Ayatollah Arafi:

Seminary’s approach to international affairs must change

Rasa – The head of Qom’s al-Mustafa International University has stated that the Islamic Seminary’s approach in international affairs must change, explaining that the clergy should address international issues, but this doesn’t mean that domestic issues shouldn’t be addressed as well.

News ID: 3904

Date: 04 February 2016 - 22:04

RNA – Speaking at a meeting with the directors of the Islamic Seminary of Tehran, Ayatollah Ali-Reza Arafi, Qom’s Friday prayer leader, stressed that the Islamic Seminary must have an international presence, explaining that the Seminary must have a different approach in the international arena because the roles of the city of Qom, its seminaries and the Shi’a clergy on the international stage has increased since the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, but warned that this doesn’t mean that domestic issues shouldn’t be addressed as well.

The head of al-Mustafa International University said that if the Islamic Seminary wants to defend its goals in Iran and the world, it needs to know the status of its competitors and actors in the international arena. “Our competitors include materialists, the liberal discourse of Western thought and those who have left Islam. We must explain how the Islamic Seminary can challenge these discourses,” he added.

His Eminence said that if the Islamic Seminary doesn’t step up its fight against its competitors, they will progress, adding that the most important step is to identify the competitors and confront them ideologically. One discourse that can achieve the objectives of Shi’a Islam is the discourse of the late Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei.

In conclusion, Ayatollah Arafi referred to the activities of the Takfiri/Wahhabi ideology, saying that most of the 100 countries that we are active in, we’re facing this ideology. “The only discourse that guarantees the unity of the Islamic world, is the discourse of unity which is the same discourse of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei,” he stressed.

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