The fifth session of the meetings of the “Compassionate Ummah” entitled “Reviewing the Political Strategies to Achieve Unity and Convergence among Islamic Denominations and the Formation of the Union of Islamic Countries” was held with the presence of Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi (Vice President of the Academy of Sciences and Former Deputy of the Secretary General of the Islamic Conference Organization), Dr. Hassan Ghafouri Fard (University Professor and Political and Cultural Activist) and Dr. Ebrahim Mottaqi (Professor of Political Sciences, University of Tehran) at the studio of the World Forum for the Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought.
At the beginning of the meeting, Salehi said about the role of diplomacy in the formation of the Union of Islamic Countries: “First of all, I must say about the “Unified Islamic Ummah”, which is a very big concept and ideal. There is a story about how to achieve it, but we have not seen a Unified Ummah in the history of Islam. The problem we have is the implementation of the concept. How to apply the concept is very important, otherwise it is very easy and desirable to talk about a Unified Ummah, but how to achieve it is important and we did not get much into this area. So there is a part between the concept and its example that needs to be expanded.
He added: “Some time ago I heard a woman named Donella Meadows say that the least and rarest resources are not oil and gas and manpower, but the source of the desire to listen to each other and we lack this. So our lack is a tendency to listen to each other. How to learn from each other and seek the truth. In a period of time, I was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I traveled to Egypt several times. I went to Egypt once during the time of Morsi, and during that trip, a television program in this country named as “Hello Good Morning” invited me. The first question of the host was “why did you come to make us Shiites?” I said we are all Sunnis before we became Shiites. Moreover, when we do not differ in principles, these arguments have no place at all and are deviant. So we must first come to a common definition and accept each other and seek the truth, not what we think. Avoiding prejudice and learning from each other and seeking the truth, these are what we must have in mind in reaching a Unified Ummah and have a mutual understanding.”
Then Ghafouri Fard said: “Following Salehi’s speech, I must say that we must first identify the commonalities.” Our commonalities with the Sunnis are more than ninety percent, and those who stir up our differences are the ignorant. In 1997, we wrote the Charter of Unity, in which we mentioned that differences should not be drawn out, and then a charter was also written for Asian, European and African countries. I mean, if we work on the commonalities between the religions of Islam, we can more easily achieve a Unified Ummah. Unfortunately, Islamic ethics is being forgotten at the moment and more work needs to be done on it.”
Mottaqi, another speaker at the meeting, said: “The issue of Islamic unity and the Islamic Union is a fundamental concern of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Imam Khomeini (RA) also discussed Islamic unity from the beginning.” His concern was also unity in a very pervasive context. During the time of Ayatollah Khamenei, the issue of Islamic awakening was also raised, but unfortunately, the processes of unity were not engineered. Unfortunately, the diplomatic atmosphere and other countries have been such that the centrality of Islam has not been taken into account. In the Sunni Islamic world today, ideas have been radicalized and spread that the argument is that first and foremost, we must confront the immediate enemy. The point is that they organized jihadist groups in the name of Islam.
Salehi explained the role of politics in convergence and said: “Diplomacy is at the heart of politics and the element of implementing politics and has more of a protocol aspect. Politics is strategic and intellectual, but diplomacy is a tool for implementing politics. If we go back to the Prophet’s biography, we see that he implemented diplomacy about Islam well. When the Prophet (PBUH) focuses on ethics, it means diplomacy. With this moral behavior, the young people became interested in Islam, and because they followed the Prophet, they were always clean, well-groomed and fragrant, and other young people, when they saw the young man clean, said that he had become a Muslim, and that was diplomacy. Diplomacy is the translation of the policy you have in mind. Man is a servant to morality, and when our behavior is moral, we can attract people to us.”
He added: “In the early years of the revolution, we said that we wanted to export the revolution, but when several people did something against it and did the wrong thing, it caused distrust in us and the opposite happened. We did not do well in Islamic unity diplomacy. Diplomacy is a language and behavior, and according to the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, we must have maximum absorption and minimum repulsion. When I was a student in Beirut, when Imam Musa Sadr came to Lebanon, the Shiites were the most backward and poorest people in Lebanon. The way Islam was presented by Imam Musa Sadr and his behavior was such that he became the Great Sheikh of Lebanon. Whenever he went anywhere, he did not say that he was a Shiite so that there would be no sensitization. He would go to church and preach and emphasize commonalities, and at that time not only would the churches be filled but people would line up outside to hear what Imam Musa Sadr had to say. In his speeches, he spoke in a way that did not create prejudice.”
The deputy head of the Academy of Sciences continued: “Currently, the Shiites in Lebanon are the dearest, strongest, most united and most honorable minority in Lebanon, thanks to the services of Imam Musa Sadr.”
Al-Manar Radio and Television does not say the call to prayer during the call to prayer and only announces that now is the call to prayer and the hadith and narration are read. Later, I found out that the call to prayer is not broadcasted so that the Sunnis and Shiites do not become fanatical and upset about the manner of the call to prayer and naming Ali (AS) in the call to prayer, and this means diplomacy.”
Then Ghafouri Fard said: “In diplomacy, we have a public and popular diplomacy. Based on this diplomacy, we have to talk to the people. If we want to create unity in the Islamic world, we cannot ignore Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which are two great countries.”
At the end of the meeting, Mottaqi explained: “We must have cognitive and perceptual management. We need to know what others know and understand about us, and this knowledge occurs through communicative action in academic and information centers. Thus, diplomacy today means creating communication action between the actors of the Islamic world at different levels to achieve a common goal.”
