In the name of the most high
An extract from ayatollah Muhammad Ali Taskhiri’s statements- the former chairman of the universal assembly of Islamic religion affinity- regarding the religion dialogues in an interview with Roshana.
The character sketches of the holy Imams (peace be upon them) have been focused on the path of the religion affinities and dialogues and there are many traditions in this regard.
Basically, dialogue is a humane logic which isn’t limited to the divine and Abraham religions, but it consists of all religions, sects and even all cultures. We must seek for recognizing a logical method of the humane dialogue. Most Quranic verses have stated these methods beautifully. The methods must be used as patterns.
Some find dialogue of religion mistaken for the concept of pluralism. Pluralism means we accept all religions and sects. This action isn’t basically logical; but the meaning of dialogue is that we acquire and know those in common and after that we find the cooperation fields among these common entities. As a matter of fact, in the first instance, the purpose for dialogue is the recognition of these common fields; but some people are naturally tending to these ideas following recognizing them. Additionally, the dialogue becomes a proselytizing matter. Consequently, the first phase is to recognize the religions and the second phase is recognizing the logical dialogue.
Of course, some groups is misusing the dialogue. We can’t converse those who misuse because their intention is satanic. On the other hand, their intentions are anti-humane and destructive for the humane logic. We can’t converse such people. However, we can generally converse all heavenly and non-heavenly religions (even Buddhists and Hindus) and find the common fields as a principle.
If the Zionistic regime or extremist Wahhabism create hundreds of dialogue centers, their behaviors are anti-logic and anti-humane. So, dialogue is vain. Their behavior refutes their superficial proselytizing. I believe that some centers which pretend to converse logically, are disgraced inwardly and their methods are against their slogans.
Baha’ism is another sense of these groups. Baha’ism is made by the deviant and atheist west. Baha’ism is a political party. It isn’t a religion. For this reason, we don’t believe in conversing with Baha’is; because they are against the logic and are made by the universal Colonialism and arrogance.
The policy of the Islamic republic is also the policy of the logical dialogue; whether among the followers of a religion (such as among Shiites), or the followers of various religions and even among irreligious cultures and people. This is the policy of the Islamic republic which is executed in action, too. Unfortunately, we don’t proselytize these beautiful expressions of the Islamic Republic; but we proselytize against it, up and down.
In our country, there are some democratic and private foundations in this field executing religion dialogues; such as Islamic culture and communications which is responsible for coordinating dialogues among religions. In this regard, this organization has taken logical steps including: The formation of the supreme council of religion dialogues and the common committee for conversing (with orthodox, Vatican, Aggrecan, Church councils even Buddhists, Hindus) which are active extensively.
Anyway, I believe that the centers of dialogues of the organization must be strengthened. It must possess more facilities. Also, other centers must cooperate with this center to take common positions in dialogues in order to avoid parallel activities.
