Shia cleric warns against Muslim world disunity

Senior Shia cleric warns warned against disunity among Muslims saying if Muslim world does not stand against intrigues and disunity, then Muslim world will keep on having problems.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri, President of the Supreme Council at the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought in an interview with Al Kowthar channel noted that the ideology of proximity is quite humane and natural warning that the issues of Muslim world will continue if Muslims are not united, reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).

Deputy of the Supreme Leader in Muslim world affairs added,” The stress of Islamic texts on proximity, viewpoints of religious leaders and also Imams prove the originality of the idea.”

He said,” We cannot refer to a certain period of Islam as the period for emergence of proximity since the idea has always been present throughout the history of Islam.”

He referred to the history of Islamic proximity in Iran and Egypt and said,” Proximity is an active scientific movement at present and Egypt, during the 40s, with the cooperation of some scholars from Al-Azhar including Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltout founded Dar al-Taqrib (Islamic proximity center) before it started its cooperation with the seminaries in Najaf and Qom.”

Iranian top cleric highlighted the formation of Islamic Republic of Iran based on Muslim unity and counted the great movement as a continuation of the proximity activities that were formed during 40s and 50s.

According to the former secretary general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, this Muslim unity center has been founded based on the same ideology and it intends to spread proximity thoughts among Muslim communities.

Grand Ayatollah Taskhiri also related on the idea of proximity and said, “Proximity does not equal withdrawal of one denomination from its beliefs for the benefit of another denomination rather it means discovery of the commonalities among all Muslims.”

He concluded that, “The main reason behind clashes among Islamic denominations has been preserving the resources and achieving political objectives while Islam prohibits these disagreements.”

Ayatollah Taskhiri demanded Muslim scholars to warn against such deviates and lead people towards fraternity and affection.