Religious Leaders Should Control Extremism

Colombo, Oct 14, IRNA – Advisor to the Supreme Leader and Secretary General for Proximity among world Religions Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri said on Sunday that religious leaders round the globe should control extremism. Ayatollah Taskhiri made the remarks in a meeting with Sri Lankan Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don. The Iranian government has put its emphasis on administration of justice and rationality to help restore peace and friendship in the world, he said. “If the religious leaders manage to control extremism, many challenges and problems of the world will be resolved and the ground for promotion of peace and friendships will be prepared,” he said. He said that the new Iranian government has declared that is to resolve the dispute over Iranian peaceful nuclear program with the western governments through rationality and mutual respect. Taskhiri said that Iranian diplomatic campaign against the arbitrary sanctions was ushered in by President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly last September. The Iranian president lambasted the western governments for imposing the sanctions and he termed their action against Iran as violent. The Sri Lankan Archbishop, for his part welcomed the visit of the Supreme Leader’s advisor to Sri Lanka and said the Sri Lankan government backs the Islamic Republic of Iran and believe that peaceful use of nuclear energy is among Iran’s legitimate rights. “We are against double-standard policies that the Zionist regime has stockpiled some 200 nuclear warheads while Iran has been exposed to arbitrary sanctions for its legitimate rights in making use of peaceful nuclear energy,” he said. “We attach importance to Islam and the Islamic Republic of Iran and believe that the country should play active role at international scene. We oppose the US hegemony,” he said. “We support dialogue among religions and are against extremism and do our best to resolve existing problems and challenges among world religions, he said. Supreme Leader’s advisor invited the Sri Lankan archbishop to pay a visit to Iran which welcomed by the archbishop./end