SHAFAQNA – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has urged Muslims to fight economic, cultural, scientific poverty as root causes of terrorism.
What has happened to the Islamic nation to keep silent against all of the violence and bloodshed and all these Muslims, including children, who have to cross rivers in the cold and seek refuge in non-Islamic countries, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani asked in his inaugural address to the Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran.
“Is it all right if we give oil money to the US, buy missiles, and drop them on Muslims?” he asked, IRNA reported Dec. 27.
He regretted that 84 percent of all violence, terror, and homicide is happening in the Islamic world, in North Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia.
“Terrorism cannot be wiped out with bombs…. It has its roots in poverty…. How many bombs and missiles did you buy from the US last year? If you distributed the money among the Muslim poor, no one would have slept on empty stomach.”
“Let us eradicate poverty, financial and cultural, which is the reason Daesh (IS, aka ISIS or ISIL) can recruit fighters,” the Iranian president stated.
He stressed that Islamic countries cannot talk of brotherhood and unity as long as they are dependent on outside forces in terms of economy, culture, and science.
The Islamic Unity Conference started on December 27 and will end on December 29.
Over 500 foreign guests from 70 countries and 320 figures from Iran are attending the conference.
There are 60 VIPs, including parliament speakers, grand muftis, scholars, and deans of universities, in the conference.
Secretary General of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, whose organization hosts the event, said the conference will include special programs on fighting terrorism.