Rasa News Agency - Hujjat al-Islam Ahmad Vaezi, the president of the Islamic Propagation Office of the Islamic Seminary of Qom, has met with a group of students and seminarians at the organization’s office in the holy city of Mashhad, which represents the organization in the province of Khorasan-e Razavi. His Eminence discussed the attempts by the West to destroy Shi’ah Islam by enflaming sectarian differences in the Islamic world and promoting Salafism.
He told the seminarians:
Muslims in the last two centuries have had two reactions in the face of Western civilization: one has been a fascination and the promotion of Western culture and the other has been the growth of Salafism and the inclination to return to original Islamic teachings. However, this inclination has led to a radicalized view of Islam which is irrational and has created conflict between Islamic schools of thought, especially the Shi’ah school of thought.
Because Shi’ism is an intellectual and engaging school of thought, its rational reaction to modernity and modern religious thinking is considered a threat by these Salafis. Their religious thinking is against Islam and modernity and they have submitted to Western thought and have wrapped in with Islamic precepts and have [misleadingly] propagated it as true Islam with the claim that modern circumstances demand modern interpretations.
The turning point in Shi’ite history was the establishment of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Amongst both Sunnis and Shi’ites, the formation of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been the only successful implementation of political Islam in the last hundred years.
The strong bond between our maraja’ (religious authorities) and society became a warning to the enemies of Islam who sought to destroy the attraction and appeal of Shi’ism. For this reason, they have imposed sectarian wars on the Islamic community. They want to remove the attractive capabilities of Shi’ism.
In normal circumstances where a calm environment prevails, logical conversations and dialogues can occur. However, the enemies know that Shi’ism will have an opportunity to grown in this calm atmosphere. For this reason, they have inflamed the situation and have created sedition and conflict and have exacerbated sectarian differences.
In another part of his lecture, Hujjat al-Islam Vaezi explained the mission of the seminaries: “The mission of the seminaries is to offer insight, a framework and propagation. In these circumstances, the burden on our shoulders is heavier than it was previously.”
He added: “There are presently 165 Persian-language satellite channels available, and most of them are not [overtly] political but seek to create divisions and to demoralize Islamic culture. Most of them are against religion and ethics. This is very evident. The Islamic Seminary has a great duty to deal with this issue.”
“Unfortunately, one of the problems in the seminaries is that we do not receive enough pleasure from our accomplishments. We have gotten caught up in managerial work and have forgotten our spirit of jihad and love of preaching Islam. We must be careful not to fall into this situation,” His Eminence concluded.
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