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tv   Eye on Islam  PRESSTV  February 9, 2024 6:00pm-6:28pm IRST

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keeping you up to date with world news every half hour on press tv. this year iran is marking the 45th anniversary of the victory. the glorious islamic revolution. now, this great revolution inspired many across the world, especially the people of africa, who have for centuries suffered from exploitation by western imperialist powers. iran's islamic revolution influenced liberation movements in africa, particularly south africa's anti-aparty movement, which alted the white of minority role in this country. it is this free south africa that filed the complaint at the international court of justice against the israeli apaffed regime over its genocide against. palestinians in gaza. now, the 45th
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anniversary of the victory of the 1979 islamic revolution is being marked this year. amied moves by several african countries to follow iran's footsteps in resisting western of imperialist powers. burkina faso, mali and risea are some of the countries that have categorically rejected french imperialism as they seek true independence. since the victory of the islamic revolution, the islamic republic of iran has pursued. mutually beneficial ties with african countries. iran seeks to collaborate with african countries in various sectors, including trade, economic affairs, transfer of technology and culture. the successful visit by iran's president ibrahim raisi to three african countries last year is testimony to the ever expanding ties between iran and africa. impact of islamic revolution. on africa and now to discuss some
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aspects of the impact of iran's islamic revolution on african countries, we are joined here in the studio by mohammad nureddin, a phd student on international affairs at tehran university. thank you for your time, mr. nooredin, thank you so much musarak for inviting me. okay, now uh, can you first tell us about your acquaintance uh with the islamic revolution? how do you come to know about iran's islamic revolution? yeah, initially uh in nigeria it is part of the school's curriculum, so when we were in uh schools especially high school, yeah, so there's a particular topic which is more on islamic movement, yeah, so my first experience with the islamic revolution or iran islamic revolution, it was there, we were taught in the school, and from there, then in university, there's... particular
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course called uh islamic uh political thought, yeah, so there also we learn about uh islamic revolution, oh very impressive of indeed that it's in nigeria's education system, now as young muslim, i mean how the islamic revolution or the thoughts of the islamic revolution impact on your life? yeah, islamic revolution impacted in on my life in different ways especially the kind of dedication, yeah, iranian students show, you are in the early days of revolution, yeah, you know, there are part of people that demonstrated, and even after the revolution, the issue of hostage, which imam call it, of bigger revolution or second revolution, it of was uh carried out by student, young student like me, iranian revolution, islamic revolution, it was founded based on supporting, the oppress we can see that in
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the issues of palestine and not even palestine even those who are not muslim iranian revolution has rendered uh anomous support issues of appatite in south africa the issues of liberation movement in southern america like countries like nicaragua and even now iran is like in front of uh supporting venezuela now uh as a phd student right now in tehran, uh, you have had, you know, that experience, that past hand experience of the achievements of the islamic revolution, can you tell us more about this? yeah, iran has achieved numerous revolution right from the early days of revolution, from 1979 to till today, but my first experience with iranian revolution is uh concerning
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leadership uh, when i came here, i was opportuned to visit uh the house of the leader of the islamic revolution, person of sayid ali khamni, the early day. so that we came here, oh very good, so uh, that time correspond with the time uh, sayid used to met with iranian student, so we were carried out by our university as international student to his house, so the first thing that notice, yeah, is that uh, the leadership of iran is quite different from the leadership that we used to see in our country, especially with regard to the lifestyle, here, simplicity, simplicity, now let's uh move forward, currently uh, we have seen uh south africa has taken the israeli regime to the international court of justice uh over its genocidal crimes against palestinians in
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gaza. now uh, how did the islamic revolution impact uh on south africa and the liberation movement of south africa and so that even now we can see that? africa is at the forefront of fighting for palestinians just like imam komaini did, yeah, you know, uh, before the revolution, uh, the relation between south africa and iran, it was just a diplomatic relation, but after the revolution, uh, imam hisself, the caught uh diplomatic relation with the apetite regime, and after the appatite regime. you know uh nelson mandela who was the pioneer of nsc he came here and he said that the liberation of south africa it was inspired by the iranian revolution he came here and he appreciate the effort of iran in supporting iranian and liberation of
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south africa and after that you know he was honored uh by the university of tahran where they gave him a phd in political. science only phd, so even there he reiterated that uh, his struggle movement against the appartite regime was purely inspired by iran, and in relation to the issues of palestine, yeah, he made it clear after the independence in 1994, yeah, he said that the independence of south africa is incomplete, yeah, without the independence or freedom of palestine, exactly. clear that uh south africa or the regime, the current regime in south africa, it is one of their cardinal objective to support any country that is having racial discrimination or something related to their
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freedom, yeah so i think uh taking uh israel to icg court, yeah, international court of justice uh is part of uh the goal of goal and objective of south african government and as nelson mandela said it was inspired by iranian revolution yeah now still on the issue of palestine in africa we have seen that uh uh many africans have come out to demonstrate to participate in protest uh uh they are part of the boycott movement against the israeli regime so is there any link uh between, mean these activism in africa and the islamic revolution? yeah, as i told you before, africa we have suffer a lot of issues of sleep trade, colonialism, and even now we
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have the some legacies like the issue of new colonialism, so whenever we had the issue of liberation of people, yeah, that they are having issue. with their freedom, so we always feel as if it is us, because we share the same problem. now uh, mr. nooreddin, uh, we know that the late imam khamaini, may allah bless his soul, was at the forefront uh of stressing about muslim unity, calling on muslims across the world to unite, and right now uh, we know that, because of the issue of palestine, we need unity more than... ever before now uh how uh is this issue in nigeria, i mean considering that nigeria is a muslim country, how did the call of unity by imam komen impact on the muslims of nigeria? yeah, even recently there is a conference
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that was held here in tehran, yeah, and so many suinic scholars, you know, maybe you may heard about she gumi who happened to be the grand cardio. of nigeria during his time, so his son who is like his successor now, he was invited here and he attended that international compress of ulama which comprise both uh netia and those who are not even aligned to yeah, so he came here and he appreciated the effort of iran and he even went back to nigeria, so now this like he's telling people what he saw here and the effort that iran is making in the liberation of uh palestine, the support they gave them, he he was like shock before he don't know that there is that airport yeah but he came here now he's like i have seen so many of his lectures right from the time he came till now
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he has been telling people in nigeria and apart from that you know in the every year there is issue of unity unity week in the months of ramadan so there are under the leadership of sheik zaki islamic movement they used to organize uh unity week and they invited scholars from and they participated and the discourse and this used to yeah like it's a form of proximity and closeness between uh muslims okay thank you for that m we now take a short break before we continue our topic on how the islamic revolution of iran has impacted on africa stay with us impact of his islamic revolution on africa,
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welcome back and you're watching a program on how uh the islamic revolution has impacted on africa and our guest today is mr. muhammad noreddin, he's a phd. student on international affairs at tehran university. welcome back to the program, mr. nuraddin. thank you. now let's move to issues of trade between iran and africa. uh, iran has opened several trade centers in africa aiming to develop trade tires between the two sides. now, what steps do you think should be taken to boost a trade between uh these two sides, iran and africa, so that it can be mutually beneficial for the people of the uh two sides. yeah, as you said uh, in recent years uh, iran, especially with the coming of uh,
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president ibrahim raisi, so iran like they are trying to strengthen their trade relationship with africa, yeah, so there are various step, i think apart in in the form of uh, in the part of the government, like they are trying their best, but uh, with regard to the private sectors, like iranian businessmen, yeah, i think uh still like they don't think there is that opportunity in africa, yeah, so i think uh there is need for private sectors in iran to invest more on africa, now we know over the last 45 years iran has made tremendous progress in terms of uh technology and it's been trying to share his technology with african countries, we know right now iran has opened a house of innovation and technology in kenya, we are knowledge based companies from iran trying to sell their products and services to african countries through nairobi, so what is to be
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done for young people in africa to get more acquainted with these technological achievements of iran, particularly considering the fact that africa has some one the youngest populations in the world and this is a tech serviry you know population, yeah, you know, as you said, after the revolution, iran has achieved... tremendous uh yeah progress in part of science and technology yeah yeah most of our peoples are aware of that but uh you know still there is and like uh the process of like iran is providing scholarship for student and though we are behind some countries but still we are trying some of this some of our young people they came here and they study in the pils of science and technology and apart from that uh there is need of like organizing exhibition
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though there is but it's not that uh well known to our people so here they need to like uh advertise it make it like famous for our people to participate and benefit from these tremendous achievement in the areas of science and technology that the islamic republic having now. yeah, and uh, we know right now, many african countries are trying to do value addition to their raw material so that they can improve their economies and stop relying on the west, especially in terms of minerals. "they have minerals like colton, which are very critical in today's world, and we know that iran has attained self-sufficiency in its industries here, curtacy of the islamic revolution, because after the islamic revolution, there were lot of effort to ensure that the industries here don't rely on the west, and actually because
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of sanctions, they have become now self-reliant, so how can african..." countries you learn from iran in terms of being self-reliant and do value addition for their own uh minerals and natural resources? yeah, you know uh, there is a theory of dependency that like they proposed the issue the linking, yeah, though delinking in this world is somehow difficult, but at least we need to reduce our dependence on western countries, yeah for. to added value to our own resources, as you said, before the revolution, we know the situation that iran used to be, yeah, yeah, you know, even part the reasons of revolution, yeah, is related to the 1953 cour, yeah, which was happened to be like a process of like having control of
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your own resources, we know that in that time, iranian oil, it was been fully. controld by british petroleum bp, but uh the regime or the government in that time of muhammad musaddiq tried to liberate or even ask them to pay for the royalty of using iranian uh field but they refused to, which later on lead to the nationalization of iranium petroleum that trigger the coup in that time we know that is part of the so african countries they need to like learn from iran, we have to be self-sufficient and independent, you know, educational exchanges actually very critical, in exchanging know-how, and being a ph.d. student here in iran, can you tell us your opinion on iran's education standards and how african countries
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uh can benefit or have exchanges with iran in this regard in terms of academic issues? yeah, the standard of education here, especially you know university education, most of the universities here, they are rank higher in the international university ranking, once universities like university of tehran, amir khabir university, most of them they rank between 200 and 300 best university in the world, it's rank the first country, yeah in terms of... of uh publication among the muslim world, so i think it is a good idea for our people, as i told you before, uh, we were invited uh several times by the iranian ministry of education for the issue of attracting foreign students, so iran is open for our student came here to benefit from this uh, educational deployment that is
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here, yeah, it is good, yeah, and uh, mr. nun, we know that ' president ibrahim raisi uh last year 2023 visited three african countries, kenya, uganda and zimbabwe, how important was this trip to these countries and actually to africa or for africa in general? yeah, as you said he traveled to three countries of kenya, uganda and zimbabwe, zimbabwe, yeah, so as you know, kenya is one of the developed countries in eastern africa and in africa in general and it has... access to seas and ocean, yeah, so they are also trying to like have a transportation link to europe beer iran, so that uh visit of uh president ibrahim raisi, i think it's a good idea for that country to like have advance their own businesses with
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iranians and also kenyans also with benefit. from that business and in uganda i learned that president raisi also uh start extraterial cultivation they call it iran farm yeah so because the land there is spital and maybe some of the farm produces that they have there is either expensive here or the land here is not fatal enough to so this is also a good opportunity that iranians will benefit and also ugandans will benefit because it will provide like employment. opportunities for the use there and think even also some industries will be uh established out of that form that they started now this is the beginning we don't what will happen. in the picture and apart from that uh zimbabwe happened to be like a progressive and active member of non alliing movement and iran also is part of that and i
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could remember i read that uh the first and only trouble of uh to africa was when he attended um non alignment movement meeting there that took place in zimbabwe so there is that relationship and i think... both country will benefit for strengthen their relationship. now mr. um, you come from nigeria, an oil and gas rich country, and now you are living and studying in iran, and we know that iran is also an oil and gas rich country, but iran uh is almost self sufficient in these two sectors, oil and gas sector, and they are relying on local companies and local technical and technological know-how and local expertise, so how do you think nigeria, which has over decades relied on western multinationals which have actually looted its resources, how
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can nigeria benefit from iran's know how in these energy sector? yeah, i think uh, there is also a plan for this, you know, uh, some years back, ningeran minister of petroleum in person of silver, he came here and he discussed with uh, iranian government official concerning the issue of uh collaborative investment and uh cooperation in the fls of downstream sector so the discourses lot and i think nigeria will benefit from iran because iran is not uh as you said doesn't have that exploitative uh yeah yeah like approach like western countries so nigeria will benefit lot from iran of being self-sufficient and now as you mentioned ear over the last few months we have seen an awakening in several west african countries and in this case i want to mention niger, mali and bukinafaso where the masses are rising up against france and even
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now we have governments which are opposed to uh the french hegemony and imperialism. do you think uh uh this uh the islamic revolution has impacted on the views of the masses in these countries? yeah of course yeah yeah as i told you that uh before when you asking about uh peoples or young people opinion about iranian revolution, people there they are watching what is happening in iran, and they are seeing the progress, iran is being recorded in part of deployment, so you know in countries like niger, burkina faso and uh mali, yeah, although it was a c code, it is a military that over the government, but there was... supported by youth with the ways the used rally demonstrated, i think this could be because the inspiration of the iranian revolution.
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now last question, i think time is almost running out uh, the islamic republic of iran is at the forefront of confronting western cultural onslot, these western powers are intent on imposing their evil culture on many countries, and iran is one of them, and african countries are also not a exception and they are struggling to you know preserve their uh culture from this onslot, how can uh african countries and iran collaborate in confronting these western uh cultural onsl which is a threat to the identity especially the youth these countries yeah thank god that uh iran is an islamic country and uh we know that almost uh over 30 countries in africa they have more than 50%. of muslim population, think in that area those countries will have to work and cooperate in like cultural cooperation in preserving their
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own culture, we know before we know that uh here before the revolution there was issue of modernization yeah where the regime of that time wanted to like import the culture of waste and like impos it in the... people of iran, but when uh the islamic revolution succeed, imam komaini, like the tried to, yeah, for the issue of spirituality in the people and the society liberated from that cultural imposition of the west, so i think african countries also will benefit by collaborating and cooperating with iran to learn how they achieve in like, challenging or fighting that cultural unslot that they have been like imposing on us now. thank you very much, mr. muhammad for your time today,
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you're welcome, mr. yeah and viewers uh, we've been having a church on how the islamic revolution has impacted on africa and we were talking with mr. muhammad nouraddin a phd student on international relations at tehran university. it's been great having you watch the show today and until next time it's goodbye for now.
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when the islamic revolution of 1979 austed shah mohammad reza pahlawi, iran's new rulers handed over the keys to the israeli embassy in tehran to palestinian official. that symbolic gesture also marked a shift in foreign policy, under the new government in iran, israel was an occupying force, not a state, and palestinian statehood was a given. in this episode of in a nutshell, we take a look at the islamic republic's relations with palestine and its treatment of the palestinian cause.