Iran can lead anti-extremism front: President Rouhani

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic Republic can play a major role in the global fight against extremism.

“We can be the flag-bearer of fighting against extremism and introduce the real image of Islam to the world,” Rouhani said in an address to the 7th General Assembly of Islamic Radio and Television Union in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Sunday.

The event, attended by representatives of the media and other relevant institutions from 30 countries, kicked off on Sunday and will continue until Wednesday.

The Iranian president also commented on the existing confrontation between the West and the Muslim world, saying, “The West seeks to shape the identity of the human community into the way it desires.”

Warning against Western media efforts to portray a violent image of Islam, Rouhani underscored the Muslim world’s need to prepare itself for a “massive propaganda campaign” and utilize the state-of-the-art media technologies and techniques to assert its Islamic identity.

The Iranian president slammed recent abduction of a group of Nigerian schoolgirls by the Takfiri terrorist group, Boko Haram, saying that the act was part of a scenario to tarnish the image of Islam.

“In response to all those who have chosen the wrong path under the West’s direction…and portrayed Jihad and religion as creation of terror and violence, we should demonstrate the compassionate image of Islam,” President Rouhani added.

On December 18, 2013, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted for Rouhani’s ‘World against Violence and Extremism’ (WAVE) initiative, which calls on all nations across the globe to denounce violence and extremism. The Iranian president made the proposal in his address to the UN Disarmament Conference in New York on September 25.