Leader Calls for Muslims’ Unity at Meeting with Participants of Islamic Conference

Ayatollah Khamenei said Islamic unity means being united in safeguarding the interests of the Islamic Ummah across the world.

“Unity means being united in protecting the interests of the Islamic Ummah (community),” he told Iranian officials and guests of the 36th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran.

It also does not mean geographical unity, he maintained, as some Arab countries tried to get united in the 1960s and 1970s. “This is impossible.”

“We should first detect the interests of the Muslim Ummah. Then, nations should come to an agreement on that and see what the Ummah needs at the time; [they should see] with whom they must be enemy, with whom be friend, and how they should engage in friendship.”

Unity means implementing “joint actions against the plots of the Arrogance”, he added.

The Muslim Ummah can attain a “high position” in the new world which is gradually being shaped, he said, adding that the Muslim world can become a “role model” and a “pioneer.”

However, he continued, the only condition for realizing this is to have unity and overcome the temptations of enemies, especially the US and Israel.

“Unity among Islamic nations is possible but it needs efforts,” he said, adding, most hope on this issue is pinned on elites and thinkers of the Muslim world as they can guide the public opinion toward the issue. “If the public opinion is formed in a country, the administrative policies of that country will forcibly move in that direction.”

Ayatollah Khamenei went on to note that the Islamic Republic stood against two major powers of the time, namely the US and the Soviet Union.

“The powers had differences in tens of issues but they were united in one thing: opposing the Islamic Republic,” he said, adding, “They imagined that they could uproot this seedling [but] this seedling has now turned into a mighty tree.”

“They are damn wrong in thinking that they can uproot it,” he said.

During the meeting, Imam Khamenei also said that the unipolar order of one or two states imposing their will on other nations is no longer acceptable.

“The political map of the world is changing,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The issue of being in a unipolar world where “one or two countries’ forcing other states and nations has lost its legitimacy,” he said, adding, “Nations have been awakened. The unipolar world order is no longer accepted and is gradually losing its legitimacy.”

He argued that in a unipolar system, haughty nations like the US would create their own policies and impose them on other nations like Iraq, Syria, Iran, or Lebanon.

The global populace is becoming aware of the reality of these forces and rejects the idea of one or two states coercing other nations into submission, he added.

The 36th International Islamic Unity Conference officially opened on Wednesday at Tehran’s Summit Hall with the participation of delegates from over 40 countries.

The annual conference is organized by the Iran-based World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought. The annual event marks Islamic Unity Week which coincides with the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

“Islamic unity, peace and avoiding division and conflict within the Islamic world” has been named as the main theme of the conference. Just war and peace, Islamic brotherhood, countering terrorism, accepting religious consensus, empathy, and sympathy, mutual action among various Islamic schools of thought, and condemning normalization of relations with the Zionist regime are among the other topics of the event.