Iran Press/ Commentary: Although the message to the union was short, it contained several pivots that need to be elaborated on in the present analysis.
The first pivot is that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution looks at the Islamic Student Association of Europe as an organization and collective movement. Such a consideration indicates Ayatollah Khamenei's belief in the organizational capacity for political and promotive activities. Therefore, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution stresses the union's impact on regional and international issues.
The second is the fact that Ayatollah Khamenei believes in Muslim students as "precious capitals" who can play roles in global issues or the very "the world's new and old traumas," as the Leader described it. Therefore, Ayatollah Khamenei emphasizes both the organizational and collective capacity, on the one hand, and the individual capacity of the UISAE, on the other hand.
The next pivot is the Leader's call on the European students to elaborate on the West's approach to the world's important issues. From Ayatollah Khamenei's view, the world's latest issue is the Gazan catastrophe. As the Leader of the Revolution says the disaster in Gaza is the moral, political, and social failure of the West, Western politicians, and Western civilization. The notion by the Leader originates from the genocidal war the Israeli regime has launched on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, where the regime has killed more than 38,000 people and wounded over 87,500 others, along with creating famine in the strip it has blockaded. The Western governments and authorities overtly and officially supported the crimes, while providing Tel Aviv with arms and money, and prevented any international institutions from stopping the regime's crimes.
Still, the fourth pivot is the Leader's critique of liberal democracy. Western liberal democracy claims to support human rights, especially justice and freedom of speech, but evidence shows that these norms are only on paper, and in practice, Westerners have a selective view of human rights.
The difference between the crises in Ukraine and Gaza also confirms the selective view practiced by Western liberal democracy. The Leader of the Revolution emphasized the "inability of the liberal democracy of its claimants to establish freedom of expression and their fatal neglect of economic and social justice".
The last point of the letter is the Leader's reference to the student protests in the US and Europe as another globally important issue these days. He described the movements as a "faint but promising glow."
It seems that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution's description conveys the nope for improving defense for freedom of expression and economic and social justice in the West.
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