My devout Shia compatriots,
From the very first day, the Islamic Republic seized power in your name and in the name of your religion, and to this day it has produced nothing but poverty, misery, and crimes against humanity.
You yourselves witnessed, during the national Lion-and-Sun Revolution—as in the other uprisings of recent years—that the Islamic Republic and Ali Khamenei personally, in the name of religion and with the support of clerics, refrained from no crime: from shooting innocent citizens with live ammunition—including children and school students—to delivering final shots to the wounded in hospitals, and from the torture, murder, and rape of detainees.
All of this has been and continues to be done in the name of Shia Islam. They have turned mosques into bases of repression, chant “Haydar Haydar” while aiming at their fellow countrymen’s heads, and perform their prayers on blood-soaked prayer rugs.
The Shia clergy, who consider themselves the custodians of the faith, have failed this historic test—whether by actively participating in or remaining silent in the face of these crimes.
My message to faithful Shia who oppose the Velayat-e Faqih and political Islam is this: If you care about the faith and wish, in the future Iran, to practice your religious rites peacefully, in a non-political and individual manner, then stand at the forefront of the struggle against this illegitimate regime and its criminal leaders. Reclaim your religion and faith from the false prophet of our time. Do not allow the crimes of the Islamic Republic and the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be written in the name of your religion.
Today, a large number of the devout are already in the trenches fighting the Islamic Republic. To those who have not yet joined this sacred struggle, I urge you—before it is too late—to stand alongside your Sunni brothers and sisters and the followers of other religions, denominations, and beliefs; join the ocean that is the Iranian nation; and reclaim your faith from the despot Zahhak and his cohort. This will better serve both you personally and the future of Shia Islam and the Islamic faith in Iran.
Long live Iran,
Reza Pahlavi
