Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami, in a keynote speech at the Tehran University on Saturday, lashed out at the opponents of reforms whom he described as "traitors" and those who "fight against the religion and the people". "These three social layers are blocks to reforms in the society and all strata of the people, especially students, should recognize them," he said amid repeated chants.
Anti-religion groups are those who are at odds with the religious criteria and known conventions and values of the society, he said. "Traitors are those who have played with the fate of the nation and the nation has banished them; this layer, through their propaganda, are exhorting the people to unrest and dream of returning to Iran," Khatami said in reference to exiled opposition groups.
The Iranian president branded "those who sold out the country" and went on a flurry of sparking terror among the people as the manifestations of treason. "Those fighting with the people do not believe in the people; they do not take the legitimate demands of the nation seriously and try to impose their tastes on the people. "Those who think only of their own interests are in favor of subordinate, and not popular, governments; this makes big powers happy," Khatami added.
His speech was repeatedly interrupted by the chants of the audience who had swarmed an auditorium at the Tehran University,IRNA reported. The course of reforms which started with his first landslide victory in 1997 will continue to roll on, Khatami stressed. "The movement which has started in the Islamic Iran has turned to an example among many groups in the Islamic world," he said, adding "the whole legion of the anti-colonial and Muslim forces see an example in the (reform) movement of the Iranian nation." "This (example) is manifested in the fact that the religion and freedom goes together," Khatami said.
President Khatami won a second landslide in July by securing about 77 percent of the vote cast, a manifestation of the Iranians' unequivocal backing for his reform programs and detente policies. He pledged days after his victory to push ahead with his efforts to establish a "religious democracy" in Iran and bring reforms to
state affairs, stressing that he would never back down from those promises.
"I will stay loyal to the pledge I have made with the Iranian nation," Khatami told students. The Iranian president also vowed to promote the rule of law and
democracy.
"I, as the president, am entitled to move within the framework of the law as well. You should call me to task if I get out of the track," he said.
Khatami also reiterated his government's pledge to establish religious democracy in Iran, saying it was a daily demand of the society.
"Colonialist powers are more happy with a Taliban-style Islam than a democratic Islam; and a genuine movement for a religious democracy is not favored by big powers," he said. "(Demand for) democracy is not a play with words; it is rather a popular demand," Khatami said, adding "democracy has no (opposite) alternative except for absolutism." (Albawaba.com)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
