Persian → English transcript

After the Islamic Republic,

we must no longer allow any religious party.

Until Thursday I used to say if the Islamic Republic is overthrown,

we will witness a serious

weakening of the clerical institution in Iran.

With this massacre they have carried out,

I am not sure the Iranian people will allow

any institution called a seminary to operate at all after the Islamic Republic.

My feeling is they will not allow it.

Like in the period of Nazi

Germany when they no longer allowed the Nazis.

I said, you who say you believe in democracy,

you have all this democracy,

why do you not allow parties that believe in Nazism and the far right to operate?

Do you not say you believe in democracy? Then allow them, and if the people do not want them, they do not want them.

Their answer was an interesting one.

They said no, we will not be bitten twice from the same hole.

We will not allow this one.

We will not take this one to the ballot box again.

Anyone who is far right like the Nazis,

we simply will not allow them to take part in elections.

He said, “We do not get bitten twice from the same hole.”

Because the Nazis climbed up the ladder of elections, then they shut down elections. The republic—

The Islamic Republic did the same thing. The mullahs climbed up the ladder of democracy, a pseudo-democracy,

then they shut it down.

Then the people said, “Free elections,” they said, “We will not give you that.”

They said, “A referendum,”

they said, “We will not give you that, the people do not understand.”

They said, “Demonstrations,” they said, “We will not allow it.”

They said, “If we come out into the street,”

he said, “I will kill you twenty thousand by twenty thousand.”

After the Islamic Republic,

we must never again allow a religious party.

Let political parties come, civil groups come,

and carry out their activities.

Anything called an

Islamist party, we must never allow again.