As a reminder we discussed Ayatollah Khamenei’s views on economic jihad. Today we are going to focus on his views about cultural jihad.

Ayatollah Khamenei says any effort against an enemy can be called a kind of jihad. Just as the enemy attacks our land in different ways the methods of confronting and repelling the enemy should be varied. Leader of the Islamic Revolution says, “One of the outstanding points in the Islamic culture is the culture of combat and jihad whose obvious instances were seen more at the time of the advent of Islam and less through the course of time. Jihad does not mean only the presence at the battlefield; but every effort against the enemy can be considered as jihad.

Of course some may do things and even endeavour and call it jihad. But this is not correct; for, one condition for jihad is confrontation against the enemy. This confrontation is sometimes at the battlefield which is called combative jihad. If it is in the field of politics it is called political jihad. Once it is in the field of cultural issues it is called cultural jihad and when it is in the field of construction it is called construction jihad. For sure, jihad exists with other names and in other fields, too.”

Cultural jihad means to make effort for elucidation, explication and promotion of correct beliefs and negation of incorrect ones. As the promotion of corrupt and devilish beliefs is not limited to a specific time and place, cultural jihad is an incessant and perpetual jihad and has priority over military jihad. Thus it would be quite relevant to mention a hadith from Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS). The 6^th infallible successor of the Prophet of Islam says, “On the Day of Resurrection God the Exalted will gather all people in one place. The balances will be put there and the blood of the martyrs will be metered with the pen of the ulema; and the pen of the ulema will surpass the blood of the martyrs.”

To explain this hadith, Ayatollah Khamenei says, “It is the scholar who can change the content of the human mind, as it is called the hardware of human being, into a progressive human, an active and steadfast human. A scholar can do this. The pen of the ulema is really superior to the blood of the martyrs. That’s because these very students of seminaries, who would go to the battle front in the form of combat-propaganda groups, I had seen several times that they changed ordinary people into resistant ones; they would change lethargic persons into robust persons and shaky persons into firm and solid persons.”

The main pillar of the cultural jihad is accepting the requirements of a full-scale cultural war. Therefore, a central cultural base should lead all activities. Leader of the Islamic Revolution has called the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council as the central base for materialization of cultural jihad.

Ayatollah Khamenei says, “The word base may sound unpleasant for some as it is a war terminology and a military terminology. The fact of the matter is that the cultural combat is not less dangerous and important than the military combat of it is not more. The base is not directly responsible in the sense that a single part belongs to it; but every part is under its control. When we set up a military base; for instance, IRGC says that this unit of mine is in the operational control of that establishment. The unit is supported by IRGC but the implementation and direction of the unit is done by the base. Such a state should be heeded at the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council.”

In any front one should first recognize the enemy to confront him. The Leader elaborates on this, “”Cultural assault cannot be answered with gun. His gun is the pen. The eyes should be open and the scene should be recognized. Like the military war if a person goes forward while putting his head down without reconnaissance, without watchtower, without clarification of the enemy’s position, he will be defeated. This is the same in the cultural war.”

Dear listeners one of the ways of cultural combat and jihad is to strengthen religious beliefs especially among the youth. Ayatollah Khamenei says in this regard, “Create foresight in yourselves. Create the power of analysis in yourselves; a power that enables you to gain a clear picture of the realities of the society. This power of analysis is very important. Any blow that we Muslims have received throughout the history was due to the weakness of analysis. The blows at the time of the advent of Islam were also the same. Don’t let the enemy benefit from our lack of foresight and unawareness to depict a fake image of reality. All of the problems that occur for individuals or human communities are due to these two things: lack of foresight or lack of patience. They are either engulfed by negligence and do not recognize realities or they get tired of resistance in spite of understanding realities.”

One of the methods of the enemy to bring nations to their knees is to cause self-humiliation among them. Therefore, part of the cultural jihad should be concentrated on boosting self-belief and the sense of being useful. Ayatollah Khamenei says, “Today thousands of propaganda tools have been applied to make Muslims desperate of the bright future or persuade toward the future compatible with the vicious intentions of the enemies. This cultural and psychological war has been the most effective tool of the west in its dominance over the Islamic countries since the start of the period of colonialism.

The target of this poisonous arrow has first been the elites and intellectuals and then the masses. To struggle against this intrigue is impossible except with turning back toward the compelling and imposed culture of the west. The western culture must be expurgated by the elites and the intellectuals. Its useful elements should be absorbed and its harmful, destructive and corrupt components should be pushed out of the mind and practice of the Islamic communities. The criterion in this major expurgation is arbitration of the Islamic culture and the fruitful, directing and guiding thoughts of Qur’an and the Sunnah.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Leader of the Islamic Revolution comments on gaining spiritual power and bolstering self-confidence as an important principle for cultural jihad. He states, “When the morale of a society is strong the enemy cannot bully it. When the bullies of the world want to ride over an individual, community or nation the first thing they do is to break the morale of the individual or nation and obliterate the sense of ability and steadfastness in them. As long as the sense of power and ability and the morale exist in a nation and community no one can overcome them; neither the external nor the internal enemy meaning laziness, lethargy and indolence.”

RM/SS