Ayatollahi Ramezani asserted that one of the objectives of holding such dialogues is to draw attention to the similarities among all divine religions; just as the topic of the Saturday conference was mercy and compassion from the perspective of the Abrahamic religions, attributing violence and terrorist acts to religion is quite meaningless and all divine religions denounce such brutalities.
"In the teachings of all Abrahamic faiths there are talks of mercy, compassion, peace, friendship and love toward God and humanity; all prophets had made efforts to spread security throughout history, and as such the duty of religious scholars and thinkers is to define the true essence of religion and humanity so that human beings can live together peacefully," he said
Considering terrorism and its rapid spread, the scholar noted "unfortunately however, a number of people in the form of organized groups such as ISIL exploit the name of religion and intend to invert the true image of religion and turn it into a violent, terrifying and abhorrent image; no doubt, the disgraceful atrocities of these groups that have nothing to do with any divine or human laws, are considered haram and unlawful in Islam."
"The heinous crimes that took place in Beirut, Paris and other parts of the world and are still, unfortunately, committed by ignorant and suspicious elements in the name of Islam, are condemned by any fair person and untenable by any means of logic," he underlined.
Calling for international cooperation to fight the phenomenonm, Ramezani added "the important fact here is that one should not just be content with expressing regret and grief in the face of such atrocities, for doing so will not prevent these violent acts from occurring. One must, however, demand that the international communities and major powers take a decivie approach in countering terrorism and make efforts to remove the main players of these crimes and those behind the curtain that devise and direct terrorist attacks; It must be brought into light where all these weapons and power and money come from; International communities must become practical in battling terrorism."
"Amid all this, however, some news media act discriminatingly; they bold a certain type of news and accidents while remain silent on others which are in line with imperialistic interests, or due to their fear or flattery of world powers. Knowing the truth is people’s rights, but these media do not tell the truth," he decried.
"We are strongly opposed to those who spread violence in the name of religion, and have repeatedly stressed during meetings of dialogues among religions that one must not allow war and bloodshed occur in human communities, for human beings are God’s blessings on earth and their dignities must be preserved at all events. Just as the Holy Quran says, “whoever slays a soul, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men,”(Quran, 5:32) he concluded.
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