According to the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Ayatollah Ahmad Moballeghi, a professor at Qom Seminary and a member of the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership, was speaking at the specialized meeting on “Roots and Implication of Anti-Islamism in the West,” which was organized by the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, underlined the need for paying attention to having a solid strategy in this regard and clarified: We must first know what goals we are looking for to deal with this inappropriate phenomenon of insulting the sanctities. If it is thought that we have to deal with it, it means that we are in a weak position. Any move made in a position of weakness is doomed to failure.

Saying that, first of all, we should examine the perspective and view of the distant future, he continued: One of the desired goals is to globalize religious sanctities; in the era of globalization, if we are to stand alone in a few countries and speak against them, this talk is worth as long as it is in the form of a significant strategy and part of a bigger collection. We must make sanctification universal and inclusive.

Moballeghi called conveying the Word of Allah to the world as one of the goals of the efforts to deal with insulting the religion and said: Based on the sixth verse of Surah At-Tawbah, which states: “if any of the polytheists seeks asylum from you, grant him asylum until he hears the Word of Allah. Then lead him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know”, God emphasizes that the society and the government should consider themselves obliged to convey this message. It appears from this verse that even after hearing this word, that person is still an atheist, but at first, we respect him, and after conveying this message of the Holy Quran, we must lead him to a place of safety. That is to say; we must listen but not pay attention to effectiveness.

Emphasizing that listening to the Word of Allah is a process in human beings, and added: This process begins, and the fact that it can create a spark in his mind later is significant and may become a starting point in his mind. Listening to the Word of Allah should be in an aura of security, morals, and human behavior. The Word of Allah cannot be heard in a crowded and chaotic atmosphere. Instead, it should establish a relationship with human nature, and nature cannot be heard in a crowded environment. Therefore, this verse clearly says to put the Word of Allah in the aura and cover of morals and good behavior.

The member of the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership stated that the Word of Allah is the most vital word that affects humans, and said: As time goes on, despite the corruptions, the readiness and talent of people to understand and establish a relationship with the Word of Allah increases. Linguistic sciences also expand spaces that benefit the Word of Allah.

We do not convey the Word of Allah to others to persuade them to become Muslims. Still, the goal is to create points of departure, reform, and spirituality in them and continue: There are many addresses in the Holy Quran. Addressing human beings is one part of the Word of Allah. The God of man has spoken to man. Therefore, we should remove from our minds that the goal is to bring them into the circle of Islam. Listening Word of Allah itself is a goal.

Emphasizing that today many grounds allow us to focus more on this issue, Moballeghi noted: Today, our goal should be to give space to the Word of Allah to be heard, based on our religious and Shariah duty. Maybe those who burn the Holy Quran and it is regularly repeated have focused primarily on it; perhaps the conspiracy is to destroy the playground for listening to it and focus on burning it. This is dangerous. In addition to what the Leader said, we should create consensus among Muslim scholars as part of the global strategy; it is part of the punishment strategy. But only the punishment should not be considered; we should go towards hearing the Words of Allah.

He emphasized: The Word of Allah has the most beautiful effects on human beings. If we target this, the strategies leading to this goal can be identified based on the opinion of the experts.

Moballeghi continued: Those who burn the Holy Quran seek to weaken religion and religious identity. Religious identity acquires meaning based on taking guard and being proud; if insult becomes socialized and crosses the borders, religious identity is weakened and destroyed. If we see this measure as a sinister target, we should go towards strengthening religious identity. If the Shiite thinks it can take this measure alone, it cannot do it. Something else must happen in the Islamic world. What is happening on the part of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought and the World Assembly of Ahl al-Bayt, are small measures given this great, necessary, inclusive, and universal goal.

He emphasized: Institutions and those assemblies must be in a particular interaction. The Holy Quran is not something we want to doubt about. Why shouldn’t we have our primary focus on the Holy Quran and create a multi-layered convergence of the Islamic world that will globalize this discussion in different ways with different layers? The work will not be done with ad hoc measures, and a more inclusive movement should be made. What is better than the Holy Quran that can strengthen the religious identity?