Rouhani Urges Islamic Media to Prepare for Cultural Encounter with West
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday called on the media outlets in the Islamic world to brace themselves for a major cultural confrontation with the West, which he said wants the Muslim nations sidelined from the modern technologies.
Addressing the opening session of the 7th General Assembly of Islamic Radios and Televisions Union in Tehran on Sunday, President Rouhani called on the Muslim nations to gear up to fight a “great cultural battle against the industrial and modern countries” in order to safeguard the Muslim young generation.
He explained that the main sticking point between the Islamic countries and the West is that Westerners try to define “consumerism” and tendency for materialism as the road map for the Muslim young generation.
“The Western world does not want the Islamic world achieve the modern technology. It (the West) deems its hegemony as monopolizing the modern technologies, and for the very same reason, it wants to make the Islamic and developing world lag behind with a multi-year gap,” he noted.
Rouhani also underlined the great impact the contemporary media outlets can make on people’s lifestyles, cautioning that “Western lifestyle” could gradually prevail in the Islamic societies if the Muslim media fall short of upholding their culture.
Participants from 36 countries, including representatives of 300 television and radio channels have gathered in the general assembly of the union, which is being held under the motto of ‘Awakening Media Outlets, Voice of Resistance and Confrontation with Religious Sedition.’