Ayatollah Moḥaqiq Dāmād: “War and Homicide Has Been Initiated in The Middle East under the Rubric of Religion”

8/21/2023 14:03

Ayatollah Dr. Sayyid Muṣṭafā Moḥaqiq Dāmād, head of the Islamic Studies Department of the Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran, stated that unfortunately religious misapprehensions, distortions and misinterpretations among the monotheists have subconsciously made them to follow polytheism and go to war with each other under the rubric of religion. Today, war, bloodshed and homicide are raging in the Middle East on the pretext of “religion”.

Ayatollah Dr. Sayyid Muṣṭafā Moḥaqiq Dāmād, head of the Islamic Studies Department of the Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran, stated that unfortunately religious misapprehensions, distortions and misinterpretations among the monotheists have subconsciously made them to follow polytheism and go to war with each other under the rubric of religion. Today, war, bloodshed and homicide are raging in the Middle East on the pretext of “religion”.

Press conference of the Iranian Society for Peace Studies sixth international symposium, entitled “Religions and Peacebuilding in the Third Millennium; Capacities and Challenges” was inaugurated by the speech of Ayatollah Dr. Sayyid Muṣṭafā Moḥaqiq Dāmād in the Academy of Sciences on Sunday June 19, 2022.

Ayatollah Moḥaqiq Dāmād expressed: “Studying the Abrahamic and monotheistic religions, we come to the conclusion that the primary goal of the divine religions is to establish peace, security and friendship within and among all the nations and if we desire to summarize the divine mission of the prophets in this world, we can declare that it has been making peace and friendship after delivering messages and teachings from God to the people.”

He continued: “I am even of the opinion that these two are interconnected, i.e. monotheism and peace are inextricably intertwined.”

Head of the Islamic Studies Department of the Academy of Sciences pointed out that the first war in human history was provoked by polytheism and said: “If every man is to believe in one god and reject the god of others, conflict and bloodshed are motivated and I personally believe that if we aim to make peace and security for the people, we have to realize the concept of Tawḥīd (the oneness of God) and introduce it to the humankind.”

He continued: “Establishing peace, security and friendship within and among all the humans has been the principal objective of divine prophets’ teachings but unfortunately we notice that religious misapprehensions, distortions and misinterpretations among the monotheists have subconsciously made them to follow polytheism and go to war with each other under the rubric of religion.”

Ayatollah Moḥaqiq Dāmād emphasized: “Today, war, bloodshed and homicide are raging in the Middle East on the pretext of religion and all are due to misapprehensions, distortions and misinterpretations of the religion itself.”

He pronounced: “Based on the general account of Judaism, Christianity and Islam that I gave earlier, since Abraham is a figure revered by these three monotheistic religions and they are all centered around Tawḥīd (the unity of God), the adherents of these three religions must follow Prophet Ibrāhīm or Abraham (AS) and avoid war and bloodshed among themselves; but sadly many conflicts and wars throughout history are rooted in the lack of the correct understanding of these three divine religions from one another.”

Stating that “religiophobia” is the result of religious misconceptions, Ayatollah Moḥaqiq Dāmād mentioned: “the true image of religion wins the hearts and minds of people and they would gravitate to it if they were given a correct and in-depth understanding of it.”

He added: “Beautiful names are attributed to God in the Holy Qur’ān and according to verse 23 of Surah Al-Ḥashr (59: 23), one of the great names of God is Salām or the All-Peace which connotes concord, friendship and non-violence.”       

Ayatollah Moḥaqiq Dāmād said: “Islām is distinguished as a private religion which is the Islām of Muḥammad (PBUH) and as a public one which is the Islām of Ibrāhīm (AS). The Holy Qur’ān refers to the Prophet Ibrāhīm (AS) as a Muslim, Ibrāhīm (AS) describes Islām as his religion and Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) follows the religion of Ibrāhīm; therefore, Islām is the religion of friendship, peace and brotherhood. 

Ayatollah Moḥaqiq Dāmād considered the establishment of peace and friendship in the human communities as a great and heavy responsibility and declared: “Today, it is the duty of every expert in literature, speech and culture to help people acquire the right values, knowledge and attitudes towards peace in order to live in harmony with themselves and the others. God in the Holy Qur’ān (5: 91) regards peace as heavenly and war and conflict as evil; “Indeed Satan seeks to cast enmity and hatred among you …”.   

Head of the Islamic Studies Department of the Academy of Sciences added: “Satan arouses animosity and hostility and God promotes peace and friendship; the source of animosity is Satan and the source of peace is God. So, all of us bear a heavy responsibility to guide the communities to peace, amity, reconciliation and fraternity.”  

Ayatollah Moḥaqiq Dāmād stressed that the seminars organized by religious thinkers and scholars on providing effective mechanisms and develop collaborative programs for achieving peace in the world does the groundwork for peaceful co-existence in the societies on the one hand and for finding diplomatic solutions to face the insecurities and the threats to the world peace on the other.     

The scientific secretary of the symposium announced that in the past recent years, the Iranian Society for Peace Studies has been a pioneer institute in paving the way for holding dialogues between the religious scholars and intellectual elites to think about peacebuilding; the sixth international symposium of this society, entitled “Religions and Peacebuilding in the Third Millennium; Capacities and Challenges” will be held from 18th to 19th of January, 2023 with guest philosophers and thinkers from eight different countries.    

He concluded: “The symposium aims at writing scientific literature on the religions’ approach towards lasting peace, inviting the religious thinkers and scholars to consider the issues of peace and violence in the world, creating a link between the philosophers and thinkers of religious studies in different countries and finding solutions for creating peace within and among all the nations of the world based on religious teachings.”