Burning Humane Values: Behind the Scene of a Heinous Action

Islamophobia is one stage of this dangerous targeting. In the subsequent stages, the orchestrators of this scene will head toward other religions and target the values that are ​​hidden in them, said the head of Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, Hujjat al-Islam Dr. Mohammad Mahdi Imanipour in an interview with Khamenei.ir.

The Khamenei.ir website has interviewed the head of Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, Hujjat al-Islam Dr. Mohammad Mahdi Imanipour, to examine the main issues covered in Imam Khamenei’s recent message following the tragic act of the burning of the Holy Quran. This interview covers some of the dimensions of the impact that this heinous act of burning the Holy Quran has had on the Islamic world.

Question: In his message following the tragic act of someone burning the Holy Quran, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution stated that this event was a conspiracy and dangerous. What are the signs that indicate that this move was a conspiracy?

Imanipour: Desecrating the Holy Quran is not just an insult to the followers of Islam, it is also an open insult to humanity and freedom. Therefore, remaining silent in the face of this act is not permissible.

Regarding the recent event of the desecration of the Holy Quran, I must say that we are facing a complex project and a pre-designed scheme from the West. The goal they are pursuing is systematic Islamophobia in some European countries.

Western politicians and their media outlets have deliberately focused on the appearance of the story and its outcome, and they try to justify such desecrations using false titles and excuses saying that this shameless action is not contradictory to their constitutions. At the same time, the Swedish government has declared that such an act is against its will and desire.

But strong, undeniable evidence shows that the recent burnings of the Quran in Sweden and Denmark are the result of a design and a plan. We are facing an engineered conspiracy by the intellectual, security, and official institutions of the West. The final result and goal of this conspiracy is an attempt to weaken the position of Islam and its main symbol, the Holy Book that builds human beings — the Holy Quran.

In recent years, parties and groups that openly consider opposition to Islam and the Quran to be their party manifesto have been officially active in the West. Some of these groups have even entered the parliaments of Scandinavian countries and other parts of Europe.

The exponential increase in attacks on Muslims in various European countries and the normalization of insults to Islamic sanctities, which we had previously seen in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo and are now seeing in the shameful display of burning the Quran in Stockholm and Copenhagen, are irrefutable evidence that lead a person’s inquiring mind to see this to be a “design” and not a “limited event.”

What’s more important is that the origin and nature of this design is not something confined to the West. Mossad’s large lobbies and both the traditional and new parties that exist in the West, including the social democrats, the conservatives, and especially the emerging anti-Islamic parties, have been showing signs of their evilness in recent years. It is no wonder that any criticism of the Zionist regime is interpreted as being “anti-Semitism” by Western officials and security agencies. On the flip side, an open insult to the Holy Book of the Muslims is interpreted as being freedom of expression.

These double standards arise from this dangerous intellectual-operational system. This system is dangerous because it aims to create divisions based on religion, race, and between human beings in the international system. Zionists seek to survive by creating and deepening new divisions and discords around the world. What is happening in Sweden and Denmark is an expression of this approach.

Question: According to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, the Swedish government, with its support of this criminal, has gone into battle-array for war against the world of Islam. What will be the consequences of this? Overall, will this event have specific consequences for the Swedish government and European countries?

Imanipour: I must emphasize that the Swedes and the Danes are illogical and in conflict even while trying to justify the recent outrageous actions based on their constitutions. Those who falsely claim that they support freedom say that there is no law in these countries that specifically prohibits burning or desecrating the Quran or the Holy Books of other religions! This is despite the fact that the Swedish constitution clearly states that inciting groups of people based on their race, ethnicity, and religion is illegal.

Is it so difficult to interpret this law or to find examples of where it applies?! So the main issue is not related to the legal interpretation of the constitutions of the two Nordic and Scandinavian countries. This dangerous game has another source and base.

Undoubtedly, the Swedish government or any other government where actions against the Quran are carried out on its territory will face the legal, social, international, and economic consequences of such a heinous act. Muslim nations will certainly not wait for these countries to make false justifications and distorted interpretations of their constitutions. European governments must know that playing on Mossad’s grounds and burning the religious book of Muslims based on the orders dictated by Tel Aviv will result in the highest costs for them in various areas.

The fact that Swedish prosecutors have authorized the burning of the Quran and the police have also guaranteed the safety of the man desecrating it in front of Muslim countries’ embassies, show that we are not dealing with “the action of an individual.” This is an official declaration of war by the countries that host people who insult Muslims. The issue at hand is more serious when it comes to Denmark.

When a person like Rasmus Paludan formed a factitious party in 2017, not only did he easily hurl insults at the Quran and at Islam with the support of official organizations in his country, but the way was also opened up for him to join the parliament! In these cases, the claim of Western governments to absolve themselves from the tragedies that have taken place are obvious excuses to try to blame others.

Question: Don’t these kinds of events damage the reputation of European countries that claim to be supporting freedom?

Imanipour: Attempting to say that “freedom of expression” and “desecration” are two synonymous terms is obvious deceit. The Almighty God has given human beings the ability to distinguish between right and wrong based on their pure nature. In carrying out their holy missions throughout history, the divine prophets have also referred to this human nature of seeking God. The spread of humanist concepts and ideas or the propagation of misleading thoughts such as hedonism or the establishment of laicism for the basis of human interactions in the West in general means a deviation from divinely inherent laws and universal constants, and this is in conflict with common sense.

When “freedom” and its derivatives, such as “freedom of expression” and “human rights,” are defined opposite to the truth in the West and in conflict with human essence. Their “freedom” is not equivalent to the protection of human rights. Rather, it is actually debauchery in people’s individual lives and in society.

Therefore, libertarianism has turned into a code word for the West to use in suppressing human dignity and insulting divine religions, which promote true freedom for human beings from worldly constraints, and it appears to be something desirable. The events that have recently taken place in Sweden and Denmark have clearly shown how and based on what ideas the West defines libertarianism.

Question: How will the delivery of the criminal to the judicial system of Islamic countries be speeded up?

Imanipour: Actually, this is not something complicated in judicial terms even though the West tries to make it seem that way. Certain individuals have received official authorization from Sweden and Denmark to insult the Holy Book of billions of people on earth. The audience of this abhorrent action are the true followers of all Abrahamic religions. The Ulu al-Azm prophets [Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (pbut)] and their holy books, including the Holy Quran, the Torah, and the Bible are respected by a majority of humans and insulting them is considered a red line.

Therefore, a “crime” has taken place here. We are not faced with an “accusation.” When a crime occurs, which is what has happened now, a lawsuit should naturally be filed against it. Part of this litigation should be done by the governmental and judicial institutions of Muslim countries and in the form of a collective complaint to international organizations.

Of course, before the Organization of Islamic Cooperation takes the case to the stage of judicial confrontation with the governments of Sweden and Denmark, it is better for the perpetrators of this crime to be handed over to the judicial system of one of the Muslim countries so that the process of trial and punishment can take place. Therefore, part of the judicial actions of Islamic countries are focused on the recent events and the punishment of the desecrators of the Holy Quran in Sweden and Denmark.

Another part of the judicial cooperation of Muslim countries is aimed at creating some laws and redefining some others in various legal committees of the United Nations, so that the host countries of the desecrators of the Quran will not be immune from paying the costs of any subsequent actions in this regard. So, some measures are aimed at dealing with the current cases and others are aimed at preventing the recurrence of these crimes.

Question: What is the message and purpose of these series of events that have been rising again in European countries for some time? What is its relationship with the subject of Islamophobia in Western countries?

Imanipour: The universality of divine religions, especially the religion of Islam and the logic and reasoning that exists in the teachings of the divine prophets, leaves no room for atheistic and blasphemous thoughts to be exercised in the West.

Instead of turning to constructive dialogues between religions and promoting collective thinking in the direction of returning to the human self, Western institutions prefer to attack religious symbols in order to pave the way for the creation and stabilization of some sinful and unnatural patterns and lifestyles. I emphasize that anti-Quranism in the West is a product of the inability to face the divinely inherent teachings of humankind.

Even in the West today, many non-Muslim groups strongly complain about the obvious weakening of the family institution, the promotion of unorthodox lifestyles, and the open support of atheism in public education and in Western propaganda. The gatherings that take place all over Europe in support of the family institution and the return to healthy and humane life patterns are increasing day by day in the eastern, western, northern and southern parts of Europe and are an expression of this truth.

It should be said that Islam, as a living and dynamic religion whose followers are increasing day by day despite anti-religious propaganda, has been subjected to attacks and false fear more than any other religion. But without a doubt, the calculations of the West regarding the promotion of anti-Quranism and systematic Islamophobia in Europe will backfire and affect the founders of this cognitive and calculative error.

Question: What effect will this movement have on the peaceful coexistence of people around the world?

Imanipour: One of the main missions of religions is to invite people toward peace and religious coexistence. Attacking religion in different societies naturally damages altruism and peaceful coexistence. The duties of religious scholars all over the world is to think together in order to prevent the impact of these incidents on the peaceful coexistence of the people of the world. Perhaps, based on the same limited, false, and purposeful Western portrayal of the anti-Islamic incident in Sweden, Denmark, and other countries, some may think that what happened in these countries is merely a symbol of the confrontation between the West and Islam.

But the issue at hand is far beyond this matter. Overt and hidden power holders in some Western countries are trying to remove religion from the scene of human life under the guidance of the Zionist regime and its henchmen. As a matter of fact, the West is specifically targeting healthy human coexistence in the world.

Islamophobia is one stage of this dangerous targeting. In the subsequent stages, the orchestrators of this scene will head toward other religions and target the values that are ​​hidden in them. Therefore, maintaining the unity of humanity around the axis of religion and the belief in God should turn into a collective instruction all around the world, and the leaders of this process should be concerned governments and religious scholars all over the world.

Question: What is the duty of the Islamic world’s intellectual and influential figures and the Muslim nations when facing these kinds of conspiracies? What effect do these sorts of dirty, sinister plans have on the status and value of the Quran and the Islamic teachings among Muslims?

Imanipour: The Leader of the Islamic Revolution has repeatedly spoken about practicing “the jihad of clarification and enlightenment” among Muslims and the rest of the world.

The unfortunate and unforgivable Quran-burning incident in Sweden and Denmark doubles the importance of the jihad of clarification with the aim of removing the ideas and assumptions that the propaganda, media, and security apparatuses of the West are injecting and instilling in the minds of Muslims and non-Muslims who follow divine religions. In this regard, there should be a special focus on the youth and teenagers.

When correct models are introduced and explained in Muslim societies and subsequently at the international level, we will proportionately witness immunity from the targeted movements of the enemies of Islam and humanity. Muslim scholars and elites are the channels of transmission of this domestic and international awareness. This explanatory approach has two aspects: one is a detailed description of the plan and engineering of the West on the subject of anti-Islamism and atheism. The other is presenting an alternative model that brings about a virtuous life and religious coexistence.

The Prophet of Islam (pbuh) said in a hadith, “A good question is half of knowledge.” In fact, he considered the correct formulation of a question and an accurate understanding of it to be half of the knowledge of problem solving. This same Prophetic hadith should be the basis for the conduct of Muslim scholars and elites in the matter of the jihad of clarification.

Initially, the audience and communities should be assisted in order to understand the aim of the dangerous scheme that has been designed by the Zionist regime and some Western countries. They need to become aware of the nature of this scheme. Then, naturally, the propaganda, staging, and justifications that take place regarding these cases will lose their impact on the mentality and perception of people and will lead to the destruction of the enemies’ operational system.

Therefore, an accurate, continuous, and substantial explanation of the issue will be a prerequisite for curbing this sinister plan. It is in this form that we will be able to take the next steps in promoting religious, divinely inherent models in the world in a firm and profound manner.