Table of Contents Intruduction

A Report on the Meeting of Religious Leaders

On the occasion of the presence of religious leaders, including Excellency Katlikus Aram Keshishian, the Prelate of the Armenians of Sicili-Antias region, and His Excellency Patrick Mardankhai IV, the Leader of the World Assyrians, the Organization of Islamic Culture and Relations organized the preliminary session of the Regional Council for Dialogue among Religious Leaders to boost understanding and spread inter-religious dialogue between the divine religions and consolidate the mutual ties. The session, launched on May 17, 2005, was attended by the highest level leaders of the Jewish and Zoroastrian communities and those of various Christian denominations as well as their representatives in the Iranian Parliament. The leaders and representatives of various religious communities participated in this multilateral session in which the Muslim thinkers from seminaries and universities also participated and exchanged their viewpoints about various international affairs of the religious communities, religious minorities, inter-religious dialogue as well as direct religious and cultural interactions with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The viewpoints of the religious leaders and the representatives of religious communities focused mainly on the common problems and concerns of the leaders and followers of the monotheistic religions. The meeting was in line with the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in spreading and consolidating religious dialogue and cooperation in the national and international arenas. The outcome of the ideas and thoughts of the religious communities led to the preparation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the religious leaders and representatives of religious communities as well as some thinkers of the seminaries and universities. The MOU laid emphasis on the continuation of regular and goal-oriented inter-religious dialogue between the leaders and followers of religions and mutual respect to the ideological, intellectual, and ritualistic arenas of each other's religions as well as their values, sanctities, their divine religious heritages, their spiritual personalities, their spiritual personalities, and religious holy places, and suitable confrontation with those who desanctify the religious sanctities or create differences among the followers of divine religions. Also attempts were made to prepare, compile and approve some legal charters to protect the rights of the divine religions. The community and representatives of divine religions strongly condemned any sacrilege of the Islamic sanctities and praised the historical and contemporary peaceful coexistence between the followers of the divine religions in Iran. The council agreed to set up the Permanent Secretariat of the Regional Council for Dialogue among Religious Leaders in the Organization of Islamic Culture and Relations, Iran.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

Regional Council for Dialogue among Religious Leaders

Islamic Republic of Iran
“Though these dialogues we do not intend to prove the righteousness or falsehood of a religion; we want to achieve common points in order to be able to cooperate with each other in this great jihad; this jihad does not rely on the sword, rather on the reason, faith and expression.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei

Peace be upon all great divine messengers
Taking into account the Article 13 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran and for more understanding and cooperation as well as promoting of dialogue and mutual cooperation among the divine religions, the first session of the Regional Council for Dialogue among Religious Leaders was held in the Islamic Republic of Iran on May 17, 2005 with the participation of religious leaders and representatives of religious minorities, the representatives of association of religious councils, and a number of Muslim thinkers in the Center for Interreligious Dialogue in Iran and emphasized on the following points:
1 – Deeply realizing the historical and contemporary conditions, the leaders and representatives of the divine religions consider the principle of dialogue the most necessary one for better mutual understanding and consolidation of religious ties, friendship, and brotherhood among the believers in the divine religions and are hopeful that the continuation of positive, constructive religious dialogue will lead to the highest level of understanding and cooperation in the international arena.
2 – The participating leaders and representatives lay emphasize on the continuation of regular and goal-oriented interreligious dialogues based on mutual respect to the sphere of belief, thoughts, religious rites, values and religious heritages of the divine religions as well as according respect to the spiritual leaders.
3 – The participating leaders and representatives consider it necessary to make effort to preserve the collective faith and consolidate commitment to the common religious and ethical principles of the religions.
4 – The participating leaders and representatives consider the collective defense of the sublime religious values, sanctities, religious figures, and architecture of the sacred religious buildings necessary for all, particularly for the leaders and followers of the divine religions.
5 - The participating leaders and representatives should pay attention to the necessity of cooperation for the settlement of skirmishes attributed to the religions in various parts of the world.
6 - The participating leaders and representatives emphasize on the logical confrontation with those who create differences among the followers of the divine religions or desanctify the religious sanctities and values of any religions.
7 - The participating leaders and representatives consider the collective effort for the compilation and approval of the articles and legal charters as an international document for wining the support of influential international organizations in defense of the rights of the divine religions, preservation of the religious sanctities, religious personalities, and the material and spiritual heritages of the religions.

8 – The participating leaders and representatives of religions, religious associations and councils of Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam praise the historical and contemporary peaceful coexistence among religions in Iran and the positive, constructive interaction between the leaders and followers of the divine religions in this country and announce their agreement for the establishment of the Permanent Secretariat of the Regional Council for Dialogue among Religious Leaders in the organization of Islamic Culture and Relations, Tehran. The Secretariat is entrusted with the task of taking the necessary measures for the materialization of the decisions of this session and this MOU as well as the preparation – in cooperation with the leaders and representatives of the religions – of a draft agreement between the religious leaders for the next session.

From Inter-Religious Dialogue to Practical Cooperation among Religions

Ayatollah Mahmoud Mohammadi Araqi^

The contemporary world has witnessed the entrance of the politicians, scholars, scientists and philosophers into the realm of "dialogue", particularly in the field of inter-religious dialogue. The political literature of the world is influenced by the religious literature and the religious literature is replete with political, legal and cultural concepts. However the history of research about this field does not go back beyond a few decades in the arena of international politics. Religion has step by step called politics and culture as well as its followers and sympathizers to join this arena and the outstanding presence of the leaders and followers of religions have helped the growth of the religious doctrines in the arenas of politics and culture. On the other hand, many religious skirmishes that have their roots in the history of the ethnic communities and nations in some regions that have witnessed conflict and dispute have led to the emergence of differences. The military assaults on the realm of some independent countries and transgression of their borders by some other territories have been considered a religious cultural assault, stemming from historical ideas. The expansion of the field of missionary with the help of modern communication means and also aggression of the perimeters of the geography of space and tens of other factors have turned the world of religions into a magnetic filed and due to the intensity or weakness of this filed the hostility or intimacy among their followers have caused fear and hope among them. In other words, the two great notions of "dialogue among civilizations" and the "clash of civilizations" are moving parallel to each other and sometimes try to precede each other.

The advocates and opponents of each of these notions are not necessarily political or religious figure rather they have been volatile trends in the course of history who on the basis of the necessities of historical conditions and mutual interaction have had their ups and downs in the arena of man's history.

The eastern territories of the Islamic Caliphate, particularly Iran – even in the pre-Islamic period or during the Islamic period – not only did not play a role in religious conflicts, but prepared the grounds for the emergence, spread and growth of religious ideas. The emergence of Zoroastrianism and other religious sects and their spread across the world as well as the presence of other religions and their followers in the history of Iran deserves proper study. Reference to some historical document and records will help a better understanding of this issue.

Jamasb Nama, a book attributed to Jamasb the Sage, which contains questions and answers between Goshtasb Shah and Jamasb the Sage, for the first time gave the tidings of the emergence of Jesus Christ, as a divine prophet.¹ When Jesus was born during the reign of Hebruvis in Jewish Bethlehem, suddenly a number of Zoroastrians arrived in Bait-ul- Muqaddas (Jerusalem) from the East saying: Where is the newborn baby who is the king of the Jews, for we have observed his star in the East and have come to worship him… And when they saw the star, they became extremely happy, entered the house and found the baby along with his mother. They bowed down and worshipped him.²

The Venetian Marco Polo writes in his travelogue: I have visited the graves of these three priests in the city of Saba (Saveh) in a splendid tomb.³

Of course the three priests were Iranians, but they have been recorded as three kings in the Christian literature.

During the advent of Islam, Iran through embracing Islam, because of its ideological superiority over its own religious heritage, and also through mutual services with it, strengthened it and paved the way for the spread of a brand of Islamic rationality called Shiism. By essence, Islam has admired constructive, goal-oriented and positive dialogue with other religions, considering it a way for the selection of the better option.⁴

The historical debates of the Prophet [PBUH] of Islam, the Shia Imams, particularly those of Imam Ali [PBUH], Imam Sadiq, and Imam Reza, and their existing written works have always been welcomed by the people of this territory. During the rule of Abbasid Caliphs (753-1277 AD), particularly during the rule of Ma'mun, due to the spread of scientific endeavor in the arena of dialogue and debate and intellectual polemics, inter-religious dialogue spread across Iran's Khorasan. The written works of this period constitute a major chunk of the history of exchange of views between the Iranian Shias and the leaders of other religions and schools of thought. They include the debates with the Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian religious scholars and even the atheists as well as the debates between the leaders of the religions of that period. The history of the mutual interaction between the followers of various religions are divided by the sociologists into various stages. The stages of indifference, ideological confrontation, physical confrontation, bloody wars and attainment of a relative mutual understanding. But this history of interaction has been different in many parts of the world due cultural differences. We have witnessed this distinctive difference in Iran where Islam, particularly Shiism, has had a positive interaction with other religions and their followers.

The Safavid period is the time of formation of the idea of a Shia state and spread of Shiism in Iran. When a number of Shia scholars from various parts of the world assembled under the Safavid state, the Safavid government showed its interest in the spread of Shiism. Through encouraging the Shia ulema, the Safavid asked the religious scholars to consolidate and spread this idea. At the same time, through expanding their ties with the international community, the Safavids welcomed the presence of the leaders of other religious communities, particularly the missionary ones to prosper non-Muslim centers in Iran. The presence of the Shia and missionary thinkers on the side of the Sunni Muslims created an atmosphere full of intellectual and cultural endeavor. This endeavor experienced various reactions, but the very exchange of views and interaction not only did not lead to bloody conflict or physical confrontation, but it led to the creation of a pile of historical, theological, jurisprudential and legal texts. Although in many cases these texts are apologetic, they ultimately underline the mutual understanding and coexistence as well as commonality of religious teachings. The outcome has been the materialization of peaceful coexistence among the followers of the divine religions in this territory.

The era of the Islamic Republic in Iran is a period of domination of common values and teachings of the divine religions in Iran. The Islamic law guarantees the freedom of religious rites and rituals; the security of the holy churches and sacred places; honor and dignity of the religious figures; freedom of residence; juridical independence; freedom of economic activities; and freedom in social relations. Specifically, the Articles 13, 14, 15, 26, and 64 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran deal with the rights and recognition of religious minorities. These articles recognize them as Iranian nationals, guarantee their private rights, freedom of worship, practice of rites and rituals, and right to marriage on the basis of their own religious teachings. They also recognize their ethnic culture, religious teachings, religious-cultural and recreational centers, religious-ethnic languages, freedom of assembly and political parties, and also grant them the right to have their own representatives in the Parliament.

What is called the "dialogue among civilizations" today is the outcome of this historical understanding which has been presented to the world.⁵

I believe that on the basis of the high capacity of the religions in practicing the policy of tolerance and forgiveness, relying on the historical experience of positive interaction among the religions and the historical discourse of the religious leaders and followers, we should gradually put the era of mere dialogue behind and seriously think about positive, constructive cooperation. It is a duty of all of us to study the scope of cooperation in the light of the necessities of time and expediency of the religions and their followers, because stopping in this stage my lead to the crisis in the dialogue among religions.

Dialogue is a gift of the predecessors to us and our answer to it should be cooperation with each to make it useful and hand this historical trust to our children.