Iran for Shia-Sunni unity

Iran has said that it seeks to enhance brotherly relations with all the Muslims nations and the countries of the region including India.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, who arrived in Hyderabad on a three day visit on Thursday said, “Iran was not seeking any discord with the other Muslim countries who had age old relations with us”.

Addressing a big gathering of Muslim religious scholars and intellectuals in Hyderabad on Thursday evening Hassan Rouhani said that Iran was making efforts to put an end to the bloodshed in the region and was ready to help countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. “Bullets can not resolve the problems. Dialogue could be the only tool of resolving the issues”, he said.

His half an hour long address was focused on calling for the unity among the Shias and Sunnis while holding the West responsible for sowing the seeds of discords among various sects of Muslims.

“India is an example of peaceful coexistence of different religious ethnicities and followers of different faiths who have lived together for centuries”, the Iranian president said.

“Shias, Sunnis, Sufis and Sikhs and others have coexisted, built the country and civilisation for centuries”, he said.

“The enemy was trying to portray Islam as a violent religion when the fact is that Islam is a religion of moderation, tolerance and forgiveness”, he said extensively quoting from Quran and the saying of Prophet Mohammed, who he referred to as the “Messenger of Peace for the entire humanity”.

Warning that the West was targeting the culture of the eastern countries, he said that the Ulema or the scholars bear a huge responsibility to preserve our cultural heritage.

“All the Islamic denominations should have brotherly attitude towards each other and towards other people”, he added.

Hassan Rouhani also lashed out at the West for targeting the culture of the Eastern countries and adopting an unfair attitude on the question of sharing the scientific knowledge and technology.

“The tyranny and oppression was the root cause of the conflicts in the world today”, he said. “Oppressed nations have a right to defend themselves’, he said. Warning that the West was sowing the seeds of discord among the different sects of Muslims he called for the unity between the Sunni and Shia Muslims. He said that the Shias, Sunnis and people of other ethnicities coexisted peacefully in Iraq and Syria for centuries till West created a discord there.

The Iranian President said, “All humans have a duty to help the oppressed of their religion and ethnicity”.