nation, and this revolution must always take this phenomenon seriously and appreciate it.

I want to mention two points: The first point is that the Basij is not a special force compared to other forces. It is not that we say we have a ground force, an air force, a corps, an army, and also a Basij. If we say so, we have belittled the Basij. It is true that we have named this force the Resistance Force in the Corps, but it does not mean that this force is equal to other forces. This is in the organizational form. The truth of the Basij issue is beyond this. Basij means the people. Is it not so? You divide the people into several categories. Among them, there are incapacitated people, they are nothing; there are indifferent people, they are nothing; there are people with little motivation, they are nothing; there are young children not yet motivated, they are nothing; when you cut off the top and bottom of the issue, the essence is the Basij. That is, all the motivated, enthusiastic, and capable believers in the Islamic society—both men and women—are members of the Basij. Is your expectation of the Basij less than this?

So, Basij means the core of the people; those people from whom one can hope for the defense of the revolution. Where are these people? These people are in offices, schools, universities, seminaries, shops, and so on; that is, a dual life. Until the issue of military defense gradually becomes a culture, people act based on their duty. This will gradually become a culture in the Islamic society. What Imam said: "The entire Islamic country is military," is the same culture of early Islam. This is the same Islamic culture. In our society, such a state does not yet exist.

You see, someone says I was at the front for three months. Why three months? Did we have a three-month war? We had an eight-year war. Everyone should see how much of that eight years they were absent; they should ask themselves the reason. You want to do something until the day the truth of the Basij becomes a culture in our society, making this dual life of people—military life and ordinary life—settle. This is a very delicate task. My first point is the delicacy of your work.

The Basij organization, meaning the board of directors and managers and officials of the Basij, must act so delicately that they can gradually include all the capable individuals of the country—capable in the sense I mentioned at the beginning—within the tent of the Basij, so that while feeling like a housewife, they feel like a soldier; while feeling like a student, they feel like a soldier. This work is possible with good propaganda and organization and attention to what is expected from each group and how the mind of that group can be saturated and quenched with the truth of the Basij issue.

This work is a very delicate and continuous task. I mean to say that in your assessments, a high level is necessary. You must look at the issue as a very delicate and precise matter. It is not that you imagine there is a crowd, we throw the net in the middle, and some people eventually come, we bring them to a barracks and train them, then at most we put a code on them and say you belong to such and such a legion, such and such a battalion with such and such a commander, such and such a company with such and such a commander! Even if precise organization is done—there is nothing beyond this—the issue does not end here. Besides the organization issue, there are the same delicacies I mentioned.

If we see that people's inclination towards resistance bases—which is the field of Basij's action—within the city and towards your offices—which is the administrative center—has slowed down, we must know that we are somewhat lacking in this delicacy. When we talk about people, we mean the owners of revolutionary thought and ideas; especially those who have considered war as a permanent possibility for our country, not a thoughtful person who sits and weaves and understands nothing of the revolution.

If someone thinks that the war is over, in my opinion, they have not looked carefully. War is a permanent possibility. We are a revolutionary system. Global arrogance is hostile to us. Global arrogance is alive, so the danger is alive. This danger may be military, it may be non-military; but the military possibility always exists. We do not want to go among the people now and say war, war. No, we have no reason; but we, as officials, must always consider this possibility serious, current, and realizable in the future—even the near future; otherwise, we will be caught off guard.

The second point is that you have two main fields for the movement of the Basij. Of course, this literacy and Quran learning and the like are things that are on the sidelines of the work or some as the spirit of the work are necessary; but what is your practical field of work, one is the front and the other is the urban resistance cells. We want to do something so that this group that you have been able to gather in these two fields so far expands to twenty million people. Of course, some brothers have said twenty-five or thirty million, which I said last year in the gathering of brothers: No, let us now secure the twenty million that Imam said. If we want to extract this forty, fifty million population we have in our country, perhaps more than twenty million elite will not come out. Although—suppose for example—those ten, twelve, thirteen million others are still among the dear ones capable of being trained in carrying weapons and we must think of them, but twenty million is good. We want to bring this to twenty million. How do you want to secure this twenty million?

All our military apparatuses can assume that their work, when it reaches a certain level, does not expand further. For example, the Corps says I have this many contract forces, I have this many recruits. We say very well, you bring this number down to this level, or raise it to that level, then close it. We cannot set a ceiling for the Basij. The ceiling is twenty million. We are far from that.

You may say, we have trained two or three or four million people. Very well, firstly, whatever you have trained is not your member. Someone came, received fifteen days of training, and left, and then you never hear from them again. Moreover, the three million of the war period and the beginning of the work, with this seventeen million that must join the Basij in the apparently non-war period, is very different. How do you want to attract this seventeen million? Do you want to attract them or not? You must attract them; there is no doubt. In our country, the twenty-million army must be a real achievement. This cannot happen unless by attracting these sixteen or seventeen million others. You must attract them. You must organize all of them.

So, you are the only military organization whose field of work—unlike others which are cut and closed—is constantly expanding. You are constantly expanding. Base your work on this expansion. The main point is this. Make the foundation of the work so strong that, like a building you are constructing, it has the strength for several more floors. Sometimes you want to build two more floors on a building. Sometimes you want to build twenty more floors on it. In this case, the foundation is different. Lay the foundation in such a way that twenty more floors can be built on it. This work is very important, precise, and demanding.

Then, alongside this point, this issue arises that the Basij—meaning the people's force—cannot be attracted with the methods of attracting other forces. A person attracts a soldier in a special way, and a Corps member in another way—for example, they have a slight difference—but a Basiji cannot be attracted that way. A Basiji is the mass of people. You want to bring them under an organization, familiarize them with discipline and order, teach them obedience, and utilize the talent and enthusiasm and faith they have for defending the country in the best way, and if it is lacking in them, inject it. What do you want to do? This work is very important, and I say that if this work—meaning the widespread Basij—happens, this revolution is insured; if not, there is cause for concern. That is, the Basij is related to the fate of the revolution. If the Basij becomes strong and efficient and expands and—as we said—its foundation is solid, no power in the world, no matter how much they conspire, no matter how much they ally with each other, will be able to inflict the slightest harm on this country and this revolution. If we underestimate the Basij force—meaning the people's military force—then there is cause for concern and problem; because the scene of people's presence is not only the political and economic scene. The military scene is the most important scene, and this presence is under the shadow of the Basij.

I want to remind you of the importance of your work and the importance of the work of each of these Basiji youths and young people—who are truly part of this great Basij group. No individual should be left out or allowed to be left out. If this Basiji youth who served so much in the war is, God forbid, directed towards things within the society, it is an irreparable loss. All these young people you see in the streets busy with their lives and pursuing their work, you should consider them a potential Basiji in your heart and mobilize to attract them. We cannot be satisfied that the youth of this country and the Muslim youth come out of the general Basij of the people.

I too, God willing, will be in service of this great work. Whatever we can do, we have no objection to being at your service, God willing, this work will be done. We pray that God gives you strength and helps you to carry out this great work in the best way possible, God willing. May God, God willing, make the sacred heart of the Imam of the Age pleased with you and always make the pure soul of our dear Imam happy with you.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings