The Common Enemy...

Darko Lazar

"Dear youth! I have the hope that you - now or in the future - can change this mentality corrupted by duplicity, a mentality whose highest skill is hiding long-term goals and adorning malevolent objectives."

In his second letter addressing western youth, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, unveils the source of global instability.

Imam Khamenei points to the inherently immoral western colonial system, with its "hidden and apparent corruptions" as the foundation of the world's ills.

But more importantly, he calls on the young people in the west to "uncover the apparent layers" of their own societies - or in other words, to break free from the oppression that their governments so violently exact on the Islamic world and so manipulatively execute at home.

Calling for peace and tolerance, and highlighting terrorism as the world's common pain and concern, Imam Khamenei's letter is both emotionally and intellectually engaging.

The letter, which was posted on the Supreme Leader's website, comes in the wake of last month's deadly terrorist attacks claimed by Daesh.

From the bombing of a Russian commercial airliner over Egypt's Sinai, to suicide attacks in Beirut's southern suburbs and the subsequent massacre of 130 people in Paris, Daesh executed its most high-profile and deadly terrorist operations since its inception throughout the month of November.

November's violence prompted the leader of the Islamic Revolution to pen the letter, urging the youth in the West to open their eyes and address the deeply rooted seeds of hate, which have spawned from destructive wars, economic inequalities and ideological fundamentalism.

But eradicating Daesh can only come through the removal of the conditions that had created the terror group in the first place.

London-based Islamic scholar and political commentator Shabbir Hassanly thinks that Imam Khamenei's letter "forces the reader to reflect and look at what is happening around them; it forces the reader to look deep within themselves. This is extremely important in the current political climate."

That sort of reflection should at the very least give rise to some extremely important questions. For instance, why are so many in the West joining and supporting terrorist groups operating across the Middle East and North Africa? Or why do so many young people in the west allow themselves to be oppressed by corrupt governments without any sense of collective resistance?

Shabir adds that the effects of such letters will be seen in the "medium to long-term... where the next generation is raised with these questions in their minds and hearts - having seen the destruction wrought upon humanity by the failed approaches of the Western oligarchs and their ilk."

But some effects were quite immediate.

Refusing to publish his 2000-word piece through the West's mainstream media outlets - often the very propaganda tools used by Western governments to stifle alternative points of view - Imam Khamenei chose to communicate directly with the young people in the West.

However, as the letter began to circulate on social media, Twitter resorted to suspending accounts that tweeted the Supreme Leader's letter.

According to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency, a number of accounts were reactivated following a message of apology from Twitter, which also warned users to avoid creating more similar posts.

"We apologize for this inconvenience. It's possible your account posted an update that appeared to be spam, so please be careful what you tweet or retweet," the message read.

There are, of course, so many reasons why Western policymakers would want to conceal the content of this letter.

In calling on western youth to "reconsider the threat of terrorism in the world, its roots and to find a deep insight into Islam", Imam Ali Khamenei's letter is an important feat in informing those who may not yet know the truth behind the special interests driving global terrorism.

Amid a growing body of evidence exposing the west's use of terrorism as a tool for realizing geopolitical goals, Imam Khamenei writes: "today, there are very few people who are uninformed about the role of the United States of America in creating, nurturing and arming al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their inauspicious successors."

Indeed, extremist groups like al-Qaeda and Daesh are hardly the only examples of state-sponsored terrorism.

The oldest foreign military invasion in the Islamic world is that of Palestine. As the letter explains, Palestinians living under "Israeli" occupation today have "experienced the worst kind of terrorism for the last sixty years."

Western governments and institutions, which preach moral values and fundamental freedoms, have continuously failed to hold "Israel" accountable for what has become the most brutal and longest running atrocity of the modern age.

Whether "now or in the future", the new generations in the west will have to come to terms with and counter the policies driven by colonialist and corporate ideologies.

With the expansion of towering police states, the growth of xenophobia, deepening social and economic inequalities and increasingly militarized societies, western youths stand to inherit little in the way of prospects for a better, fruitful future.

Time is running out fast to change the "mentality whose highest skill is hiding long-term goals and adorning malevolent objectives."

Source: al-Ahed News