Speech by Struan Stevenson

NCRI RALLY

PARIS

Saturday 9^thJuly 2016

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Since we met at this great rally last year, the world has become a much more dangerous place. We have watched the on-going civil war in Syria, where Bashar al-Assad, supported and sustained by the Iranian regime, continues to butcher his own people. We have witnessed the fight against Daesh in Iraq, exploited by the Iranian-led sectarian militias who are waging a genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Iraq’s Sunni population. We have seen the horrific terrorist attacks in Dhaka, Istanbul, Tunisia, Paris, Brussels and last week in Baghdad. Believe it or not, in the past 12 monthsa horrifying 28,000 people have been killed in jihadist attacks.

But we need to know our enemy. We need to understand how Daesh, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Hezbollah and all the other extremist groups came into being.  Before the 1970s, there was no organised thinking in the world of Islam that condoned genocide and mass murder in the name of God and Islam. There was no collective attempt to establish an Islamic Caliphate. It was only after the creation of an Islamic fundamentalist state in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeiniin 1979, that the roots of worldwide jihadist terror drew nourishment from the dung-heap of the mullah’s tyranny.

Khomeini’sextremist ideology became the role model for both the Shi’ia and Sunni fanatics. Both adhere to the same violent and despotic philosophy, which champions the creation of a universal Islamic caliphate through bloody violenceand conquest.

Both advocate the repression of women, the violation of basic human rights and the total suppression of non-believers and opponents of Sharia law. The head of the snake is in Tehran. The Iranian regime exports terror. TheRevolutionary Guardsand the Quds Force supply arms, money and military personnel to every Middle East conflict zone. 

If we wish to deal effectively with the growth of Islamist terror then we need to cut off the head of the snake. No philosophy of terror and extremism can flourish in a soil enriched with tolerance and love.In the famous words of Sir Winston Churchill: “All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.”

These are the core values of the NCRI. These are the key principles of Mrs MaryamRajavi and the PMOI. Only by backing the main opposition to the mullahs can the West hope to cut off the head of the Iranian snake. 

Long live Mrs Rajavi. Long live the PMOI.

Struan Stevenson was a Conservative MEP representing Scotland in the European Parliament from 1999 until his retirement in 2014. He chaired the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (Caucus) in the European Parliament for over 10 years.He was President of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq from 2009 to 2014. He is now President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA).