Thursday, November 06, 2008

Vatican's Interfaith Dialogue

The first session of Catholic-Muslim Forum ended in Vatican today. I tried to search and find out who the Sunni and Shi'ite religious leaders from the Muslim side who attended the forum were but I couldn't find any names. If there were any Islamic Republic affiliated Shiite clerics there, it would have been most hypocritical. Apparently a joint declaration has been signed at the end of the three days calling for religious minorities to be "entitled to their own places of worship, and they should not be subjected to any form of mockery or ridicule,"

I wonder how long it will take, if ever, for the Islamic Republic to respect dissident Shi'ite clerics who are calling for separation of religion and state, like Ayatollah Boroujerdi,let alone to respect followers of other religions. How can a Shiite state who imprisons and tortures a Shiite cleric ever respect other faiths and their followers?

Talking of Ayatollah Boroujerdi, I understand he has written many letters to the Pope and other prominent men of cloth, but when will these people ever respond to the plight of a man and his followers who have done nothing wrong other than wish for religion to be a private matter away from political manipulation and schemes??

14 comments:

michael gonyea said...

Seyyed Hossein Nasr of Iran, a professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, said that both Christians and Muslims “believe in religious freedom”.

However, he said, “We Muslims do not allow an aggressive proselytising in our midst that would destroy our faith in the name of freedom, any more than would Christians if they were in our situation.” Another such forum will be held in a Muslim country, yet to be designated, in 2010. afp

Azarmehr said...

Seyyed Hossein Nasr was there??? Idiots, don't they realise this turncoat is an agent of the Islamic Republic?? No wonder nothing was mentioned about Ayatolah Boroujerdi. Seyyed Hosein Nasr who trained so many of the founders of the Islamic Republic must have made sure of that!

Anonymous said...

Dear mr.azarmehr you are %100 right.
we hope ayatullah kazemini boroujerdi set free asa possible our world could do with perfect holy man like him.soon or late true will come to light.

Anonymous said...

I do not know if a current resident of Iran attended the catholic-muslim forum. From what I can tell the list of attendees has not been made public. I thought you might be interested to know that the New York Times reported that two Saudis were scheduled to attend but had to cancel at the last minute for health reasons. I'm not familiar with Ayatolah Boroujerdi, but I will try to read more about him.

Azarmehr said...

Anon,

You can start searching on my blog for Ayatollah Boroujerdi who advocates separation of religion and state.

Unknown said...

thank you dear.i searched about interfaith dilouge in new york but could not find any site speak about it. i need your help .thanks.

Unknown said...

for more information about Ayatollah Boroujerdi you can search follow this site:
bameazadi-english.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Do you remember when I first told you about the Ruhaniyan that were advocating separation of church and state. And these Ruhaniyan are actual maraja. You said you would have nothing to do with them since they were religious. Why do you care all the sudden?

Baroujerdi is a joke compared to Kadivar, Soroush, and Shabestari. Baroujerdi obviously has political ambitions. In fact, its the writings of people like Kadivar and co. that have given him the tenacity and intellectual basis to do what he's doing.

barmakid

Azarmehr said...

Barmakid,

Well I certainly can not become a representative of Ayatollah Boroujerdi either. The Ayatollah needs a religious person to represent him and not me, but why should I not write about him, bring him up and highlight his suffering?

I think you are a joke if you think Soroush and Kadivar can be put in the same category as Boroujerdi. For Ayatollah Boroujerid nor his father, never co-operated with the Islamic Republic , he has never been part of the regime. Soroush on the other hand will always be etched in my memory as one of the architects of the "Cultural Revolution" and my last days in Iran. I will always be proud that in those three days of the "Cultural" assault on Iran's universities by illiterate thugs, I stood by some of the best sons and daughters of Iran. When I finally ran back home that night, I could still hear the shooting and the noise of those who braved on till the end until the early hours of the morning. I still to this day feel guilty that I did not have the courage and ran away from the scene when the going got too tough. I will never forget how those best sons and daughters of Iran, our country's future suffered from that cultural revolution and I will therefore have nothing to do with any of the architects of those black days.

What Boroujerdi has suffered at the hands of the Islamic Republic is beyond mention and probably beyond your imagination.

If you think Soroush and Kadivar have more support than Boroujerdi show me the evidence. Show me a clip where more than 100,000 people have flocked to hear them.

Anonymous said...

I never said that they have more support; they don't. But we already established in another thread that the degree of support isn't necessarily a good thing (remember: Hitler, etc.)

These guys aren't politically active. I understand your opinion about Soroush, but you must understand that I'm not that intimately familiar (as you are) with where these people stood during the revolution since I wasn't alive. Really, I've just read their literary works.

In fact, I was at a mamoni with Soroush a few months ago and we got into a very heated debate. First of all, I had no idea it was soroush, second, I had no idea about Soroush's role in the revolution. Among the other people there arguing (maybe you can tell me if they were significant): Dr. Arash Naraghi, Dr. Mahmoud Sadri...and some others. All I know is that they wrote for Kiyan, the newspaper.

And if I could say, I held my own very well:))) Although, I was becoming frustrated with some of their pomp.

Anyways, my point is that Baroujerdi has political motives, he's a cleric, and he has a mass following. Enough said.

barmakid

barmakid

Azarmehr said...

Hmm! And why were you invited to a mehmooni with these people??

Anonymous said...

Well, it was during muharram and my buddy (who's my age) invited me to his house because he knows how politically oriented I am. His family runs the bonyad-e islami va farhangi in Houston and were having these guys over after prayers and what not. So I went. And might I say, we had some very crucial debates.

I am still in touch with the other two, but not Soroush. In fact I can send you a great piece written by Dr. Sadri, entitled: A Sacral Defense of Secularism - The political philosophies of Soroush, Kadivar, and Shabestari. Let me know.

barmakid

Anonymous said...

religions suck

Anonymous said...

shut up kido