Speaking at a seminar on ‘Terrorism, Extremism and Regional Security in West Asia,’ on Tuesday, Iran’s Minister of Intelligence Seyyed Mahmoud Alavi said that both soft and hard security is the prime duty of all security agencies, but that the whole government apparatus must work coordinately and be also in touch with intellectuals in that regard as well.
Stating that religious extremism can lead to unreasonable measures, the intelligence minister stated ‘we have seen extremist movements of Sikhs in India that led to Gandhi's assassination, Buddhist extremist movements in Myanmar, and so on,” adding “the roots of terrorism must be studied.”
Alavi stated that terrorism in Islam has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, and added "the collapse of the Ottomans and the formation of small and large countries in the region and the end of the caliphate left some people in the Muslim world with the cause of reviving the caliphate. Those who re-sought the caliphate considered the era of the Umayyads and Abbasid as the great era of Islam,” adding “the incentive for the revival of the caliphate led to various movements, including pushing the idealists to the terrorist movements in the recent history.”
Alavi added “the religious revival movement was initiated and pursued by Seyyed Jamal and Muhammad Abduh, but with the fall of the Ottomans, this movement declined and was replaced by the movements that had nervousness and anger due to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and this attitude led to various trends, including terrorism.”
Saying that there was no terrorism in the Islamic world 20 years ago, he stated “we had witnessed the occupation of Muslim countries since last century, from occupation of Palestine to Afghanistan. The colonialization of Islamic countries by the Western powers in the twentieth century became the foundation for the formation of religious extremism. What was formed in Libya and Algeria was that, along with the liberation movements, radical currents were formed that turned into terrorist groups.”
"The humiliation of Muslims in Europe and the United States and the second citizen status has led Muslims in that region to terrorism," said the minister of intelligence, adding that “humiliation of nations is one of the factors leading to the emergence of terrorism. Ethnic and religious nervousness makes people do not go to rationality but go to the side of terrorism.”
Alavi stated “There is an Islamic Center in Hamburg which is related to Iran. Go see for yourself even a terrorist has not been produced there, but many terrorists have come out from the Islamic centers under Saudi Arabia guidance in Europe.”
He warned that terrorist groups such as ISIS have not been annihilated completely saying ” today ISIL does not rule any land and it has lost its previous lands but it has not lost its weapons and is looking for grounds in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia. It wants to revive themselves through the idea of the Islamic caliphate. Therefore, the terrorist group is not finished yet, although its rule has ended.”
The minister said "terrorism does not have roots in Islam. Europe and the United States have tried to introduce Islam as the source of terrorism, and this is something that must be addressed at any conferences.”
He said the terrorism is originated in Wahhabism and its supporters are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and some Kuwaitis, adding “the ideology of the revival of the Islamic caliphate is the goal of some Muslim youth. But these countries are pursuing their own agenda behind this aspiration.”
Alavi said Saudi Arabia is under the control of the Zionist regime, and it has failed in Yemen and Lebanon.
At the end, the Minister of Intelligence concluded that the hatred towards the United States and the Zionist regime in the Islamic world is increasing day by day, and Tramp declared al-Quds as the capital of Israel after he saw the unity in the Islamic world, “though his recent decision has revived unity in the Islamic society. “
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