Pang Sen Meets with Head of Jama’atul Mostafa

The head of Jama’atul Mostafa, a religious famous school, stressed the increased role of China in culture and global developments in a meeting with Pang Sen, the ambassador of China to Iran, AVA Diplomatic reports.

Ayatollah Alireza Aarafi, the head of Jama’atul Mostafa, referred to the deep historical roots between Iran and China underlining, “Once the Islamic Revolution came to fruition, the relations ascended and the level thereof is excellent. Scientific, cultural and scholastic relations form most of what we have now. The ongoing situations are very urgent and China can be an effective player.”

Counting the western developments to be in line with western traditions, Aarafi further added, “Today, development and tradition have become the same in the west and that is how eastern countries can lay the foundation of a new culture and tradition. Sometimes, people think that the progress of human beings equals their moral, cultural and spiritual stances in the west, whereas we do not think so and development can be separately achieved from pure individualism. The advancement of the west has brought about disasters such as environmental damage, proliferation of mass destruction weapons, weakening of parental values, and occupation of other countries, arrogance, cruelty and inequality in the world.”

The chairman of Jama’atul Mostafa pointed to the disastrous condition of the African people and their severe poverty reiterating, “The global society should cry over such terrible occurrences. The world, on the other hand, is filled with weapons of mass destruction and humans are gruesomely heading toward capitalism.” Also in an emphatic note on the importance of the Silk Road, Aaarafi stated, “In addition to the trade people sealed through that road, their cultures, too, were exchanged. It is now time that Iran and China take a more futuristic perspective toward mankind and its conditions and start their cooperation and put an end to the era in which the US is the decision maker.”

The Grand Ayatollah also described the nation and government of China as great saying, “Just as the economy of China is strong, we expect it to also play an important role in cultural areas and global equations more than before.” Deeming today’s humanities and lifestyles to be western, Aarafi underscored, “The oriental spirit can change all those and make them much more philanthropic. Your scientific centers should be more active in that. Iran thinks that. We can cooperate in this area and politicians can make a great atmosphere for that.” The Ayatollah further addressed intellectual pillars of Islam and in a note on religious fundamentalism, he said, “Extremism in different religions has important backgrounds which are ignored.”

Aarafi took historical cruelty as a background for extremism and continued, “Some countries in recent centuries acted cruelly toward the east and Islam and stole their resources. That is how some became obsessed with taking them back. In addition, we should note that extremism in Islam, directly or indirectly, is caused and backed by some western powers.” Emphasizing that a revolution like that of Iran is the solution to such repercussions, Aarafi also said, “We are prepared to expand logic throughout our relations and make more fruitful connections with scientific centers of China.”

Pang Sen in the meeting reminded all of the 2000-year ties between Iran and China and placed his emphasis on maintaining respect among different cultures. The ambassador voiced his government’s will to support of Iran’s stances as strong saying, “We tend to have more Chinese students study here and bring more Iranian students to educate in China. Jama’atul Mostafa is a famous institute in the world and has offered a great wealth of scholars with benefits for their country. Our embassy has fine relations with it, too.”