Scholar: Difference among Islamic schools of thought helps understand extent of intellectual freedom in Islam

The full speech comes as follows:
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Greetings and peace be upon Muhammad (PBUH) and his holy family
First of all, let me thank the World Assembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought (WAPIST) for providing the opportunity for participation in the 37th International Islamic Unity Conference with the motto of Islamic cooperation for materialization of common values and investigating the axis of intellectual and religious freedom and accepting religious Jihad and confronting Takfiri and extremist trend.
First of all, let me just define the word “liberty.” In general, “liberty” means salvation from the limitations, that restrict human beings’ energy and power – the limitations might be either physical or spiritual. Liberty might include cases of liberty of a person, a group or the self from slavery and their getting rid of the pressures exerted so that a goal be fulfilled. Hence, it means ruining of all the values and morals that try to set a soul free without any limitation and serving as a prelude to it is intellectual liberty. Therefore, absolute intellectual liberty means dissolution and elimination. So, blessed Islam appeared to show us liberty in another sense, which is consistent with values, morals and Sharia because liberty cannot be without any limitation and absence of limitation means anarchy, plight and instability of man and society. This is because, the main rule of liberty in Islam is worshipping God, faith in God, getting rid of desires and of worshipping anything other than God Almighty. So, the idea of liberty in Islam is based on belief in monotheism and God’s rule over the universe and the more profound is such a belief inside Muslims and the more his monotheistic attitude is towards God, the more his spirit will be elevated and the stronger will his feeling of dignity, his liberty and intention against injustice and submission to become others’ slave become.
God Almighty says, “Those who are subject to injustice will be victorious.” Intellectual liberty means avoiding to get out of Islamic frameworks that are linked to the cable of God Almighty’s worshipping. In that case, any Muslim, who enjoys freedom of religious thought will be entitled to think freely. This means the path to Ijtihad is open before Muslims because Ijtihad is the fruit of human’s thought in the limit drawn up by holy Sharia. Anybody reaching the level of science that is able to draw Sharia ruling from detailed reasons will be entitled to do Ijtihad in religion and earn lots of goods and awards; such a person should be respected and appreciated by all, who might agree or disagree with him in rulings. One of the characteristics of Muslims is respecting scientists and other religious and refusing to insult them. Any Shiia or Sunni Muslim should respect other Islamic schools of thought, especially those representing Jaafari, Hanafi, Shafei, Maleki, Hanbali and Zeidi schools of thought, that are the most famous Islamic schools of thought.
Difference among Islamic schools of thought may lead us understand the extent of intellectual freedom that Islam has given to its followers; therefore, all Islamic Ummah have the duty to accept each other even if having difference in opinion and ideas.
The appreciation will strengthen unity among Muslims and will be a reason for promotion of the spirit of tolerance, sincerity, and passion among all Muslims. One of the most important reasons for Islamic brotherhood is appreciating each other and giving freedom to any sect to perform its religious duty in its own way and also respecting the duties that are outcomes of ideological Ijtihad of any school of thought. Therefore, besides people in Islamic countries, governments too should provide religious, ideological and religious freedoms based on their own constitution. This is backed by clear paragraphs of Constitution and will guarantee all people’s ideological and intellectual freedom, while guaranteeing protection of Ulima. Exactly like the Islamic Republic of Iran that recognized everybody’s right to perform rituals of all schools of thought as the late Imam Khomeini acted on it and Ayatollah Khamenei also followed him and emphasized the need for Islamic unity both inside and outside.
Article 11 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution is on virtue of the blessed verse of Holy Quran, “Indeed, this is your community, a single community [of believers], and I am your Lord, so worship Me.” Muslims form a single community and Iran’s Islamic government should adopt its general policies based on unity of Muslim nations, while continuing its general policies of forging political, economic and cultural unity in the world of Islam. Furthermore, based on Article 12 of the Constitution, official religion of Iran is Islam and Jaafari Athna Ashari school of thought. This article is never changing and other Islamic schools of thought such as Hanafi, Maleki, Hanbali, and al-Zeidi are fully respected and followers of these schools of thought are free to perform their religious duties based on their own school of thought. They can receive education, do physical exercise, handle private affairs, marry, get divorced, be inherited, provide will and get attorney in courts. The school of thought being in majority in a region is the right.
The decisions, made locally in that region are based on the school of thought, falls within jurisdiction of the local council assemblies, while honoring rights of followers of other religions; such measures taken at the level of constitution of each country, may strengthen Islamic unity because it recognizes the right for ideological, religious and action freedom; therefore, all governments of Islamic countries should follow Islamic Republic of Iran in giving the right to their nation based on constitution because such measures will play an outstanding role in eliminating Takfiri thought, which is invigorated by divisions among children of Islamic Ummah and nourishes from satanic forces of global arrogance, especially the big Satan, the US, and its puppet, Israel. Such countries are advised to think of generalizing the attitude of establishing and activating such centers, that play a role in raising awareness of Islamic communities and building up spirit of fraternity and peaceful co-existence of different Islamic schools of thought and their appreciating each other, e.g., WAPIST that was established in Islamic Republic and has a grave role in proximity of views of Islamic schools of thought inside and outside Iran due to organizing seminars, dialogues, conferences and gatherings of Ulima, and researchers to discuss situation in the world of Islam in order to find scientific solutions to problems facing the nation, while probing into them and finding they way to confront challenges facing Islamic Ummah and findings ways to promote Islamic unity and having sincerity in work and making great endeavors to forge Islamic unity.
Here, we ask all governments of Muslim countries to take these steps because the most important ways of settling differences of Islamic Ummah and their integrity on the one hand and ending criminal Takfiri attitudes that threaten all Islamic Ummah so as to remove pure Islamic land just to serve their lords, especially the dirty trio of the US, the UK and Israel
Finally, we ask God Almighty to provide Islamic nation with the blessing of security and unity and accept efforts of brothers, who are active in the WAPIST, just for the sake of Muhammad (PBUH) and family of Muhammad (PBUH).
Your servant, Saad Ahmad al-Araji, the Quranic and Islamic History Scholar and congregational prayer leader and preacher of mosque and al-Zahra Husseinieh (Peach Be Upon Them) in Musal and Erbil