Muslims unity pivotal in fight against violence: Iran’s president

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic world is currently at a critical juncture, urging all Muslim nations to strengthen unity to counter enemies’ plots. Addressing the 29th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran on Sunday, Rouhani said enemies and big powers are doing their best to portray Islam as a religion of violence, urging […]

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic world is currently at a critical juncture, urging all Muslim nations to strengthen unity to counter enemies’ plots.
Addressing the 29th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran on Sunday, Rouhani said enemies and big powers are doing their best to portray Islam as a religion of violence, urging Muslims to take necessary steps to thwart all efforts aimed at depicting Islam as the religion of violence.
The Iranian president added that faced with such plots, “Muslims have no option but to join hands [in unity] and … choose the right path.”
Rouhani stated that a great deal of the ongoing violence, acts of terror and massacre are taking place in the Muslim world, North Africa, the Middle East and West Asia, adding that there must be an end to the “intellectual and discourse-based violence.”
The president criticized certain Muslim countries for purchasing great quantities of US arms, and either delivering the weapons to militant groups or using them against other Muslim nations.
Daesh Takfiri terrorists, Rouhani argued, recruit members that are overcome by cultural or economic poverty, adding, “So, let’s eradicate cultural and financial poverty in our societies.”
Elsewhere in his address, the Iranian president emphasized that bombs and military equipment cannot do away with terrorism.
The biggest responsibility we shoulder is to repair the image of Islam in the eyes of the world public, President Rouhani said.
In reference to efforts made to unseat the Syrian President Bashar Assad, Rouhani said no foreign country can make decision on the fate of another country and only that country’s people, can make that decision.