The President made the remarks in the Malaysian capital where he was addressing the 1st Roundtable Session of the Priority of Development and the Challenges at the Kuala Lumpur 2019 Summit.
Outlining all plots and schemes hatched by enemies to tarnish the image of Islam and stop the progress of the Islamic countries, he underlined the need for the Muslim countries to promote cooperation within the Islamic Ummah and voiced Iran's readiness to promote cooperation with other Muslim nations.
He further pointed to the remarkable achievement made in Iran thanks to the extensive investments made on young scientists particularly in nano, biotechnology, and nuclear energy fields and said the country has also been very successful expanding its military and defense capabilities.
He referred to the rule of democracy and people's enthusiastic participation in all affairs as the key to this success and said the whole Islamic world now is in need of strong cooperation to enhance the status of Muslim countries.
He referred to certain financial cooperation in such areas as banking and insurance fields as apt areas of cooperation and briefed the participants on the most outstanding areas of Iran's self-sufficiency.
President Rouhani said he regarded trade, Halal markets, transportation, tourism and other areas of cultural activities the most well-paying areas of cooperation among Islamic countries.
"I would like to re-express my thanks to the Honorable Prime Minister of Malaysia for giving the valuable opportunity to us and experts," he said.
He noted that the decline of the Islamic civilization began when insular, dogmatic currents turned to the Islamic jurisprudence and, unfortunately, some of them ignored the role of human wisdom and experience in management of societies, while Islam advises us that ‘we have sent you 2 messengers for your guidance, one of which is wisdom and the other the Prophet of Islam (PBUH).
"Unfortunately, it was because of such reactionary ideas that distanced Islamic societies from progress and developed an extremist idea in the Islamic community, which harmed both our civilization and progress and damaged the true face of Islam," President Rouhani said.
Opposite to the extremism that was trying to prevent us from wisdom, rationality and others’ experience, was another extreme view that told us there is no way for advancement except following the western models in their entirety, trying to divert us from our national traditions.
The Islamic societies paid a high price because of these two extremist views.
Today, it has become clear to everyone that in the long run, moving towards development without paying attention to historical values and religious beliefs can have very destructive effects on our societies.
It is time to think of a place that the Islamic Ummah deserves. The Islamic Ummah will not achieve its true place unless it regains the lead of friendship and free Muslims from the chains of anger and hatred.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to cooperate with other Muslim countries. The fruit of extensive investment in the higher education and bringing up our young scientists have fortunately put our country at the highest levels of science at the regional and global stages. Fortunately, we have reached many great achievements in some fields such as nano- and biotechnology, cognitive sciences and peaceful nuclear knowledge.
The main reason that superpowers have not been able to damage our independence and sovereignty in the past 41 years is because of democracy and people’s active presence. In the past 40 years, we have held 38 elections, in which people have attended in large numbers.
Today is the day of deciding to contribute to the progress of the Muslim world through cooperation, and we have to work together and alongside each other. There are many fields for synergy in the Islamic world today. It is important for us to be able to develop cooperation with prudent, mature steps.
We believe that we can get closer to each other in five fields of economy.
The first field is financial, monetary, banking and insurance cooperation. We know that today, many of our economic developments rely on foreign insurance and major countries, while "we Islamic countries are capable of investing on insurance".
The other field is modern technologies, in which Islamic countries have had considerable developments. In many fields of modern technologies we are capable of standing on our own feet.
The third field of trade. We have been able to stand alongside each other in the Muslim world, especially in the fields of halal goods and services.
The other sector is tourism. In the Muslim world, we have very good opportunities for tourism in terms of culture, history, cultural heritage, handicrafts and weather, which we can promote to develop the tourism industry.
With the emergence of the new technology of blockchain, we can found our own cryptocurrency with the contribution and cooperation of our central banks, and as Mr. Mahathir Mohamad was pursuing the Islamic Dinar last year, we may be able to create a new currency in the World of Islam and take advantage of digital currencies.
The other topic that I would like to mention is cooperation in the cultural and social fields. I suggest that we put the topic of establishing a tourism network, an information network among Islamic countries, joint research in the field of artificial intelligence and establishing a market for cultural and media products of Islamic countries on the agenda.
We can agree on a short-term and mid-term action plan and provide a mechanism for the constant monitoring of issues for finding a realistic solution.
Let it be clear to everyone that the goal of this new move, which we can call IDF, is the perfection of Muslim societies.
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