Statements of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in a meeting with the scientific and expert delegation of the Jihad University

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

First of all, I am very pleased to be here today with a gathering of wise and young elites and researchers who promise a bright future for the scientific landscape of the country. Rest assured that if there were time and opportunity for each of you to speak about the issues of jihad, science, research, and the work you are engaged in, I would listen with complete eagerness and enjoy it. I am deeply grateful to God Almighty for the blessing of your existence, dear brothers and sisters, and since "If you are grateful, I will surely increase your favor," I hope that by the blessing of the heartfelt gratitude I have before God for your existence, God will increase your blessings and both the quantity and quality of your contributions day by day.

I will say a sentence about the Jihad University; a sentence regarding the issue of science and research in the country, and one sentence about our current issue, which is the global uproar over Iran's nuclear matters.

Regarding the Jihad University, my belief is that this combination - jihad and university, and the integration of jihad, which is a spiritual value, with science and knowledge and with the university - carries a message; it shows that one can have jihadist science and also scientific jihad; this is precisely the work you are engaged in. Your knowledge is jihadist knowledge; it is accompanied by jihad and ijtihad (independent reasoning); it is not about begging or waiting for knowledge to be gifted from here and there; you pursue knowledge to acquire it; this is jihadist knowledge, arising from struggle, ijtihad, and effort. On the other hand, you are engaged in jihad. Jihad means fighting for a noble and sacred goal. It has fields; one of its fields is participation in the common armed battles of the world. It also has a political field; a scientific field; an ethical field. The criterion for the truth of jihad is that this movement that takes place must be directed and face obstacles that one is determined to remove; this becomes a struggle. Jihad means such a struggle, which, when it has a divine direction and goal, then it also acquires a sacred aspect. You are engaged in scientific struggle; because your work clearly has very stubborn enemies who do not want this scientific and research movement to take place. Therefore, in my opinion, the Jihad University is not just an institution, but a culture; a direction and movement. The more we can expand this culture in society and make it sustainable and steadfast, the more we have advanced the country towards true dignity, honor, and independence.

Fortunately, the jihad has responded to the expectations placed upon it. One day it might have been thought that jihad was a greenhouse movement that we created for modeling. Today, this greenhouse is transforming the community into a garden. It has not only limited itself to modeling but is overflowing with its blessings. The statistics that have been provided - of course, they had previously sent them to me and I had reviewed them - are very meaningful. The fact that you are moving in the forefront of science in some areas and utilizing it for the scientific, industrial, and technological advancement of the country and fostering research means that this greenhouse is no longer a greenhouse, but rather an open and fragrant space that is expanding, and I am in favor of this expansion; this expansion must increase day by day. In the first report mentioned, the production and multiplication and freezing of stem cells were highlighted, and I received very gratifying reports about this prominent research work, which apparently for the first time in the world - as far as I recall - they produced insulin-producing cells, and I recently read in the newspaper that they have brought heart stem cells to the stage of testing and operation for heart repair and have transplanted them. This signifies the overflow of these blessings into the community. The other cases mentioned are each a clear example of the blessings of the Jihad University.

In the world, to prove that science has a secular essence and that knowledge has nothing to do with values, much effort has been made, and philosophies have been created for it; they argued and discussed to introduce the concept of knowledge as an abstract concept devoid of values; exactly the opposite of what you have done now. You say Jihad University; jihad is a value. The truth of the matter is that science and reason are tools of two aspects; they can serve values, and they can serve animality and bestiality. It depends on who manages the science. If the management of science is in the hands of worldly, power-seeking, wealth-accumulating, and domination-seeking individuals, this is what you observe in the world today; that is, science becomes a tool for colonialism, exploitation, humiliation of nations, occupation, and for promoting vice, sex, and heroin. If there were no science, there would be no colonialism. Europeans, thanks to their science, were able to rise in the world and bring nations under the yoke of colonialism and keep nations backward for a hundred, a hundred and fifty, or two hundred years, depriving them of their material resources; suppressing their human talents and causing massacres. When science is managed by individuals who think only of the animal aspects of life, this is what will happen. But if science is managed by righteous servants, then it will serve and not harm. If those who discovered nuclear energy were virtuous and pious, if those who utilized it were virtuous and righteous servants, the Hiroshima incident would never have occurred. Even today, as you observe, they use this weakened nuclear power in the war they had with Iraq ten or twelve years ago, and they have used it in these incidents as well, and in some other parts of the world, they have employed this weapon, which has led to the destruction of generations and crops; "He destroys crops and offspring, and God does not like corruption," which is in accordance with a Quranic verse. They have left the destructive effects of that poisonous and annihilating radiation for nations and future generations for many years - God knows. If the management of science is in the hands of righteous individuals, these issues will not arise, and science will serve humanity; because it has the capacity to do so. Therefore, the idea that we come to secularize science; to prove that science cannot be accompanied by values is a very big fallacy and a great deception for human minds; no, science can be accompanied by values. Islamic spirituality has a problem with animality, with corruption, and with the misuse of science, not with knowledge, technology, and research. Spirituality can accompany science, and the results of knowledge and research can move in the direction of spirituality.

Your name is Jihad University; rely on this name and adhere to the implications of this name and truly strive. When jihad; that is, purposeful effort for God, exists, undoubtedly success will accompany it. The path we have towards the advanced borders of knowledge in all fields, rest assured that it will not be traversed except with a spirit of independence, a spirit of reliance on God, and a spirit of working for faith. We must traverse this path quickly and find shortcuts and reach our destination; we must open the borders of knowledge and create new borders; this work is possible; because this is a land of scientific growth, and you have shown that it can be done. Many of these sciences are closed off to countries like ours and their non-possessors, and when they allow knowledge to be transferred, it is old and worn out and has lost its novelty and freshness. Of course, this is the case in all fields; it is the same in the fields of humanities. The other day, I told friends who work in various economic and management fields of the country and were here, that some of the topics being pursued here today are outdated. Their superior theories have come to the market and are being implemented, and they are busy working, but some here - those who are captivated by their words - are just now bringing up those remnants! Some say we should not have devotion to God Almighty and to religion, but they themselves have devotion to the West and to Europe and America! These individuals do not accept devotion to God, but wholeheartedly accept devotion to Western capitalism and the political powers reliant on that capitalism!

This is a revolutionary institution; remain revolutionary; my strong recommendation is this. Revolutionary movement, contrary to the insinuations of wicked individuals and some of the paid pens who promote it and insinuate that revolution means chaos; confusion; nothingness and disarray, is not so; rather, revolutionary discipline is the best and strongest of disciplines. The disorder seen at the beginning of the revolution is due to the existence of a wrong, crooked, and decayed foundation, which must be dismantled and a new foundation laid. That disorder belongs to the beginning of the revolution; revolution is not that disorder; revolution is a continuous matter; revolution means construction; it means growth and flourishing. Can growth and flourishing happen without discipline, without law, and without order?! The best works have been done by those who have acted with a revolutionary spirit; both in war, in construction, and in science and cultural matters. Therefore, remain revolutionary. A revolutionary spirit means not being captive to imposed limits; not being satisfied with drop-by-drop reception; moving towards the goal with hope, and obtaining it with motivation, enthusiasm, insistence, and pursuit. This is revolution and revolutionary movement.

Regarding the issue of science and research, I must say that the main topics that the dominating powers in the global system of domination rely on to maintain this dominating and submissive relationship are three issues: cultural domination, economic domination, and scientific domination. It is necessary that they do not allow the dominated side or the one upon whom domination is imposed to achieve independence, self-belief, and progress in these three areas; neither in cultural matters, including faith and belief and culture in its specific sense; values and goals and orientations; nor in economic matters, nor in scientific matters.

Subjugated countries have never had a proper and sound economy. Sometimes they have had a superficial boom, which you see in some subjugated countries; however, their economic structure is broken; meaning that if a faucet is turned off on them; an account is blocked, or economic seizure occurs, everything will collapse and they will be destroyed. You saw that a capitalist was able to bring several Southeast Asian countries to bankruptcy in a matter of two or three months; even those two or three countries that had relatively good development and economic boom. The president of one of these countries came to Tehran on an occasion during those days and met with me and said, let me tell you that we became completely poor in one night! An American Jewish capitalist acted like a string that, when pulled, causes a puppet structure to collapse, and he pulled one string and everything fell apart. The Americans injected fifty or sixty billion where necessary - fifty billion to one, thirty billion to another - but where they do not find it necessary, they do not inject and leave that country in dire straits. Of course, injecting means that they are re-establishing the same puppet structure in another form. In any case, they do not allow the economy of these countries to become solid.

In relation to the culture of subjugated countries, the first thing that the dominators do - which has been customary since ancient times - is to destroy the culture of these countries; their language, values, traditions, and faith with humiliation, pressure, force, and at times by the sword and by gouging out eyes - of which we have historical instances - and they do not allow people to speak their own language; so that they accept the imported language. When the English came to the Indian subcontinent, they did not allow Persian, which was the prevalent administrative language, to remain intact and, with bullets and pressure, said that you have no right to speak Persian; they abolished Persian and brought in English. During the dark reign of the Pahlavis, they gradually extracted religious and public beliefs and the empowering force from the society; they stripped away honor and faith.

One of the issues that they do not allow to grow in subjugated countries and severely obstruct is the issue of science; because they know that science is a tool of power. The Westerners reached power through science; this was one of the phenomena of history. Of course, science has circulated between the East and the West, and for a time, they were in ignorance. In that medieval period, which they themselves describe, this side of the world was the time of scientific flourishing; but as soon as they reached science, they used it as a tool for authority, for acquiring wealth, for expanding political domination, and for attracting the wealth of nations and producing wealth for themselves, and from that wealth, they reproduced science and elevated it and grew their knowledge. They know how much science impacts empowering a nation and a country, hence if they want the system of domination; that is, the relationship of the dominator and the dominated to remain and to govern the global order, they must not allow the part that they want to be dominated to become knowledgeable; this is a strategy that has no alternative and their behavior in the world is still in this manner; therefore, we must strive for acquiring knowledge and research; we must work.

We remained distant from science for many years before the revolution. There was a period of absolute sleep and negligence; there was also a period when awakening and awareness naturally arose among nations, which was a period of deception. They did not allow science to enter the country in the true sense of the word; they distracted and did not open the path for research; they did not nurture talents and did not encourage them. The revolution came and removed these walls and limitations and brought about scientific self-awareness; but this movement will not reach anywhere without management, without movement, and without determination. All work, including the issue of research and science, requires organized management; therefore, this work must be advanced. Of course, part of this work pertains to government officials, part pertains to universities, and another part pertains to the responsibilities of scientific centers. And you, as the Jihad University, are among the best centers that can engage in this matter and feel responsible; which you do. Fortunately, I witness and see that your progress in scientific work has been very good; continue.

The esteemed president of the Jihad University suggested that the issue of knowledge production and the software movement - this slogan we have raised - be managed by the Jihad University. This topic is new to me and is completely worthy of consideration. Value your scientific work. Of course, cultural work is also equally important; work on faith, work on courageous, dignifying, and enlightening beliefs, which Islamic faith encompasses all of these. This topic itself is a separate discussion that you will certainly address in its own place, which is also very good.

And now regarding the recent issue that the enemies of the Islamic Republic, at the forefront of which is the most wicked of all, the government of the United States, have created a commotion against the Islamic Republic and have used it as a pretext to exert pressure on the Islamic Republic. This is the same accumulated malice of the Badr and Khaybar and Hunayn; the accumulated hatred resulting from the Islamic Revolution and the severing of America's hand from this country, which they want to somehow compensate for here. They opened their filthy mouths against the Iranian nation and said whatever came to their minds. Those who are notorious for deception and lies and fraud in the world accused the Islamic Republic of deception and falsehood! Those whose malice and enmity towards humanity is clearer than daylight and everyone sees it in various scenes, accused the Islamic Republic of violating human rights! And they appear as claimants of human rights! The disgraced America, whose prisons are spread across the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan - it was reported a few days ago that America has about twenty prisons like Abu Ghraib - and this collection that today claims to govern the world carries the burden of catastrophe and opposition to human rights and complete savagery, claims to be a supporter of human rights! See how much degradation there must be for humanity, and truly there is no greater shame for today's generation than that such humans, such savages; bloodthirsty and ferocious wolves, claim to be supporters of human rights! And then these same people opened their mouths against the Islamic Republic and uttered nonsense and absurdities and said whatever came to their minds.

Of course, they are simultaneously doing two things: on one hand, they are babbling and accusing that the Islamic Republic is making an atomic bomb, that its distance to nuclear weapons is very small, and today if it wants, in a few months or two years, it will acquire nuclear weapons; on the other hand, they pretend that it is of no use and do not seek nuclear knowledge; their small servants and lackeys are also pursuing these matters inside, writing these things. These paid pens, who have unfortunately always existed in our country, go around to place their pen, writing, and art precisely in the service of the same subject that the enemy of this nation is pursuing. These despicable and lowly flatterers, of course, full of claims, say do not seek nuclear knowledge, and if you want it, you must go kiss the threshold of America to be able to reach it. They say this, and they reflect and repeat the same.

There is a confusion of terms between nuclear technology and nuclear weapons, and the truth of the matter is different from these; while these two have nothing to do with each other and are two different things. Nuclear weapons depend on highly enriched uranium of over ninety percent and complex technology, and only those who have the motivation will pursue it. We have no motivation for it, we have not pursued it, and we do not want to pursue it; we have no need for nuclear bombs. If we have overcome our enemies until today, we have not done so with nuclear bombs. The Iranian nation has defeated America for twenty-five years; is it not true? America, which has been defeated by the Iranian nation for twenty-five years, has been defeated by what? Did we defeat America with nuclear bombs, or with determination, will, faith, awareness, and our unity? We have understood what we want; we have understood what we are pursuing; we have recognized the path and have moved forward without fear of the threats and intimidation of this and that; this is how we have prevailed; we did not prevail with nuclear bombs. Did the former Soviet Union not have nuclear bombs? The number of nuclear bombs of the former Soviet Union was probably more than the number of nuclear bombs of America. Did it not fail?! Victory and defeat in the fundamental arenas of the world are not achieved with these things. Today, we have presented a model to the Islamic world; the model of religious democracy, the model of independence and national dignity. Today, the Islamic world has mobilized against America over the past twenty-five years, and nations chant death to America. Who was saying death to America? Who other than the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation was saying it? Today, everyone is saying it. We did not advance with nuclear bombs. Victory in great and historical scenes that endure is not achieved with these weapons. Today, does the Zionist regime not have nuclear bombs? As it is reported, there are two hundred or perhaps three hundred nuclear warheads currently in the warehouses of the Zionist regime; but the Zionist regime has been unable for several years against its opponent, which has no guns and only stones; of course, stones accompanied by will and stones backed by faith, it has been unable. Our issue is not the atomic bomb; what do we want with the atomic bomb? Moreover, when they use the atomic bomb, it is not only the enemies who are killed, but also those who are not enemies are killed, and this is against our belief; it is against our method and approach. The atomic bomb destroys both the righteous and the wicked; it destroys the good and the bad; it burns the wet and the dry together; this is not the work of an Islamic system.

And as for the issue of nuclear technology and the extent to which we are pursuing it, this is another matter. The only commonality they have is in the material of uranium. That, highly enriched uranium of over ninety percent and the complex industry of weapon-making requires, and this, uranium of three to four percent for the fuel of the nuclear power plant, which we have today in Bushehr. Where is three to four percent enriched uranium and where is over ninety percent! This is something that according to international regulations is free for everyone and has no problem; all countries, if they need uranium - or even if they do not need it - can produce it up to three or four percent. There is also the international NPT treaty that everyone has accepted, we have accepted, and from the perspective of global regulations, it has no problem. If we do not have this technology, it means that tomorrow when the Bushehr nuclear reactor is built, we will have to go knock on the doors of this country and that country and say give us fuel. If one day, for any reason - due to political reasons, international issues, or bilateral relations - they do not want to give us fuel, it means that we will no longer have a power plant; they want this. They want you to have the boiler, but the oil for the boiler to be in their hands. That is, they want to increase dependency by creating a nuclear reactor, not decrease it.

What has caused the uproar of the Americans against Iran today and has made them flustered is that they see that Iran has established a nuclear power plant and can produce nuclear electricity and also produces its own fuel and feed for it domestically. This is their first point of concern. I once said that if oil were in their hands and we needed oil, they would sell us a bottle of oil at the price of our parents. It would not be that they would sell a barrel of oil for twenty, thirty, or thirty-five dollars - and in reality, for nothing - as we are selling now. But you see that oil-rich countries convert their non-renewable capital into a negligible amount of money. They want to create the same equation in the issue of nuclear fuel; that is, they want to make it so that if we have a nuclear power plant, we will be dependent on them for its fuel.

The second point of their concern is that they are upset that this knowledge has grown and flourished within; that is, it is actually indigenous. Of course, this does not mean that we invented this device; no, rather it means that we did not go to their doors to learn this work. Our young researchers - just like you - and hundreds of brilliant and thoughtful minds have been able to set up this massive device and bring it to fruition; they have nurtured knowledge among themselves; they have created technology and have not gone to the doors of this and that; this is one of their concerns; why? Because they see that this is exactly contrary to the arrogant philosophy that countries that want to be dominated should not have independence in knowledge and technology; they should have their hands outstretched; they should be dependent on them. They know that if today the country and the Iranian nation can sit at the peak of this technology, their rightful voice in the world, which is the independence of the Islamic community and Islamic dignity, will be more accepted among Muslims and in Islamic societies; they are upset about this; hence they create uproar. Therefore, the truth of the matter is different from what they say.

Our country's officials in the political realm have said what they need to say regarding this matter. The President and the officials of this nuclear project and our Foreign Ministry have said what is correct. They have responded to the nonsense and other excesses of others. I do not intend to say anything in this regard; I want the truth of the matter to be clear to the Iranian nation. The Iranian nation does not want to accept a double injustice. They express concern that you may be able to acquire nuclear weapons through this. If the Europeans and others are truly honest and concerned about nuclear weapons, we say no, rest assured; we are not pursuing nuclear weapons; for the reasons I mentioned. But if they are upset that the Iranian nation has this precious and prominent technology, which belongs to it and is indigenous, and they want to stop it, I tell them again, rest assured that the Iranian nation will not yield. What the researchers, scientists, and government of Iran are doing in the field of nuclear technology is their great duty and a significant task, and this work is to prevent dependence on foreigners and to preserve national independence, which it needs.

The babblers and fabricators should not foolishly try to spread that there is no need for this work and why they pursue it; no, this is the need of the Iranian nation. Today, the advanced countries of the world produce the majority or a significant share of their electricity from nuclear power plants, not from oil, which is both polluting and finite and can be converted into much more valuable things than fuel. Those who want to deprive oil-rich nations of this blessing say you have oil, so what need do you have for nuclear energy? Should we finish the oil and then reach out to you? The fate of nations depends on you? They say consume the oil, and when your hands are empty, become dependent on us; come knock on our door. Our nation does not want to accept this, and we must move towards nuclear energy for electricity production; this is the need of our country; we must go this way, otherwise, the backwardness of the past one or two centuries will be compounded, and then another century will set this nation back. Therefore, pursuing this work is a national duty. When we pursue this work, we must indigenize the issue, and if we do not indigenize it, it will lead to the same dependency and the same need. When we want to be independent and the work is indigenous, of course, there is pressure. We must resist against the pressures. Those who do not understand speak against this idea; they do not realize and are not aware that they are betraying this nation and expressing what America wants: what need is there? What do we need? Let it go! Yes, it is clear that they wish for us not to produce anything and to take our ready food from them; provided that we have money. And when we do not have it, if the nation dies of hunger, they have no qualms; because they kill thousands and have no concern for the death of thousands and millions. Our national duty today is to pursue this technology and similar technologies that bring us closer to the peak of knowledge, and today pursuing it is obligatory for our nation and for those who can, it is their duty to elevate the nation to dignity and free it from dependency.

We ask God Almighty to grant you all success; to support those who are striving for the scientific independence of the country, God willing, may they be rewarded and successful before God, and may the Iranian nation, God willing, be more successful day by day in advancing this scientific and research movement - which its youth have, thank God, started today.

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