topic by
John Calvin
6/15/2002 (20:01) |
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Full text of President Khatami's letter to William Vendley (1)
Tehran, June 14, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami has condemned
the 'defiled seed of terror which grew to show its ugly face' in the
September 11 attack on the US landmarks, but added that the incident
had provided the 'intimidators with an excuse to change the world
into a sphere of conflict, threat and abhorrence'.
In response to a letter by William F. Vendley, the secretary
general of the world conference on religion and peace which was held
in November in New York, Khatami has paid tribute to American society
for their 'great achievements', but has flayed US rulers' aggressive
overtures against Iran and several other countries.
Vendley, in his letter to Khatami, had lauded the Iranian
president's speech in the assembly, saying that 'you outlined with
clarity an integral notion of human relations based on a dialogue
among civilizations.
The United Nations designated 2001 as the year of 'dialogue among
civilizations' on President Khatami's initiative.
'You also spoke in many forums about the need to reject terrorism
and to build a world order based on justice and the rule of law,'
Vendley had added in the letter.
'We appeal to you to continue to articulate these principles so
important to the world community, and to all within your power to
help ensure that these principles are acknowledged and heeded by
all states,' he had added.
The full text of President Khatami's letter to Vendley follows:
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
His Eminence Dr. William F. Vendley,
General Secretary,
World Conference on Religion and Peace
Your Eminence:
It was a great joy and pleasure for me to receive your letter. I
would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for your kind attention
to me and to the people of Iran. No higher expectation could be
conceived of Your Eminence, and of all those men and women who have
devoted your lives to the service of His servants and to the love of
the benevolent, delicate and extremely handsome countenance of the
great Messenger of Lord, Prophet Jesus Christ (Peace be upon Him).
Writing on the 'simplest issues' is a Herculean task. It looks
as though a plain 'issue' doesn't exist at all. Such issues seem so
plain that they cannot be 'discerned' or in other words, they cannot
be 'truly comprehended'. The fact is that should we fail to perceive
'the issue', we are made incapable of presenting our view on it.
Therefore, we become incapacitated in either giving the issue a full
philosophical consideration or rendering proper justice to it.
Specifically, such an issue becomes even further complicated, were
it to reflect a general trend. For instance, one of the most
'plain' and 'obvious' issues, being 'understanding', has remained in
the dark. Naturally, I do not wish at all to either dwell on the
limits of man's ratiocinative faculties or even delve into Kant's
Critique of Pure Reason. However, instead, I intend to draw your
attention to this point that at times some 'plain' issues are not so
discernible. For example, the subject which has carried a crystal
clear and obvious meaning for centuries is the issue of peace, which
is both 'discernible' and yet 'incomprehensible'.
Peace is a heavenly blessing but it is not showered on man
suddenly and without willing it. Truly, peace comes from heaven,
and it may rain upon us only when hands of earthlings are fully
stretched to warmly embrace it! It is the untainted hands and the
pious loving souls without rancor that can be the interceders and
harbingers of peace, and positively, not the 'blemished hands' with
hardened hearts.
The flames of war and violence polluted the air of the past
century with discrimination and horror. The most valuable mental and
material assets were put into full use to produce and store weapons
of mass destruction that, on certain occasions, were used against
mankind. It was in such a pernicious atmosphere that the 'defiled
seed of terror' grew to show its other ugly face leading to the
tragedy of September 11 in the year 2001, in the very nascent part
of the third millennium. The year 2001 was the year that was named by
the unanimous vote of the UN General Assembly as the year of
dialogue among cultures and civilizations. Alas! 'Terrorism -- this
offshoot of intimidation, discrimination and disparagement, which is
unacceptable and surely condemned under any and all circumstances or
pretexts -- has in turn provided the intimidators with an excuse to
change the sphere of man's life which was filled with hope for
peace, love and dialogue into a sphere of conflict, threat and
abhorrence.
Today the House of Lord Jesus, the Messengers of Peace (Peace be
upon Him and blessed be the day on which He was born, the day He
departed, and the day He rose from the dead) is under the incursions
of those who recognize no bounds, or sacred and extolled precincts
across the world and who have declared war on peace. These persons
have targeted the House of Love with barrages of bullets inflaming
the inferno of war in the precincts of Bethlehem, in fact, called
the 'House of Peace', and thereby turning it into the 'House under
Incursion', and the surrounding area the battlefield.
Today, the scale of transgression, bestiality and trespass is
soaring to the heights of fury in Palestine, incomparable in the
annals of history.The homes of defenseless and innocent Palestinians
are being targeted with the most advanced weaponry of our times
slaughtering infants, women and men. The youth are hunted down,
arrested and summarily executed in scores, and when they are
captured in an unequal war, they are crushed under the tanks. Such
horrendous crimes are condemned by almost all people across the
world including the people of the United States. Does this fact not
gnaw the human conscience that the United States pronounces a
biased, prejudiced, tilted judgment on unilaterally oriented US
policy toward Moslems and the original inhabitants of the occupied
territories -- a policy regarded as a major contributing factor in
the current sorrowful state of affairs? Won't such a judgment be
the source of hatred? Isn't intimidation, terrorism and conflict the
illegitimate offshoot of hatred? Who is responsible for such a state
of affairs?
The people of the United States constitute a great nation and
the Constitution of the United States stands out as a seminal
testament to freedom, democracy and humane issues.
BH/JB
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