By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Tehran: In a rare effort to reach out to the youth in Europe and North America, the Supreme leader of Iran Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has written an open letter on Islam and prejudices.
The letter dated January 21 and titled “To the Youth in Europe and North America” was posted on the official website of Ayatollah Khamenei and his Twitter account.
Ayatullah Khamenie [Photo Courtesy: abna24]
Reminding that the histories of the United States and Europe are “ashamed of slavery, embarrassed by the colonial period and chagrined at the oppression of people of color and non-Christians,” Ayatollah Khamenei, writes, “that humiliation and spreading hatred and illusionary fear of the “other” have been the common base of all those oppressive profiteers.”
He further says that he wants to talk about Islam, particularly the image that is presented to them as Islam. “Why does the power structure in the world want Islamic thought to be marginalized and remain latent? What concepts and values in Islam disturb the programs of the super powers and what interests are safeguarded in the shadow of distorting the image of Islam?” he asks.
He urges the Western youth to study and research the incentives behind this widespread tarnishing of the image of Islam and requests them to respond to the “flood of prejudgments and disinformation campaigns,” by trying to gain a direct and first-hand knowledge of this religion.
He further writes, “I don’t insist that you accept my reading or any other reading of Islam. What I want to say is: Don’t allow this dynamic and effective reality in today’s world to be introduced to you through resentments and prejudices. Don’t allow them to hypocritically introduce their own recruited terrorists as representatives of Islam,” concluding, “Don’t miss the opportunity to gain proper, correct and unbiased understanding of Islam so that hopefully, due to your sense of responsibility toward the truth, future generations would write the history of this current interaction between Islam and the West with a clearer conscience and lesser resentment.”
Read the full text of the letter by Ayatollah Khamenei here