6 June 2023

Zimbabwe yesterday joined the Islamic Republic of Iran in commemorating the 34^th anniversary of the demise of the Founder and much loved Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, who passed on the 4^th June 1988.

The commemorations were held at the Masjid Ale’ Mohammad, a Shia mosque located in central Harare.

All speakers extolled and called for the good virtues and legacy bestowed on humanity by Imam Khomeini to be passed on to posterity and to the generations to come. The virtues are: human justice, social order, love and Devine truth.

Speakers noted that Imam Khomeini was a freedom fighter par excellence who inspired most oppressed people around the world, especially Africa, to fight for their liberation.

Unlike other countries that advocated the use of arms, Imam Khomeini’s main weapon was his booming voice that featured prominently in the world’s media in general and in Iran in particular.

Imam Khomeini loved the under privileged and oppressed people of the world so much that on his sad demise, those same people felt the pain of losing their liberator and a fighter of their rights.

In his official opening remarks to Sheikhs, the Muslim Ummah, Christian clerics, Christians, and diplomats from the Embassy of Iran, the Head of the Cultural Centre of the Embassy of Iran, Mr Hamid Bakhtiyar said Imam Khomeini relied and trusted in Devine intervention, for he had so much trust in God.

The Cultural Counsellor said the departed Supreme Leader believed in the power of the people, as it was the people who drove the Islamic Revolution in Iran as well as in other countries that identified with Imam Khomeini’s ideals.

Mr Bakhtiyar noted that Imam Khomeini was a champion of peaceful coexistence amongst all the people as per the dictates of the law.

He said Imam Khomeini was always preoccupied with how the oppressed people could fight the oppressor and arrogance as he resisted both individual, social and political tyranny. By despising such arrogant powers, it became the main reason why he proclaimed the now internationally commemorated Quds Day, held on the last Friday of Ramadan.

Mr Bakhtiyar noted that Imam Khomeini emphasized on the policy of non - interference in other nations’ affairs as well as mutual respect for those countries.

Sheikh Duwa, the President of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Zimbabwe said under Imam Khomeini, the Islamic Republic of Iran supported all countries that were under oppression as well as the people who were being suppressed.

He said Imam Khomeini was a strong and passionate supporter of the underprivileged, the oppressed as well as the women.

Sheikh Duwa said Iran supported Zimbabwe’s war of Liberation, as evidenced by the visit to Iran in 1979 by the then Vice President Simon Muzenda soon after Iran had sustained its freedom from the Shah’s regime and just before Zimbabwe’s independence from colonial Britain.

Sheikh Jula, the Founder of Imam Khomeini (R.A.) Islamic Community in the Zimbabwean town of Kadoma said Imam Khomeini dearly loved Africa and that his heart was always with the African continent.

Reverend Mathius Tsine from the Indigenous Churches of Zimbabwe noted that Imam Khomeini was a political and religious leader who greatly inspired Iran and the entire world.

He said under Imam Khomeini, minority religions in Iran gained substantial recognition and support from the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Reverend Malunga from Tehilla Christian Network said that it was the duty of the current generation to preserve and to pass Imam Khomeini’s legacy to the next generations.

Sheikh Halid Mwale, the secretary general of the Imam Hussein Trust in Zimbabwe said Imam Khomeini, as a politician, despised the politics of exploitation. He said Imam Khomeini’s politics was inspired by God and was always for the people. That was the politics that was used to fight global injustice, colonialism and apartheid.

Professor Kudzai Biri from the University of Zimbabwe said Imam Khomeini’s religious ideals influenced the Islamic Revolution in Iran as well as in other countries of the world.

She said because of his stature and position on oppression and social justice, most African countries took a leaf from Iran’s revolutionary ideology.

Prof. Biri said Imam Khomeini was gender sensitive, as his stance on the rights and emancipation of women in Iran has made the women of Iran enjoy more rights than most women in the global world.

Sheikh Abdullah Makwinja from Fatima Zahra Centre said that Imam Khomeini identified more with the Black African continent as seen by the establishment of diplomatic relations with most African countries, except for South Africa that was still then under Apartheid rule.

He noted that upon establishment of those diplomatic missions, Iran quickly established relations with the local people. In Zimbabwe, such contacts resulted in the establishment of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Zimbabwe, Fatima Zahra (a.s) centre and Imam Khomeini Islamic Community, among others.

He said the Islamic Revolution will continue to live because it is a legacy worth protecting.