RNA – Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, an advisor to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution on world affairs, spoke on Tuesday at the seventh round of religious dialogue between Muslims and members of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church which was entitled “The Role of Rationality and Religious Ethics in the Prevention of Violence and Extremism in the Region," which was held at the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in Tehran.
Speaking in the presence of Aram I Keshishian, head of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, Iranian Armenia clerics and representatives of the Assyrian Church, Jews and Zoroastrians, academics and activists, the Shi’ah Muslim scholar said, “Today, the world is suffering from violence and the cure to this disease and difficulty is through the promotion of rationality and morality.”
He stressed on the necessity of open dialogue between different religions and that dialogue is a human need and added, “The aim of this dialogue is to achieve commonalities between our religions and to move towards practical cooperation and service to humanity.”
Ayatollah Taskhiri said the Islamic Republic of Iran has pursued three important positions – dialogue among civilizations, interfaith dialogue and strengthening religions between the sects of these religions and added that this same aim also exists among Christians.
“In Islam, we believe in approximation between religions and recently, we heard that that Christians have also started efforts toward religions approximation. We were very happy to hear this because this is a step to ending the disputes among Christian sects,” he stated.
The Iranian scholar stated that fostering tolerance, human free will and dialogue is given much importance in our narrations and added, those who consult with others, shares their ideas.
“The neglect of God, prejudice, rebellion, violence and violating the rights of others are the manifestations of evil in all religions, and Christianity also accepts this,” he said.
Ayatollah Taskhiri stated that Shi’ah Muslims have a credible book of narrations entitled “Tuhaf al-Uqul” and in its final three chapters, it contains explanations from Jesus Christ. “This demonstrates the beautiful similarities and the correspondence between the teachings of Islam and Christianity,” he said.
He said the enemies of religion, anti-religious secularists and those against humanity are trying to portray morality as relative, promote violence and remove rationality from the followers of religion, which is dangerous.
Ayatollah Taskhiri noted, “I believe all extremist and Takfiri groups, including Christians, Buddhists or Muslim, are irrational and they soon will be lost.”
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