After recent terrorist attack against Shia Muslims in Bangladesh, ABNA news agency had a conversation with Iran's ambassador to Bangladesh, Hojjatoleslam Abbas Va'ezi.
In this conversation Mr. Va'ezi pointed to the terrorist acts carried out against Muslims in the world for a long time and said: "Unfortunately, Bangladesh has not been immune to current crisis of terrorism, so we experienced the first act of terrorism against Shiites on Ashura this year."
Hojjatoleslam Va'ezi also pointed to the recent terrorist attacks in Bangladesh and said these acts are the direct result of imported terrorism.
"People of Bangladesh have never joined to ISIS terrorists. There is just a 'Jihad-e Islami' group which the government considers them as a terrorist group of ISIS," he continued.
"In fact, ISIS has no influence in Bangladesh, but it may be possible that the members of Jihad-e Islami to recruit for ISIS terrorists because of their political conflict with the government," Va'ezi told ABNA correspondent.
Counting two factors for ISIS's failure to hatch a plot in the country he said: "There is ethnic integration in this country and 90% of the population are Bengal. So, there are no such different ethnic groups that ISIS could use it for dividing people and put them against each other, like what they did in Pakistan. On the other hand, people of Bangladesh are the lovers of Ahlul Bayt (AS). 95% of the population is Muslims and all Shiites and Sunnis express their love toward Ahlul Bayt (AS) by holding different events in commemoration of Ahlul Bayt (AS)."
"Bangladesh has a population of more than 170 million, but despite the fact that Shiites are making a small number of the population (around 60.000) we don't see any religious conflict in the country," Hojjatoleslam Va'ezi also added.
At the end of his conversation and in response to how people of Bangladesh think about Iranian people, he said: "Iran and Iranians have a high position in public opinion of Bangladesh. So Iranophobia has no place in this country."
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