Islam Forbids Nuclear Weapons: Tehran Friday Prayer Leader

Islam Forbids Nuclear Weapons: Tehran Friday Prayer Leader

The USG Open Source Center translates a Friday sermon by Ayatollah Emami-Kashani asserting that nuclear weapons are forbidden in Islamic law and that Iran is not trying to get them.

'Iran: Tehran Friday Prayer Leader Says Islam Forbids Nuclear Weapons

Second sermon from the Friday prayers at Tehran University delivered by Experts Assembly member Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani, temporary Tehran Friday prayer leader, on 9 November -- recorded
Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1
Friday, November 9, 2007
Document Type: OSC Translated Excerpt

The hegemonic powers are honing in on these three points (speaks in Arabic). These are three key issues and, where our country is concerned, the world arrogance is zooming in on precisely these three points. The enemy creates disturbances along the borders, plans domestic panic, wages psychological warfare by threatening military action, and imposes economic sanctions to hamper commerce. The enemy is concentrating its efforts on the very three things that the holy Koran says are the secret to security in a place. Of course, they make false accusations -- the hegemonic powers make unfounded accusations against Iran; claiming that it is seeking to produce nuclear weapons.

In Iran, the person who is a mufti, who has the right (to issue) fatwas, who is recognized as a jurist and is the leader of the community -- he who is the highest authority in the nation and is our eminent Leader [Ali Khamenei] -- has made it abundantly clear, as have others, that the destruction of nations, any nation, women and children, large or small -- the massacre of innocents is wrong. The same is true of the atomic bomb and atomic weapons. The very idea of an atom bomb is forbidden, the very deed is a sin.
The foremost authority in this country, one who is in a position to issue fatwas, in political affairs, and in decision-making processes has stated it explicitly.

Nevertheless, the enemy says you want to make atom bombs. It is like the other things they say -- they say things like you train terrorists and you make this and that place unsafe. They make such claims about an Iran that believes in security in all places, an Iran and an Islamic regime that believes that all places must be safe; because this is what the Koran tells us. The Koran tells us (passage omitted: in Arabic) God does not love those who sin on earth. The earth has primacy for an Islamic society. Any ground, anywhere, any religion, be it Judaism or Christianity, one and all, Islamic societies, Islamic thought and the holy Koran believes in security for all. It is so without a doubt. It is so for the Islamic regime and it is so for our constitution.

Religious minorities in this country believe it to be true -- that this is our view toward the world at large. The point of discussion is their (the enemy) crimes. We should be talking about them and how they are gobbling up the world and are willing to commit all manner of crime while professing themselves to be proponents of peace.

Iran is a country whose (citizens) young and old await the rapture and the coming of the promised Mehdi, may god hasten his return. We believe that the future holds peace for us, that the future will bring security. We have a messiah. He will come and peace will prevail in this world and upon this earth. Such a system does not desire to perpetuate the kinds of crimes and murders you commit.
I will finish here. I call on the pious including myself to worship but one god and have faith (passage omitted: prayer in Arabic). '

(Description of Source: Tehran Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1 in Persian -- state-run television)
Posted by Juan Cole

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