Theological Center Needs to be Independent

Rooz Online

Speaking to a group of people on the first day of his visit to the religious city of Qom, President Hassan Rouhani expressed his hope that after the current nuclear negotiations between his administration and the 6 major world powers, international sanctions against Iran would be lifted. “Our negotiating adversaries should know that the conclusion of the talks and the results of the agreement must bring the lifting of all unjust and illegal sanctions. This government announced at the United Nations from the very first day that sanctions were against human rights and this sentence was stressed at the human rights commission in Geneva yesterday. So we are not isolated in the world and it is others who are. In the talks we will neither accept any impositions on us nor will we accept any humiliation or the continuation of the sanctions,” he said.

In another part of his speech he said, “The mind has never been rejected in the Qom Theological Center and mental sciences have never be pushed to the periphery. We need to know that the Center is an independent institution and shall remain independent. This large and independent center has never been subservient to politics, political parties or factionalism and will never do so in the future.”

He continued, “We need the Qom Theological Center and its senior clerics because the government needs religious theories equal to those at the universities.”

After his speech to the public, Rouhani spoke to a group of clerics and stressed, “We see today how some are trying to misrepresent Islam and commit crimes in the name of Islam. In this atmosphere, presenting moderate and merciful Islam from Iran to the world is very important.”

According to ISNA student news agency, Rouhani continued, “Kindness and brotherhood, the development of the country, employment for the youth, saving the country from air pollution, and the payment of taxes too are parts of (the Islamic principle of) enjoining good and forbidding wrong (amr be maaroof va nahi al monker). Just as are drug smuggling and trampling on people’s rights. We must enforce this principle in its widest definition and not just cling to two issues, even though they too are important.”

ILNA labor news agency published some other parts of Rouhani’s talk and quoted him saying, “We do not expect the (Qom) Theological Center to support the government in everything it does. If theological centers lose their independence then people’s expectations and those of society cannot be met.”

On his first day in Qom, Rouhani met a number of senior clerics. According to the government’s website, he met ayatollah Safi Golpaygani who told him, “The government’s attention to people and the lifting of their economic problems, which have existed since the past, particularly the poor and weak must continue and the government’s programs must be speeded up. The government’s measures on health and health of people are very valuable and appreciated.”

He continued, “Attention to foreign policy is of special importance and our foreign policy should be directed towards just a few countries and we must have constructive relations with other countries too.”

Nasim news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards also wrote on the trip. “Hassan Rouhani met the members of the illegal association of Qom Researchers and Teachers (Majmae Mohagegin va Modaresin Qom). The special Majlis committee on article 10 of the constitution that deals with political parties announced the activities of this group to be illegal in 2010 after examining its record,” it wrote.

The importance of Rouhani’s trip to Qom has been evident for weeks. Right wing groups and individuals, who are critical of the President’s policies have been trying to portray the visit a failure. ILNA news agency reported on some of the sabotage activities when it wrote, “Hassan Rouhani arrived in Qom by train and was greeted by people at the station and all the way along his drive to the holy shrine of Fatima. Some opponents of the administration tried to disrupt the welcoming crowds.”

Sharq newspaper was blunt on the trip. It wrote, “Many experts have categorized the impact of this trip to have national importance and believe that the results of the trip are in line with the direction of the government’s policies. This means that Rouhani undertook this trip to Qom to meet as many senior clerics as possible as a way to remove the obstacles Rouhani faces in the realms of his foreign and domestic policy and goals, and to at least partially remove the misunderstanding that exists about his cultural policies. The administration’s record attests to this especially if one notes that on the average one cabinet minister has been visiting Qom every month as a way to bridge the existing gap between the government and the calls of the senior clerics in Iran’s religious epicenter.”