Spring Of Humanity Has Not Arrived Yet, Says Iran’s Ahmadinejad

“Only those traditions and occasions last in human history, which have their roots in human nature as well as in the Heaven and are useful to humans and humanity.” Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this in Tajikistan when addressing a group of Iranians on the ancient tradition of Nowruz at Iran’s Culture House in the Tajik capital city, Dushanbe.

The Iranian president said culture has been the dominant characteristic of the Iranian nation through history. “The Iranian nation has been always a cultural nation and, today, when they say the name of Iran, everybody associates it with culture. Just in the same way that the names of some countries are associated with war and massacre; some with deceit and trickery; and some with selfishness, arrogance and bullying; the name of the Iranian nation is associated with cultural and human values.”

Ahmadinejad noted that humans are the main focus of culture, adding, “If humans are separated from culture, nothing remains of culture and if culture is taken from humans, no humanity remains and this means that the Iranian nation has always lived a human life.”

The Iranian president referred to human roots of the Iranian nation’s traditions, customs, and rituals, saying, “All traditions, rituals and customs of Iranians are based on cooperation, empathy, strong love and affection, respect for others, courage, monotheism, defending human dignity and honor, chivalry, and mercifulness, and Nowruz, as the festival of love, affection, cleanliness, generousness, and light, is one of the customs and traditions of the Iranian nation.”

Ahmadinejad then remembered his own words in a session in which the Cylinder of Cyrus the Great was unveiled in Iran, saying, “In that session, I mentioned two groups which are fearful and indignant with a progressed and powerful Iran; of course, some people were angry at my words.”

“The first group is bullies that want to rule the world and plunder the character, culture, and assets of nations. Since they know that if the Iranian nation becomes powerful, it will rely on its sublime culture, not force, to prevent their advance and will emerge as a role model for other nations in the face of extortionists. Therefore, they are afraid of progress and development of Iran.”

The Iranian president went on to note: “Another group which is dissatisfied with progress of Iran is a group of small, mean people who have always wanted to play a role as vanguards of the Iranian nation, but they cannot become so great as to deserve to rule this nation. Therefore, throughout the past 200 years, they have tried to keep the Iranian nation down in order to be able to rule them.”

The president said, “In that session, there was a comparison between Iranian and Western modes of management and I referred to conquest of Iraq by Cyrus which was done on the request of a small, but monotheistic minority, which followed the religion of Moses in that country. [I noted that] the conquest was done without any tyranny, destruction and wrongdoing, and both the Iraqi nation, and the aforesaid monotheistic minority, were emancipated by Cyrus, this young, just, and freedom-seeking Iranian youth, from the clutches of a tyrant who ruled them. The Cyrus then issued an edict emphasizing on human freedom, justice, and dignity in that land for all the people.”

“In contemporary times, the Iraqi nation was taken captive by a corrupt and tyrant ruler that ignored their rights, killed their scholars, and humiliated their character and identity. [Then] those, who claim to support humanity and freedom, attacked that country under the pretext of saving the Iranian nation. However, during the first 10 days, more than 100,000 [of Iraqis] were killed and, up to this time, the Iraqi nation has seen more than one million of its people dead or injured with 4 million people homeless in addition to widespread carnage and destruction without having achieved any of their rights. These are good examples of Iranian and Western management,” Ahmadinejad stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, President Ahmadinejad noted that when a person thinks about his/her life passing by, they will be naturally sad. He added, “Although people are not happy with ageing and despite the fact that the moment the year turns means that a whole year has passed of our lives, everybody is happy; as if, hardships and failures of the past year are history now and the new year is seen as a new opportunity ahead.”

The Iranian president then noted that the current conditions of human life are far and much different from desirable conditions that God has endorsed for humans, adding, “Up to this day, humans have not savored the taste of true humanity, peace, justice and security and the time passed on humanity has been just winter as the spring of humanity has not arrived yet.”

“The spring of humanity will arrive when all shackles and chains are removed and justice as precondition of human happiness and freedom, and a good ground for prosperity of all human talents, rules the world.”

“All divine prophets have vowed that the day will come when the one true promoter of justice, who loves all humans from the bottom of his heart, will arrive to establish justice throughout the Earth and that day, all human talents will start to flourish,” President Ahmadinejad stated.

He added that Iran is a land of culture, saying, “Iran does not denote a geographical expanse, or a special race or people, but stands for a culture and wherever they talk about justice and freedom-seeking, that place is Iran.”

The Iranian president noted, “Humans, like cultures, become great and sublime only when they transcend geographical, racial and ethnic boundaries. This is why many countries compete to attribute Iranian dignitaries to themselves and there is nothing wrong [with such efforts] because great people have global characters and whoever looks at them, sees them as their desirable model and considers them as belonging to them.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmadinejad said Ferdowsi’s [collection of poems which is called] Shahnameh is the book of monotheism, humanity, justice and love. “All prophets came to save humans and to show them the path to happiness and perfection. However, it would not suffice just to present these values and signs of happiness, and a nation was required to receive the truth of those messages and develop them.”

The president stated, “After converting to Islam, the Iranian nation saw how the Islamic government fell into the hands of Omayyad and Abbasid [caliphs] who knew nothing about true conduct of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). They also ruled the Iranian nation, humiliating character of the nation and its talents. Under those conditions, Ferdowsi revived monotheistic, justice-seeking, freedom-seeking, and humane identity of the Iranian nation.”

“Ferdowsi saved the school of thought that was initiated by Grand Prophet of Islam (PBUH), and shifted true burden of that school from those who did not deserve it to the Iranian nation and the nation, no doubt, has been greatly successful in fulfiling its responsibility,” he added.

President Ahmadinejad then said, “If it were not for the Iranian nation, there would have been no sign of freedom, humanity, and justice in the world. The Iranian nation is the only nation which has stood face to face with arrogant powers by relying on its history, civilization and culture, and by banking on the school of thought of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and Imam Ali (AS).”

“Today, the Iranian nation has taken its historical decision and has chosen the bright path before it, which leads to true summits of perfection and happiness and we tell all ill-wishers that the Iranian nation and culture is alive because monotheism and justice are alive and will remain alive and prosper until the true spring of humanity arrives,” he stated.

President Ahmadinejad concluded his remarks by noting that Persian language and poetry is the language of culture, saying, “The Persian language is unique because no other language in the world can encapsulate lofty concepts whose description needs big volumes of books to be written, in a few lines of poetry.”