TEHRAN – In his annual message to the pilgrims making hajj in Mecca, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said in Tehran on Tuesday, “The Islamic world does not need the West’s deficient prescription to achieve democracy and human rights.”

He added, “Democracy is included in the contents of all Islamic tenets and (the observation of) human rights is among the most respected of Islamic doctrines.

“One should always try to acquire knowledge from those who possess it. However, the Islamic world should try to not remain a student all the time. Rather, it should make use of its talents and make optimal use of its innovation and abilities to make scientific advances.

“In fact, Muslim nations have passed a long period in total self-negligence. The current backwardness in all scientific, political, industrial, and economic spheres is the bitter product of that negligence… and now due to the current major developments that have already occurred or are occurring in the world, Muslim nations should compensate for their former negligence… However, some of the current developments promise the commencement of a compensation movement.

“One should not doubt that the global arrogance considers the awareness of the Muslims, Islamic unity, and the progress of Islamic nations in all fields of politics and innovation and science the greatest obstacle in the way of their hegemony over the entire world, and thus stands against it.

“The experience of both the colonial and neocolonial eras is before the Muslim nations. And now that the post-modern colonial era has emerged in the world, we should learn lessons from our previous experiences and should not allow the enemies to assume control over our destiny for another long period.

“In those bitter, dark days, the hegemonistic Western countries made use of all their cultural, economic, political, and military means to weaken Muslim countries and nations and then imposed poverty, ignorance, and division on them.

“The negligence, sluggishness, and frailty of a great number of politicians as well as the unresponsiveness of many cultural elites helped them, and the ultimate result was the plunder of our wealth, our humiliation, the denial of our identity, and the loss of our independence.

“Therefore, the Muslim nations became weaker day by day, while the greedy, hegemonistic powers became stronger day by day.

“Presently, the leaders of the global arrogance are looking for some new tactics to continue their domination of the Islamic world, and this recitation of slogans about democracy and human rights is one of these tactics.

“The great Satan, which is the real image of cruelty and brutality against the human race, has become the standard-bearer of human rights and invites the Middle Eastern nations to democracy.

“The United States’ favorite type of democracy is actually realized if an obedient puppet government assumes power in a country through a number of conspiracies, briberies, and deceptive propaganda and through an apparently popular but U.S.-led election. This new puppet government must definitely be the U.S. agent in that country and must realize its ominous objectives.

“The rubric of all these objectives is to suppress waves of Islamism and also to isolate Islamic values for a second time. The United States and other hegemonistic countries are currently using all their political and propaganda means to retard or possibly suppress the Islamic awareness movement.

“The recitation of democracy-seeking slogans by those hegemonistic countries that have been the supporters of dictatorial regimes in Asia, Africa, and the Americas is not acceptable.

“The pretense of fighting against terrorism and violence on the part of those who have promoted Zionist terrorism and committed the most horrific crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan seems very disgusting.

“The assertion of defending civil rights by those devils who have always encouraged the crimes committed by a bloodthirsty terrorist like Ariel Sharon against the Palestinian nation is a great deceit that deserves to be cursed.

“Those who have committed horrific crimes in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and other secret prisons in Europe, those who have always humiliated the Iraqi and Palestinian nations, and those who have trained some terrorist groups which consider it permissible in the name of Islam to shed the blood of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan have no right to talk about human rights.

“The U.S. and British governments, which consider it permissible to torture or even kill suspects in the streets, and even allow themselves to eavesdrop on the telephone conversations of citizens with no court order, have no right to introduce themselves as the supporters of civil rights.

“Those governments that have disgraced modern history by both producing and using nuclear and chemical weapons do not deserve to be the caretakers of preventing the proliferation of the nuclear industry.

“Supporting the oppressed Palestinian nation, backing the aware Iraqi nation, and upholding the stability and independence of Lebanon, Syria, and other regional countries are common duties, and the duty of all political, religious, cultural, and national elites, as well as all Iranian youth and academicians, is even greater.

“The current blind and brutal terrorism, which has been turned into an excellent pretext for the occupiers of Iraq to not only attack Islam and Muslims but also to continue the military occupation of that Islamic country, is condemned and rejected by the tenets of Islam.”