Islamabad, Dec. 24 (TNS): Ali Larijani, addressing a conference on challenges and threats of terrorism held in Islamabad on Sunday, described terrorism as the calamity of the mankind, Iranian state run media reported.
He thanked Pakistani Speaker of National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani for organizing the conference and providing the regional states an opportunity to discuss the phenomenon of terrorism.
He expressed the hope that the conference would prove to be helpful in addressing the challenges of terrorism and promoting cooperation among the parliaments of the countries of the region.
‘A look at the historical development of terrorism reveals that it has developed in the world because of different reasons,’ Larijani said. ‘But the birthplace of terrorism we are discussing here in this conference is in the region,’ he added.
Referring to the failures of previous anti-terrorism coalitions, he said that they were only created in papers and their objectives were not to address the menace of terrorism.
He said that terrorism has become a real challenge for the world especially the countries of Asia.
He added that with the passage of time terrorism has become a complex problem while the policies of the countries had remained different in dealing with the phenomenon of terrorism.
The Iranian Speaker noted that countries of the region through close cooperation and carefully analyzing the facts can easily deal with the menace of terrorism.
Larijani said Islam is religion of peace and those misusing the name of religion for terrorist activities are doing no service to Islam. He said according to Islam killing one innocent individual is equivalent to killing mankind.
He went on to say that there are different sects in Islam, like Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi`i, Shia, Sufism and there may be some differences among them but on basic principles of Islam they are united. “There is a need to promote peaceful co-existence among different sects of Islam,” he stressed.
