Cultural Official Hails Leader’s “Timely” Letters to Western Youth
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The two letters Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei sent to the youth in Western countries in 2015 came at the right time, an Iranian cultural official stressed, saying they helped portray the true image of Islam to the world.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s letters to the Western youth were released at a time when the Western politicians were pushing for the flare-up of anti-Islamic moves and Islamophobia, Hamidreza Moqaddamfar, chairperson of the popular committee on propagation of Ayatollah Khamenei’s letters, said on Sunday.
He made the comments at the “Dawn of Truth” conference in Tehran, held to mark the anniversary of Ayatollah Khamenei’s second letter to the Western youth in 2015.
“Those two letters created an atmosphere to draw a line between true Islam and terrorism, and also to introduce genuine Islam,” Moqaddamfar noted, as he gave a report on the popular and voluntary moves by people inside and outside Iran to let the younger generation know about the letters.
Citing a meeting with Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Resistance Movement Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, Moqaddamfar said the top Lebanese figure has also hailed the timely release of those letters by Ayatollah Khamenei.
He further touched on a letter that late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini (AS) had sent to General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev in January 1989 to warn against the fall of Communism, regretting the “historic failure” in promulgating that letter when the ground was prepared for promoting Islam.
Moqaddamfar then urged cautious efforts to avoid the same shortcomings in regard with Ayatollah Khamenei’s letters to the Western youth.
Imam Khamenei first wrote a letter to youths of Europe and North America on January 21, 2015, to elaborate on the reasons behind the West’s effort to spread Islamophobia.
Later on November 29, 2015, Ayatollah Khamenei sent the second letter following a series of terrorist attacks in France, elaborating on the real factors behind terrorism and asking the young people to “lay the foundation for an appropriate and honorable interaction with the Muslim world based on correct knowledge and with deep insight and by taking advantage of tragic experiences (of the past)”.