One of the greatest unfairness about our great Imam and the Islamic system is that foreign propaganda accuses the Imam, the Islamic system and the Islamic Republic of autocracy and lack of democracy. This magnificent revolution was created in Iran while after the victory of the revolution the first public-opinion poll was conducted by the Imam which was not preceded by any other revolution. You might see that when there is a coup d’etat, a minor change and a brief replacement in a country, elections are delayed for two or three years. People of the country did not know the ballot-box. Elections held at the time of the dictatorial regime were merely nominal and a sham. The people never went to the ballot-box to take part in an actual election. They made whoever they wanted win for the satellite parliament. With such a background, two months after the victory of the revolution, the Imam called the people for the ballot-box and they voted for the Islamic Republic. People took part in five elections within a single year. During the twenty three years which succeeded the revolution people participated in different elections for twenty three times to elect members of the Islamic Consultative Majlis (the parliament), members of the Assembly of Experts, the president and members of the City Council, and determining the Constitution and the system of the Islamic Republic. In what system – even among those so-called democratic systems – could we find such a stress on people’s vote and will? The brazen and shameless enemies of this revolution and nation are unfair enough to accuse this revolution, system and its great builder, architect and founder of opposition to democracy.

The great art of the honorable Imam is that he has constructed a consolidated framework for this revolution and did not permit the dominating powers and political mainstreams to digest it. The slogan “Neither Eastern, nor Western, but Islamic Republic,” or the slogan “Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic,” which were chanted by the people through the influence of the Imam’s teachings and guidance implied that this revolution is supported by fixed and consolidated principles which were connected neither to the principles of the Eastern Socialism nor those of the Western Liberal Capitalism of the time. That is why both the East and the West showed hostility to the revolution.

This is the difference between our honorable Imam and other saviors of the history of Islam during the last two centuries. The Imam entered the scene, appeared in the middle of the field, was among the people, talked to them, explained his principles to them, and made them reach a status of intellectual and conscious faith like that of his. Then faith and the motivation of the people and Islamic teachings won the battle for the right and the truth. Others could not make advancement in this difficult stage but the Imam could. The Iranian nation believed in these principles and struggled for them. The result was that, firstly, the Islamic system despite all obstructions and hostilities became victorious and its root day by day grew deeper and deeper to date, and, secondly, the idea and realization of the Islamic Renaissance and saving the Muslim nation from the cruelty and imperialism of the hegemonic powers did not remain restricted in this country.

The most important achievement of our honorable Imam at the level of the Muslim world was his role as the revivalist of the political and social dimensions of Islam. From the time colonialism intruded the Muslim countries, colonialists and hegemonic powers did their best to omit the political and social dimensions of Islam: justice-seeking, freedom-seeking and independence-seeking. In order to further dominate the Muslim nations and exploit their resources, the hegemonic powers had to strip Islam of its political dimensions and interpret it as submission to events, submission to occupier and submission to the cruel and fierce enemy. Imam Khomeini (RA) revived the forgotten facts of Islam: he waved the flag of Islam’s justice-seeking and publicized the Islam’s opposition to discrimination, class distinction and aristocracy. From the beginning to the last days of his life the honorable Imam emphasized the down-trodden, the bare-footed and the deprived people. Once and again at the advent of the Islamic system and during the blissful ten-year period of his life as the leader of the Islamic system he wanted all officials to take care of the weak. You are indebted to the barefooted class of the country. My dear ones! Great nation of Iran! We won whenever we heeded this recommendation of the Imam and exercised it in planning, law-making, execution and appointing and dismissing.

The most important thing done by the Imam, regarding people, was to completely remove the concept of democracy from what the planners of Western democracy and their agents wanted to show in the scientific scenes. They tried to inculcate that democracy does not get along with theocracy and religiosity. Imam Khomeini (RA) destroyed this wrong idea and introduced democracy – meaning the Islamic Republic – in the world. He did not content himself with language; neither did he deem intellectual reasoning sufficient; he showed this in action.

Source: leader.ir