January 15, 2007
The President of Iran
TEHRAN
Your Excellency,
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah!
Hope this finds you well and in good Islamic spirits.
This is about the slowly, but steadily growing divide between Muslims on sectarian lines. This is a divide, as we know (and you know better) that is ominous for the future of Islam.
An impression is being created day in day out all over the Arab and Muslim world that there is a war going on between Shia and Sunni sects of Islam. It seems more and more Muslims are getting influenced by such baseless enemy propaganda. Western media reports create and sustain the mischief by emphasising unnecessary details like the hangmen who executed Saddam Hussein were Shias. We only confirm and deepen the apprehensions regarding polarisation of the Muslim Ummah if some of us are seen "celebrating" the hanging of the former Iraqi president. The point to remember here is that today Iraq is not a free society and thing being done on the order of an occupying power has got any legal sanction.
It would be appropriate here to remember a remark of Imam Khomeini, who once said that the Twelfth Imam would return one day to unite the Muslim Ummah. However, in the intervening period we should not just sit idle and wait, but keep working for higher goals. This is up to all of us to work towards that end, not as different sects, but a single Ummah of the Holy Prophet (Sallal Lahu alaihe wa Sallam). What we need to emphasise today is the vast common ground between all Muslims rather than the areas of difference.
Your Excellency, you know better than any of us that this is time to stand together, without allowing outsiders to take advantage of our weaknesses. We stand by you and express our solidarity with you on all matters Islamic.
With regards,
Yours sincerely
(Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam)