Ayatollah Khamenei on "renouncing the infidels"

Here is an excerpt from the Supreme Leader of Iran's recent message to Hajj pilgrims. What follows is the paranoid rant section, which is most of it:

[...] Nowadays, we clearly see that the hands of the ill-wishers of the world of Islam are busy more than the past driving wedges among Muslims, thus the Islamic Ummah is in need of integrity and unanimity more than ever before.

Today, the bloodstained claws of enemies are busy unleashing tragic scenes here and there across the Islamic lands; Palestine languishes under the wicked grip of Zionists and suffers a widening tribulation. The Al-Aqsa Mosque faces a grave threat; innocent people of Gaza, having already been subjected to an unprecedented genocide and still endure the harshest conditions; Afghanistan, under the boots of the occupiers, witnesses a new suffering on a daily basis; in Iraq instability has robbed people of their calm and their peace of mind; in Yemen fratricide has struck the Islamic Ummah with a fresh grief.

He appears to blame the West for recent events in Yemen.

Muslims worldwide should rather stop and think how and where these blind seditions, wars, blasts, assassination bids and massacres which have gripped Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been planned. Why was it that before the American-led Western troops arrived in this region in a peremptory and possessory manner, the regional nations had never been subjected to such a long list of sufferings?

The occupiers, on the one hand, brand any popular resistance movements in Palestine, Lebanon or any other place as terroristic, and on the other hand, are organizing or masterminding a violent sectarian terrorism among the regional nations.

He appears to blame the West for Muslim sectarian struggles in general.

The Middle East and the North African region was once colonized and humiliated for more than a century by the Western governments of Britain and France and subsequently by America; their natural reserves were plundered, their free spirit was trodden upon and their nations were taken hostage by the greed of the aggressive aliens.

Yet, after an Islamic awakening coupled with a popular resistance movements made it impossible for them to proceed and following a re- emergence of the issue of martyrdom and ascension to God and on the path of God , as an exceptional factor in the scene of Islamic jihad, the aggressors, having been pushed to a defensive position, resorted to duplicitous methods after replacing their old approach with a new type of colonialism.

He stresses the role of martyrdom in Jihad.

Nonetheless, the multi-faced demon of colonialism has now fielded all its capacities to bring Islam to its knees, from military might, an iron fist and flagrant occupation to an evil chain of propagandas and a myriad of lie-spreading and rumor-mongering media centers, from the organization of networks to ruthlessly carry out assassination and homicide to promotion of promiscuity and the proliferation of narcotics targeting the morale and the morality of the youth, and, finally, from a thoroughgoing diplomatic assail on any hub of resistance to the provocation of sectarian snobbery, prejudice and enmity among brothers.

If affection, trust and empathy take the place of the enemy-desired mistrust and animosity among Muslim nations or Islamic sects, the conspiracy of the ill-wishers would be defeated for the most part and their sinister plots in seeking a growing dominance over the Islamic Ummah would be foiled.

The Hajj is one of those precious opportunities for this sublime goal.

Muslims will only be able to withstand the multi-faced demon and overcome it through cooperation with one another and reliance on their common foundations which are encapsulated in the Holy Koran and the practice of the Messenger. Islamic Iran, following the lessons of our great Imam Khomeini, has epitomized this fruitful resistance. The enemies have faced defeat in Islamic Iran.

Thirty years of plotting, conspiring and ill feeling, from staging a coup and imposing an eight-year war, to imposition sanctions and the freezing of assets, from the unleashing of psychological warfare and media confrontation to making efforts to hinder scientific growth and the acquisition of modern sciences including nuclear expertise by the Iranian nation, and even blatant provocations and interventions during the recent glorious and meaningful elections, all turned into scenes of setbacks, passiveness and confusion on the part of the enemy, re-evoking a verse in the Iranian mind: "Surely the guile of Satan is ever feeble" (The Women: 76).

Disapproving media coverage of their glorious election--the most horrible crime of all.

In all other areas of the world too, where people have countered the arrogant powers through a faith-inspired resistance, the faithful achieved victory while the tyrants ended up in scandal and retreat. The shining victory of the Lebanese in the 33-day war and the prideful and victorious jihad of the Gazans during the past three years stand as living evidence in this regard.

I emphatically recommend the fortunate pilgrims in general and especially the scholars and orators of the Islamic countries who have attended the Hajj gathering, as well as the leaders of Friday prayers in the noble sanctuaries, to recognize their your immediate duty, to expose the conspiracy of the enemies of Islam in the eyes of your audience, and to call the people to affection and unity, they should strictly avoid anything which may provoke a sense of mistrust among Muslims, and vent all cries at the arrogant and the enemies of the Islamic Ummah and the masterminds of all seditions headed by the Zionists and Americans, and in doing so, help materialize the practice of renouncing the infidels in word and in deed. [...]

We generally assume that heads of state who want to consolidate and extend their power are under certain constraints not shared by lone wackos and stateless terror networks although this one seems to have terror operatives doing his bidding in various places. As far as his worldview is concerned, Mr. Supreme Leader hardly seems less extreme than, say, Nidal Hasan. Shouldn't we do anything necessary to keep nukes out of this Ayatollah's specific hands?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad