By IRNA,
Tehran : The Experts Assembly Head Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said here Friday that unity in the world of Islam is undesirable and enemies have been successful to divide Muslims due to their failure to act on Islamic rulings properly.
Addressing the opening session of the 22nd International Islamic Unity Conference, Ayatollah Rafsanjani said differences among Islamic schools of thought have encouraged enemies of Islam and the world arrogance to hatch plots to divide Muslims.
He said Muslims should set aside differences and employ modern tools and facilities to foil enemy conspiracies, using Muslim Ummah’s strength.
He added that Islam has many rules on human and women rights and on freedom of thought and expression, which are more progressive than the ones in international documents, that have been adapted from Islamic sources.
He went on warning that enemies of Islam want to divide Muslims, using the said rules and ambiguities.
The 22nd International Islamic Unity Conference opened here on Friday with about 200 scholars from 45 countries attending it.
The conference called “Islamic Ummah: Challenges, Strategies” gets together renowned thinkers from Iran, the US, the UK, France, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirate, Egypt, Oman, Sudan, Kuwait, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Syria, Tunis, Hong Kong, Turkey, Iraq, Gambia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar and so forth.
The conference will end with a closing speech by Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi.
The meeting has been organized by the World Assembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought (WAPIST) and is expected to touch, within three days of its work, important challenges faced by Muslim nations to maintain their unity.