The biggest, most complicated, most extensive and most sustainable threat to the Islamic Revolution has cultural aspects, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said in a cultural training center in Iran’s central city of Qom on Saturday.
"We have to furnish ourselves with the necessary equipment to counter such threat," the minister underlined.
Dehqan’s remarks echoes the comment made earlier by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, who on December 10, 2013, warned against the hostile moves by enemies of Iran to damage the country’s cultural values, and urged authorities to deal with the issue of cultural onslaught in a wise, calculated manner.
Speaking in a gathering of Iranian cultural officials here in Tehran, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei urged caution in dealing with the cultural onslaught launched against Iran by the enemies -- particularly the US -- and emphasized the need for vigilance in the face of “activity of at least hundreds of audio, video, printed and Internet media in the world with the certain aim of affecting the Iranian nation’s mind and behavior.”
The Leader also referred to a number of imported computer games and toys as instances that can gradually inculcate the western lifestyle and mentality in children, teenagers and the youth.
Ayatollah Khamenei further noted that confronting the enemy’s cultural tactics requires “innovative endeavor”, and called on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the country’s ministry of culture and Islamic guidance to devise strategies to counter the harmful effects of the cultural onslaught.
“Belated recognition and reaction would be costly; therefore, we should react in a timely and wise manner,” the Leader warned.