The closing ceremony of the 35th International Islamic Unity Conference was held at IRIB gathering hall in the capital Tehran on Saturday October 23 to end the 7-day meeting of Muslim scholars and intellectuals from across the globe on the theme "Islamic Unity, Peace and Avoidance of Division and Conflict in the World of Islam".
Iran’s Parliament speaker delivered the opening speech at the ceremony held on Saturday saying the reason why Muslims have not achieved unity is they have not pictured a common objective yet, reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said that solidarity is formed around common objectives, approaches or people and Muslims should stress their common book, holy Qur’an, Qibla (praying direction) and Prophet (PBUH).
He said,” Islamic solidarity is formed in relation with establishment of common approach and objective and our most important experience and historical evidence is the issue of Palestine.”
“The issue of Palestine has convened the Islamic nation together and established a unified resistance front against Israeli regime” said Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and added that the seven decades of Israel’s life is divided into two eras: the first era before the Islamic Revolution and the second era after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
He said that the Arab states failed in their endeavors to prevent growth of the cancerous tumor in the first (pre-Revolution) era while the Zionist regime failed the war in separate confrontations with the popular resistance movement involving both Shia and Sunni brothers in Lebanon and Palestine to end the legend of its invincibility.
Qalibaf continued,” What led to such great changes was creation of a confidence and anti-Zionism common objective and change of the Arabic nationalistic view to an Islamic nation based on anti-oppression political Islam.”
He added,” With victory of the Islamic Revolution, late Imam Khomeini (RA) not only established political Islam in Iran but also set anti-oppression campaign against Israeli regime and its main supporter, the United States, as the key trans-national priority.”
Speaker of the Parliament stressed, “This shared objective among Islamic countries has concerned the arrogant front to the extent that it began confronting with that by masterminding fake groups in the form of Takfiri Islam, fueling civil war and normalization of oppression on some regional countries to admit plans like Abraham accord and the so-called deal of the century.”
He added,” Today covert powers are struggling to aid sectarian and ethnical rifts among Muslims and to push them towards regional wars and fratricide.
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf referred to the recent incidents in Afghanistan and said: Covert forces are functioning in the region to spark sectarian wars and involve the region in endless insecurity.
According to the Parliament speaker the recent crimes in Afghanistan, extensive US and Zionist plots to create chaos and division in Lebanon and Iraq and provocation of regional rulers are all in the same line. The US forces might have seemingly pulled out of the region, their plans for creating chaos by redefining their presence in the region has not finished yet.
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf called on the Muslim elites to reveal that based on Islamic teachings the major issue to be confronted is the oppression by world oppressors and the key way to confront them is rational confrontation so that we identify the hostile plots and following precise plans based on informing the Islamic nation.
He referred to Islamic proximity movement as the unified voice of the Muslims against extremism and Takfir (excommunication) and said,” World people should be warned of Takfir movement so that the deviate group does not find any social stance from its early days.
He also urged the Muslim elites and Islamic nations to play active roles in line with correcting the picture that enemies of Islam have brought for the world people with the help of Takfiri movements like Daesh.
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf made the comments in his address at the closing ceremony of the 35th International Islamic Unity Conference held on Saturday.
