Strategic Researcher: Iran is the Only Islamic Country that Adopts the Idea of Unity and Rapprochement between Islamic Sects

The university professor and researcher in strategic issues, Dr. Talal Atrissi, stressed the importance of the issue of unity through which Muslims can meet on many important issues and define the basic priorities for the Islamic peoples.

He pointed out that the discussions that take place and the real rapprochement experienced by representatives of Islamic sects inevitably lead to multiple negative stereotypes that are sometimes made by some literature from both sides or the media, or promoted by suspicious satellite channels that provoke disputes and strife.

Here is the text of the interview:
 
1 - What is the importance of the Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran that was held last Wednesday, especially in the current circumstances in the region?

The Islamic Unity Conference, which has been held in Tehran for more than three decades, has a permanent significance, and from those years until today, firstly, because the issue of unity is a fundamental and future issue for Muslims, and secondly: with regard to strife among Muslims, it is a fundamental issue for the West and the United States of America in particular. The topic of unity is through which Muslims can meet on many important issues and determine the basic priorities for the Islamic peoples.

In these circumstances, the importance of this conference increases, especially as we have witnessed in the past few years a large, bloody and wide sedition project that the United States of America worked on by supporting takfiri terrorist organizations to transform the conflict in the region into a conflict between Muslims and change the priority from the issue of liberating Palestine to the priority of sectarian fighting.

For this reason, the conference that is being held in Tehran has a symbolic importance on the one hand and revives the idea of unity. It also has a practical importance in which leaders, scholars and thinkers from all Islamic countries meet and discuss various cultural, intellectual and political affairs. This is the permanent and continuous importance of this conference, which Iran considers, that is, the idea of unity is a basic idea for it and a strategic idea, not a circumstantial or propaganda idea or the like.

2 - Were efforts of rapprochement able to correct misperceptions among Islamic schools of thought?

The discussions that take place and the real rapprochement experienced by representatives of Islamic sects inevitably lead to multiple negative stereotypes that are sometimes made by some of the literature from the two sides or the media, or promoted by suspicious satellite channels that provoke disagreement and strife. For this reason, the mere holding of this conference periodically means it is in every Once it achieves part of its goals and makes the idea of ​​rapprochement a living and continuous idea, and the efforts of rapprochement are permanent efforts that do not end with a meeting. The important thing is that approximation is a process that needs such meetings, and it also needs to develop these meetings, especially since on the sidelines of this conference there is an institution of rapprochement that produces books, research, translations and literature that makes the idea of ​​approximation a more practical and realistic idea and therefore approximation is a continuous project that does not stop because the Islamic nation is in perpetual motion.

3 - Can Islamic governments play a role in spreading and strengthening the culture of proximity?

The meetings that have been held for years have been able to correct many of the misconceptions that resulted from trends within the sects that consider the other sects to be the sects of the enemy and atonement, based on incorrect narrations. Direct meetings and discussions allow frankness and listening to the ideas that each party holds, and therefore there is a difference between talking in closed environments that often leads to extremism and demonization of the other, while speaking in open environments in which the discourse of extremism declines. Because it is forced to listen to the other, face the other, and see the other as it is, and not as made by some novels or some media outlets. Therefore, rounds of approximation contributed to correcting this path.

Islamic governments, if they wish, can play an important and basic role through educational institutions and sectors, the media, and their various cultural activities. This is a matter that, if it happens, will lead to great results in approximation, but unfortunately, until today, governments in Islamic countries do not make the required efforts, with the exception of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

There is no country at the official level in the Islamic world that adopts the issue of Islamic unity and rapprochement, and for this reason Iran is making these efforts and is maintaining the convening of the conference despite all the difficult circumstances it is going through in order to revive the idea of unity, but we do not notice there is a response at the level of governments, and there is no one who says, for example, come that we transfer this conference every year to a country in the Islamic world and that every country adopts this call. Hence this feature of the Islamic Republic and this concern from it on the idea of Islamic unity and bringing Muslims together.

4 - Why focus efforts to bring the elites and scholars closer but on the other hand does not take the matter to the streets?

The main role that scholars should play in this field, because the need for the logic of approximation is based mainly on Islamic rules, prophetic hadiths, narrations, noble verses and texts. We know that scholars today in the Islamic world, as in the past, have a symbolic importance and an intellectual and cultural position in influencing public opinion. Hence, it is important for scholars to be convinced of the topic of approximation and to contribute to this topic, and to have a prominent presence in this field. Elites, on their part, also have an impact on public opinion, such as intellectual and cultural elites in universities, research centers, cultural, economic, scientific, and other institutions. This is natural, necessary and logical and should be there at the beginning. As for it to be transmitted to the general public, this requires that the idea of ​​approximation be a horizontal idea and not remain a vertical idea.

The horizontal idea in the sense that it is circulated in institutions, schools, activities and various meetings means part of the culture and ordinary life of people. Thus, the idea of ​​rapprochement becomes an idea that affects different people and becomes a part of them, especially when there is rapprochement and participation in economic, security and strategic interests among the countries of the Islamic world, this means, we can link the call for rapprochement and unity as an authentic Islamic religious idea with the common interests of the countries of the Islamic world that reinforce and protect this idea, just as the idea of ​​rapprochement aims at the interests of Muslims, their independence, their distinction, and the preservation of their position in this world and among the major countries.