Creating the Three Waves of Islamism in the World by the influence of the Islamic Revolution

I would tell you that when the Islamic Revolution achieved victory in Iran, Islam was revitalized in the world. Many people in the world started to think about the factors that brought about this change. They started to wonder what driving force managed to give rise to such a great event, an event that shook the west. The victory of the Islamic Revolution and the greatness of Imam Khomeini (r.a.) shook the west and the arrogant powers. Many people started searching for the causes, so they referred to the Holy Quran and found out certain truths about Islam. As a result, they were attracted towards Islam. They developed a tendency towards Islam. At that juncture, Islam was faced with a wave of attacks, which continued later on.

The second wave started when Marxism collapsed. Even in Islamic countries, there were many youth and sincere people who had pinned their hopes on Marxism. They thought establishing a socialist government would eradicate poverty, injustice and other such things in their country. Some of them truly believed in Marxism. I met some of them in person - both Muslims and non-Muslims. They were sincere people, but they did not believe in Islam. They had become supporters of Marxism because they thought Marxism held some hope for the people. But later on when Marxism collapsed, they realized that they were wrong and that Marxism was useless. Therefore, they developed a tendency towards Islam.

All the youth movements that are demanding Islam in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and other places used to shout leftist slogans during the 1960s and 1970s. They used to shout communist slogans 30, 40 years ago. And the statements of those who spoke about Islam were interspersed with Marxist ideas. Even in our country, there were certain such people, but I do not want to mention names. There were certain people who used to speak about Islam, but they were in fact promoting Marxist ideas in their Islamic statements. Such things reveal their effect somewhere. After Marxism collapsed, all these movements that had lost their faith in Marxism turned to Islam. They turned to Islam, the Holy Quran, divine commands and the Islamic Republic. They realized that a government had been established on the basis of Islam and that it was shouting all the progressive and modern slogans. They realized that the Islamic Republic was fighting all the oppressive powers that were sucking the blood of the people, and that it was standing firm like a mountain. They were astonished. They thought, "Let us see what this government is." They realized that Islam contained the same things that they were seeking in Marxism, a system that collapsed later on. It was a historical juncture at which people developed a tendency towards Islam. Currently, we are at another historical juncture: people are disappointed with western liberalism, western liberal democracy and capitalist economies. Do you see what is happening?

They want to sideline this issue in their propaganda, but this will not affect the nature of the issue. Thousands of people came together in the financial center of America - in the economic capital of America, New York - and they shouted that they did not want capitalism. They came together on Wall Street, which is the heart of capitalism in the world. They are neither immigrants, nor African-Americans, nor members of lower social classes. Among them, there are university professors, politicians and student groups. They say they do not want capitalism. Well, this is what we have been saying. We have said from the beginning that we want "neither the east, nor the west" - that is to say, we neither want the capitalist system, nor the socialist system. The socialist system went to hell and the capitalist system is heading in the same direction. After these events, there will be a stronger tendency towards Islam and this is another wave, the third wave.

 October 12, 2011 by Ayatollah Khamenei the Leader of the Islamic Revolution