RNA – A workshop on the Islamic Awakening was held at Qom’s Bint al-Huda Institute of Higher Education, a branch of al-Mustafa International University. The workshop was led by Dr. Sayyed Hadi Sayyed-Afqahi, an Iranian Middle Eastern and Islamic affairs analyst.
The conference addressed issues concerning the foreign policy of the United States and its goals in the Middle East and North Africa, the contexts in which the US engages with the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic world, the Takfiri phenomenon and terrorist groups and the current situation in Saudi Arabia.
In regard to the tragic stampede in Mina during this years’ Hajj pilgrimage, Dr. Sayyed-Afqahi said the scale of the disaster is still uncertain and added that due to the enormous financial resources and means at its disposal, Saudi Arabia has attempted to buy the conscience of humanity.
The Middle Eastern political expert said that since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, the American media and its allies throughout the world have suggested that the Shi’ite Muslims and Iran are trying to destroy Sunni Muslims and have alleged that Iran wants has sought to develop nuclear weapons to force Sunnis to convert to Shi’ism.
In other remarks, the former Iranian diplomat stated that the US has four objectives for the Middle East: In order to maintain the security, sovereignty and the survival of Israel, they want to divide regional countries into smaller parts. They want to dominate the region’s energy, water and other resources and control and defeat the Islamic Revolution and the anti-imperialistic and anti-Israeli Islamic Resistance Front.
“They have no problem if the name of the Islamic Revolution remains but they seek to change its content and give it a pro-Western perspective,” the expert in strategic affairs said.
Dr. Sayyed-Afqahi stated that in order to realize these goals, the US seeks to intensify sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, exacerbate religious differences between Muslims and Christians and ferment ethnic strife between the various ethnic groups in the region and to escalate and provoke land and water border disputes and historical differences.
He referred the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel alliance against Iran, stressing that the US has many military bases in several countries surrounding Iran so that if necessary, they can be used against Iran. “Despite the readiness of the US and its bases, why do they not attack Iran?” he asked.
The Middle Eastern political expert there are 72 Wahhabi satellite channels broadcasting in various languages which are engaged in making plans to destroy pure Muhammadan Islam and promote “American Islam.” On the other hand, they allege that Iran wants to convert the entire Middle East to Shi’ite Islam and speak of an Iranian-controlled “Shi’ite Crescent,” while in reality, Sunnis, Shi’ites, Christians and others live together and are engaged in resisting the arrogance powers through the region.
Dr. Sayyed-Afqahi said that the US, UK and Israel along their regional allies, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have established and support Takfiri terrorist groups, such as ISIL and emphasized that their so-called war against terrorism is a “great lie.” He stressed that so far, ISIL has not fired a bullet towards Israel, adding that they benefit from their relationship with the Zionist regime and receive support from Israel. “For this reason, they don’t fight Israel,” he said.
He stated that the typography of ISIL is based on several foundations: the brutality of the Era of Ignorance, perversion of Islam, anti-civilizational engineering by Western orientalists and the portrayal of harsh and violent image of Islam and military planning to secure the goals of the imperial powers and international Zionism.
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