Meeting Jamshid Amouzegar at Ayatollah Khoei House

Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2021-12-07

[Jamshid Amouzegar goes to Najaf and meets Ayatollah Khoei. In that meeting] ... the minister said: "We have come from Iran to visit your Excellency. The king sent us to say hello and have a greeting with you on his behalf, and since it was not possible for him to make on pilgrimage to you and grandeur Imams, we are his representative for pilgrimage. His sayings showed that he has come to get guarantee that the Shah is a fan of Ulama and interested in them, loves Infallibles, and that he is religious and interested in the seminaries, and such bunkums. These remarks bothered us too much for we who were eight people and ten other theology students, some of whom were Iranians. However, the minister did not stop and continued to talk. Mr. Khoei also just listened without any talking. There were some pauses during the minister remarks that we thought Mr. Khoei had spoken and rejected his bunkums, but no voice was heard from him. We were badgered maybe these words would be effective in Mr. Khoei, and he thinks that this person is telling the truth and that the Shah is in favor of Ulama. The seminarians asked each other through a glimpse that whether to talk and retort him, or wait for a savior! Meanwhile, I first asked Mr. Khoei for permission very clearly and decisively, and then, without waiting for his permission, I addressed Mr. Khoei:

Yes, the Shah is interested in religion, clergy and seminarians. The signs of this interest are that attacked Feyziyeh School and massacred seminarians of Imam Sadiq (AS). Did you see that they throw seminarians and soldiers of Imam al-Mahdi (AS) from the roof? Did you see they shot the center of Imam al-Sadiq (AS)? Did you see that they lacerated heart of the Prophet (AS) and Imam al-Mahdi (a)? these are all signs of Shah’s interest in Imam Sadiq (AS)! Islamic rulings were weakened only occasionally in Iran. The Shah spread corruption, insulted and oppressed the clergy in all kinds, to the point that Iran's prisons are full of clerics. Another sign of this interest in the clergy is arrest of Mr. Khomeini and his imprisonment in Eshratabad prison, and later deportation to Bursa, Turkey. In fact, it was out of extreme interest that he created the June 5 incident. Out of interest in religion, the Shah killed 15,000 men and women Iranians in a day to arrest a Marja' for whom the nation rebelled. The Shah lacerated heart of the great Imam al-Rida because of loving him (AS).

During speaking, I did not allow the minister to respire lest he caused me to lose my train of thought. I talked about this issue successively, and as a heavy weight of that meeting, I voiced pent up protest and anger over the minister from mouth of the combatant seminarians. At first, the audience went silently, but wherever it was appropriate, in affirming my remarks, they acted to ridicule the minister. I continued to say, "Yes, the Shah, out of interest in the clergy, has brutally imprisoned great men like Messrs. Montazeri and Rabbani, as some of our religious men are currently subjected to severe and horrific torture.

On the anniversary of the Feizieh tragedy, four seminarians, who participated in my lessons, Messrs. Rouhani, Mousavi Quchani, Ali Hekmat, and Mohammad Amin, and I decided to prepare four articles and after my approval, recite in four mosques during congregational prayers. I sent Mr. Hekmat to al-Khadra Mosque, where Imam of congregational prayer was Mr. Khoei.

 Source: Memories of Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeghi Tehrani, Editor-in-Chief Hossein Rouhani Sadr, Tehran: Cultural And Artistic Institute and Publications of the Islamic Revolution Documentation Center, 2018, p. 107-109.