RNA – Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Ali Alavi-Gorgani has met with a group of Turkish Alevis at his office in the holy city of Qom.
Alevism is a mystical branch of Islam and has some commonalities with orthodox Shi’ism, and Imam Khomeini decreed Alevis to be part of the Shi’a fold in the 1970s. They are the second largest religious community in Turkey, after Sunni Islam.
Ayatollah Alavi-Gorgani explained that in order to be victorious over the enemies of Islam, all Muslims of various denominations must unite. He stated that since it is impossible that everyone follows the same religion and this has never happened before in history, unity is important to avoid conflict.
“Our duty is to focus on our religious commonalities and similarities and by maintaining unity and by putting aside our differences, we can thwart the enemies’ plots,” the Iranian source of emulation said.
His Eminence said that before the United States began interfering in the region, Islamic countries were united and did not have many differences between them.
He added that there are various doctrinal differences between the various Islamic sects but these differences should be put between scholars who should gather to discuss these differences and prove their claims. These differences should not be transferred to the community nor influence the lay peoples’ social lives. The people should live peacefully together, despite their religious differences.
The renowned professor in the Islamic Seminary of Qom said that all the countries in the region are Muslim countries and have much in common.
He stressed that Islam emphasizes peaceful coexistence, even with the followers of other religions, and also stressed that that Islam encourages the maintenance of peace and avoiding war whenever possible.
Ayatollah Alavi-Gorgani stated that Takfiri terrorist groups, such as ISIL, are an American “weapon” created to distort the image of Islam. Such groups are not true Muslims but have been trained by the United States to achieve their goals in the region.
It is the duty of Muslims to devote themselves to Islamic unity and follow the orders of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, to defeat the US and their agents’ conspiracies and stay united, he noted.
111/112