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Islamic Awakening Summit Opens in Baghdad

Islamic Awakening Summit Opens in Baghdad
Islamic Awakening Summit Opens in Baghdad

The 9th summit of the supreme council of the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening kicked off in Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The summit, which hosts Muslim clerics, scholars and intellectuals from 22 countries, opened on Saturday.

The opening ceremony of the two-day summit was held in the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, with a speech by the assembly's secretary-general, Ali Akbar Velayati.

Velayati said the popular support has helped the five-year-old pro-democracy movement to stay alive and go forward in regional countries, despite various plots hatched by adversaries to derail it, IRNA reported.

The secretary-general said takfiri terrorists are still trying to "divert the wave of Islamic Awakening" by joining hands with the Zionist regime of Israel and seeking to fuel divisions in regional countries and disintegrate them.

"All Muslims have a duty to stand up to the destructive takfiri ideology and make efforts to root out the scourge," he said.

Takfiris are hardliners who accuse Muslims that do not follow their extreme interpretation of Islam of apostasy punishable by death.

They are influenced by the Wahhabi ideology, the radical faith dominating Saudi Arabia and disseminated by Riyadh-funded clerics.

They constitute a major section of the foreign-backed militants involved in the five-year-old war in Syria, including members of the self-styled Islamic State and Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front (recently rebranded to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham) terrorist groups.

Takfirism is also the trademark of many terror groups operating in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and other regional states.  

  Support for Legitimate Gov'ts

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Velayati said the summit of Islamic Awakening shows "the firm determination [of participants] to fight terrorism and support the oppressed people of the region".

The summit is being held against a backdrop of a large-scale operation by the Iraqi Army to retake the city of Mosul from IS.

Velayati, who is also a senior adviser to Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, added that the simultaneous military operations near Mosul and the presence of intellectuals of the Muslim world in Baghdad indicate "political support" for a concerted campaign based on highlighting Islamic commonalities and avoiding any discord.

"This is a clear message to takfiri and extremist groups and their supporters and some reactionary countries in the region," Velayati said.

He noted that supporting legitimate regional governments and oppressed people including the Syrians and Iraqis, is an absolute policy of the Islamic Republic.

Pointing to ongoing efforts to push IS out of its last stronghold in Iraq, Velayati said, "During some five years of the fight against extremist and takfiri groups and criminal terrorists and their supporters, the Islamic Republic of Iran has always stood by the regional nations."

Nearly 30,000 army soldiers, fighters from pro-government Popular Mobilization Units and Kurdish Peshmerga forces are involved in the multi-pronged operation to liberate Mosul from the clutches of the Wahhabi terrorists.

 

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