Grand Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, Secretary General of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought in an exclusive interview with Lebanese Al Maydeen television channel stressed the necessity of proximity saying,” What we say is that it is impossible that Sunni Muslims eradicate Shia same way that it is impossible for Shia to live without Sunni community.”

Foreword:

Arab and Muslim world is harassed in an unprecedented intrigue. Takfir (excommunication), intrigue and massacre has frozen the development and unity, hindered the confrontation of Arabs and Muslims and also stopped the proximity movements. Secretary General of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought has related on the aforesaid issues and the reasons why the movement has come to a standstill.

Islamic proximity without a stance among people

Islamic proximity has to be viewed from two angles: an optimist perspective which says we are in a time of turmoil to enter a new phase of new duties in Muslim world. It is the innate within every birth, particularly the birth of an important event, to be mingled with difficulty. What we are witnessing in the present world of Islam is the hard time for a birth. It is in a process of transition when it has to pass through an old world and bear the difficulty of being born into a new world.

We are witness to an event in the world of Islam that took more than a century to complete and that was collapse of the old Islamic civilization and the disintegration led to appearance of some smaller Islamic states.

Another outcome of this disintegration was penetration and dominance of Zionist countries into Muslim world and desecration of Islamic sanctities.

Had our Islamic identity been a firm one we should have defended our interests and a minor government like the Zionist regime of Israel could have not collect its citizens from around the world to claim a new government and evacuate Muslims from their very own lands.

Indications for formation of Islamic identity

There have been hints that Islamic nation has torn apart, intended to revive with some potential living signals. There have also been some determinations that were strengthened before they came true with the Islamic Revolution of Iran and then in the Islamic movement of Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and some other changes that we have witnessed.

Countdown for destruction of the Zionist regime in the region, victories by Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza have proved that Islamic nation has started a new life.

Three phases for proximity

There are three stages for a proximity project: First is launch and spread of a proximity dialect, when the project for revival of a dying nation started and this dialect spread across cultural, scientific and religious centers including some international hubs like ISESCO specializing one part of their activities to proximity and formed a particular committee for the topic.

To these achievements we have to add the summits, scholarship unions and cultural unions and this means that the dialect of proximity is developing and proximity thoughts are coming to result.

The second stage is to analyze the meaning, objectives, preliminaries and challenges of proximity.

The final phase includes academic and practical measures that comprise university of Islamic Denominations which has been launched 15 years ago, plans for production of proximity thoughts as well as plans for launching Islamic Peace Committee.

Stance of Iran and Islamic denominations towards Sahabah of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)

Sahabah of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) are his companions and in fact graduates from his school. Then how is it possible that one believes in Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and his household but does not believe in those who have graduated from his school?

There have been disagreements among companions of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) ending in forms of extremism. If a companion is disrespected, then it should not be blamed on Shia community because scholars and Shia figures like Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution, grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has stressed that desecration of the companions or household of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is desecration to prophet himself and it is not permitted.

While our scholars have clearly rejected that as Haram (forbidden), satellite channels struggle to break out rift among Muslims.

On the other hand is the situation of Sunni community in Iran which has changed for the better in post-revolution era. Islamic Republic in Iran reconstructed the country and the present construction in Sunni areas is a dazzling one. The number of 500 schools and mosques for Sunni community has risen to more than 12’000 after the Islamic Revolution with more than 20 Parliament Members representing Sunni communities.

Efforts to undermine Islamic solidarity

There are people who scramble to undermine unity among Muslims and wage war among Islamic denominations with the motto of “God is the greatest”. These are two groups; first is the world Zionist lobby and its allies who work for the interests of many European countries. There is still a second group which can be named as internal microbes including investors who guarantee their interests only in relation with the foreign agents. They do not find Islamic Awakening in favor of their interests.

What we mean by Islamic Awakening is an original one and not those which only bear the title of Islamic. Islam is the religion of peace, freedom, chastity and truthfulness. It is the religion of liberating men from chains and not the tarnished religion pictured by extremists.

Changed stance of Iran against Muslim Brotherhood

We view Muslim Brotherhood and all Islamic movements as a part of ourselves though we have great expectations for Muslim Brotherhood. This movement has been pioneer in many Islamic moves. We truly wished that it made the best of its experiences when it was empowered. When a great movement like Muslim Brotherhood is in a situation that its opposition side can mobilize the nation against it, then there must have been a mistake in the policies followed by the movement.

We wish that our Egyptian brothers play their effective role and win the trust of the nation since the trust of our nation is our mere asset.

Friendly ties with Al Azhar

Our ties with Al Azhar are quite friendly. There is Dar al Taqrib (proximity center) in Cairo but the general situation in the country is opposite to what we hoped to happen. I, as the head in the World Forum, have been trying to receive a visa for Egypt for the past year but they prohibit my entrance to the country.

Former Secretary General of the World Forum, grand Ayatollah Taskhiri who is a leading thinker in the field of proximity, in the general assembly of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) demanded for issue of visas for the member states of the conference for Egypt but the country even did not grant entrance permission for this senior Iranian cleric.

Efforts to communicate with Saudi Arabia

There have been many efforts to build ties with Saudi Arabia and some of them have been successful. Although there have been many measures, what we witness at the moment is invasions of Takfiri movements and tarnishing the image of Islam which is a great sorrow.

Had it not been for these efforts, Muslim world would not be in a relative peace and flames of war would burn across Islamic countries.

We think it is impossible that Sunni Muslims eradicate Shia same way that it is impossible for Shia to live without Sunni community.

Islamic Peace Committee

We have had a summit in Beirut three months ago and will probably hold a meeting in Syria in near future. We are quite optimist about the upcoming meeting with Muslim leaders.

HK