RNA – Speaking before Friday prayers in Tehran, Hujjat al-Islam Ali-Reza Panahian explained the advantages and disadvantages of democracy and its positive and negative experiences in various societies.
The renowned Islamic speaker stated that historically, there have been more disadvantages than positive aspects in regard to democracy and added some thinkers, such as Aristotle, didn’t consider democracy as a solution for confronting dictators and some, such as Allamah Tabatabai, considered democracy as worse than dictatorship.
He said that religious democracy controls many of the disadvantages of democracy and added, “The religious democracy which prevails in Iranian society is such that it doesn’t cause any form of injustice against other countries, even toward the villages of its neighbours.”
Hujjat al-Islam Panahian said that power of Iran’s Islamic system in the region is unique and unprecedented and added that our criticism of democracy doesn’t include the criticism of religious democracy because in regard to the Iranian system which enjoys a form of religious democracy, there is a clear difference between Western democracy and democracy in its true meaning.
The teacher in the Islamic Seminary of Qom said that with the legal structures that we have and the Islamic extensions in which religious democracy is hidden under, many of the disadvantages of democracy are removed.
He added that democracy seeks that the people dominate over their own destiny but how can the people dominate over their destiny is a very big question which hasn’t been answered as of yet.
Hujjat al-Islam Panahian said in a dictatorial system, the oppressor is identified and oppression is obvious but in a democracy, the oppressors are behind the scenes and we don’t know which people they are oppressing and what influence do those individuals have who have been democratically elected from among the people and officials.
His Eminence stated that the result of democracy is due to the domination of the Zionists and the imperialism powers and added, “Today, democracy in the West isn’t only a form of hidden dictatorship, but rather it is a form of enduring dictatorship.”
The Iranian cleric stated that one of the advantages of democracy is that people aren’t deceived by political parties and the media and noted, “Although in Western democracies such actions aren’t permissible but in a religious democracy not only is this considered permissible but rather preventing a lot of deceptive activities is also permissible.”
Hujjat al-Islam Panahian stressed that religious democracy has the ability to provide possibilities for the growth of the people of a society through some rules and structures which exist in our society and added, “This advantage cannot be found in Western society in any form.”
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