Prince Turki Al Faisal, at the Paris Rally to Free Iran: The Muslim World Supports You both in Heart and Soul

Speaking before the massive gathering of over 100,000 Iranian dissidents who had rallied on Saturday in Paris calling for the downfall of Iran’s theocratic government, Chairman of the Board of the King Faisal Center for Research And Islamic Studies Saudi Prince Turki Al Faisal cited forgotten truths as to what Persian history of regimes truly looked like.

Iran’s regime now chiefly is led by clerics, otherwise known by ‘mullahs,’ and has once to many proven that it stands afar from a modern day democracy. However, mullahs had only risen to power after 1979 Revolution, which overthrew the U.S.-supported Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Describing the toppling over of Pahlavi “The Iranian Revolution of 1979, which installed the powerful yet polarizing Khomeini as Supreme Leader, was a new and vastly different articulation of Iranian identity,” Prince Al Faisal said.

 “Khomeini combined the Persian imperial ambition of the Shah with the more recent Shi’ite authority of his intellectual ancestors in Qom. This was an Iranian empire like no one had ever seen: insular, combative, and eschewing cultural exchange in favor of a claim to so-called universal truth rooted in self-interest and maintenance of the new revolutionary elite.”

The new mullah regime had become to be known as a widely bigoted ruling entity, even against Iranians themselves, “despite this isolationist and interventionist foreign policy, the first and foremost victims of Khomeinism have been the Iranian people themselves – not only the political activists opposed to his all-encompassing, authoritarian and totalitarian ideology; but also to the ethnic and religious minorities of Kurds, Arabs, Azaris, Turkmans, Baloch, Sunnis, Ismailis, Bahais,Christians, and Jews of Iran against the clerical Twelver religio-political elite of the Revolution,” Prince Al Faisal said.

Towards the end of his speech, Prince Al Faisal lauded the exertions spent by the 100,000 who had gathered in hopes of freeing their homeland from an oppressive regime. The Prince also asserted that the whole of the Muslim world stands to support their cause both in heart and soul.

Maryam Rajavi

“And you, MaryamRajavi, your endeavor to rid your people of the Khomeinist cancer is an historic epic that, like the Shanameh, will remain inscribed the annals of History,” the Prince addressed Rajavi, wife of the Iranian activist and MEK leader Massoud Rajavi.