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Sun, May 15, 2011 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Eye on Europe: Supreme Leader’s remark on spread of “Islamic Awakening” to Europe makes waves

Speaking at a meeting with thousands of teachers held on the occasion of Teacher Day, marked in Iran last week, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the Islamic awakening that began in the Middle East and North Africa is expected to reach the heart of Europe. Khamenei said that the day will come when the nations of Europe rise up against their politicians and rulers, who have yielded to the cultural and economic policy propagated by the U.S. and Zionism (Mehr, May 4).

In a sermon delivered last Friday, May 6, Tehran’s Friday prayer leader Kazem Sediqi cited the Supreme Leader’s remark, saying that the movement of awakening in the Middle East will spread to the heart of Europe. The protest movements of the Arab world strengthen the world’s advanced nations, and revolutions will gradually reach across borders. The European nations humiliated by the U.S. administration are also bound to rise up sooner or later and demand compensation for the humiliation they went through, Sediqi said (IRNA, May 6).

Sobh-e Sadeq, a weekly published on behalf of the Supreme Leader’s Revolutionary Guards representative, dedicated its latest editorial to Khamenei’s statement, claiming it provoked fear and anger in the West. It is a statement that reflects logic and unavoidable truth, the article said. Europe’s history has already shown how political and social changes can topple royalist regimes and facilitate the establishment of republican regimes in their stead. The storm stirred by the Islamic revolution in Iran continued growing under the watchful eyes of the imperialists and the oppressors, expanding to leave a mark in other regions. The fall of the Egyptian and Tunisian regimes and the uprisings in Libya, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia carry a single message: the people’s wishes may transform even those regimes that have lasted for decades. The European nations are no exception to this rule.

The weekly argued that the main factors responsible for resistance in Europe, mainly dependency on the U.S. and internal instability, already exist, and that all that is needed is an excuse for them to break out. If the Islamic awakening in the region has clear-cut results, its influence on the political and social developments in the West will increase. The European governments’ move away from democracy has given the public reason to distrust those governments. While European public opinion is exhausted and lacking in political motivation, the enthusiasm triggered by the Islamic awakening will likely have a gradual impact on the thought and behavior of Western society, willing to rise up over the insufficient conditions prevailing in Europe and make far-reaching changes to the nature of the administration (Sobh-e Sadeq, May 9).

The conservative daily Resalat likewise estimated that the Islamic awakening will spread through the entire globe. The voices of resistance are already heard in the heart of Europe, and Western society is ready for a popular uprising against the century-old influence of the U.S. and Zionism. With the economic and social crisis gripping Europe, the flames of Islamic awakening started in the Middle East and North Africa will reach Europe as well.

According to an editorial published by the daily, the West is currently in need of the human values that can be provided by the Islamic revolution, being the symbol of humanity, faith, truth-seeking, and resistance to arrogance that it is. The takeover of Europe by the U.S. and Zionism after the two world wars made the continent thirst for justice. The people of Germany protest the fact that their tax money is used to compensate the Zionists for the Holocaust, and the people of Britain do not understand why British soldiers must follow American orders across the globe to secure U.S. interests. The French, the Italians, the Spanish, the Norwegians, and the Greeks also do not understand why they should bear the burden of the financial crisis that stems mostly from America’s faulty policy. The governments of Europe provide Israel with financial and military aid at the European taxpayer’s expense while the people of the continent suffer from economic crisis, unemployment, and lack of social services. Given this state of affairs, there is no doubt that the Islamic awakening, which does not discriminate against nation, will also reach Europe (Resalat, May 8).

The daily Keyhan also discussed Khamenei’s remarks on the expansion of the “Islamic awakening” to the heart of Europe. An editorial titled “To the heart of Europe” says that the recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa show that the uprisings in the Arab world do not stem primarily from economic problems, but rather from resistance to the policy of the U.S. and Israel, forming the basis for the “culture of Islam”. The struggle against American and Zionist belligerence results not from the geography of Islam but rather from its culture, and there is no reason, therefore, why it should stop with Muslim countries.

Thanks to the regional developments, public opinion in the world, and in Europe in particular, has seen the true face of the U.S. and Israel. Western public opinion now understands that the U.S. and Israel were just using slogans about human rights, peace, freedom, and democracy to justify the aggression they employ across the globe. The developments in the Arab world are expected to exacerbate the economic crisis in Europe, affect the social structure on the continent, and increase resistance to U.S. and Zionist policies. These factors, coupled with the U.S. and Israel’s inability to contain the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, will lead, according to the daily, to the expansion of the Islamic awakening to the heart of Europe, as stated by the Supreme Leader (Keyhan, May 9).