Iran’s Islamic 'revolution has no borders,’ says Torkilmaz
The US government has declared Iran's regime to be the worst state-sponsor of terrorism.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALPROTESTERS DEMONSTRATE in Beirut, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah has tried to intervene more in politics(photo credit: REUTERS)
The head of the Imam Reza Islamic Center in Berlin has declared in an interview with an Iranian state-controlled news outlet on June 3 that Tehran’s Islamic revolution has no borders.The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an independent nonpartisan press-monitoring organization, first revealed the video of Sabaheddin Torkilmaz, the head of the Imam Reza Islamic Center, on its website.According to MEMRI’s translation of Torkilmaz, he told Ofogh TV in Iran: “Since the Revolution [in 1979], Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine – and now Yemen and countries in Africa and in Latin America – have been inspired directly by Imam [Khomeini].” He added: “We need to examine what was the purpose of the Revolution. When Imam [Khomeini] said, ‘We will export the Revolution,’ what was it that he wanted to export? Iranian culture? Iranian-ness?”Torkilmaz continued: “When we understand this, it becomes apparent that the Revolution has no borders. In the political dimension, when the monarchy was overthrown and the Islamic regime came to power, it was only in Iran. The message of the Revolution – and of exporting it – is something else: The struggle against arrogance and oppression.”The US State Department under both the Obama and Trump administrations has classified Iran’s regime as the worst international state-sponsor of terrorism.Torkilmaz stressed the anti-Western worldview of the Islamic Republic of Iran, stating: “The world needs to know that the system of the Rule of the Jurisprudent stands in opposition to the system of liberal democracy in the world and in opposition to the democracy in America.”Imam Reza Islamic Center is a Turkish Shi’ite center and mosque in Berlin.In separate news, the pro-Syrian regime news outlet Al-Masdar News (AMN) reported on Monday the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Major General Hussein Salami, urged the “elimination” of the Jewish state.“The geography of the resistance will not forget the name and goals of the former Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Ramadan Shalah, the high, bright, and hope of liberating Jerusalem and removing the cancerous gland [Israel] from the region,” Salami said.
