Anti-Islam film sows discord among religions: Iran

TEHRAN - Iran's First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi said Saturday that the production of the recent anti-Islam film in the United States means to sow discord among followers of major divine religions, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Rahimi condemned the movie which insults Muslim's Prophet Mohammed and said that producers of the anti-Islam film were to divide followers of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, according to IRNA.

He said Islam attaches great importance to messengers of other divine religions, said the report.

Also, Hojjatoleslam Morteza Hosseini, an Iranian lawmaker, told IRNA that the United States has to officially apologize to the Muslims for producing the film.

The member of Iran's Majlis (parliament) Cultural Commission said Saturday that the arrogant powers are seeking Islamophobia approach as the Islamic thoughts are developing.

In the meantime, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the chairman of Iran's Expediency Council, said that insults to the Islamic values and sanctities will backfire on the offenders, Press TV reported on Saturday.

He condemned the production and release of the anti-Islam film, warning that the consequences of such "blasphemous" acts will boomerang on their perpetrators, according to the report.

"Attacks by the Zionists and the global arrogance on the Islamic values and sanctities have a long history, and over the past few years they have been on the rise due to the wave of Islamic Awakening which is a source of concern and fear for the Zionists and their Western supporters. Of course, such attacks have always boomeranged on them and have increased hatred of the Muslim world," he was quoted as saying.

In a separate message, Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani also condemned the movie, calling on the international community and Islamic organizations, in particular the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, to react and condemn the act, Press TV said.

Larijani said that the United States could not shun the responsibility for this "unforgivable" measure under the pretext of defending the freedom of speech.

Mohammad Khazaei, Iran's ambassador to the UN, urged Washington to "firmly" confront the elements behind the "blasphemous" movie, according to Press TV on Saturday.

"If the Western countries and the United States had firmly confronted previous cases of blasphemy, we would not have witnessed such sacrilege again," Khazaei was quoted as saying.

He added that Iran seriously expects the US government to deal with the elements behind the recent "anti-human and irrational move" of publicizing the movie.

The Iranian ambassador said the movie was produced in line with the policies of Islamophobia and with political purposes.

He warned that such measures would finally lead to the intensification of conflicts among religions, nations and cultures, which would not be in the interest of humanity, according to the report.

On Friday, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) issued a statement condemning the anti-Islam film, saying that the Islamophobia scenario has entered a new phase assaulting Islamic beliefs and sanctities, IRNA reported.

It said that, by the move, the White House and the Zionist lobby dominating the West carried out their joint anti-Islam projects. It urged the international bodies and Western politicians to take serious stands against such moves.

Iranian protesters on Friday called for the United States to " officially apologize" over the production of the movie and urged the US government to punish its main producers.

The statement also called on international organizations and human rights circles, including the UN and the Non-Aligned Movements (NAM) to "seriously" condemn the production of the film and to sue its perpetrators.

The anti-Islam film has ignited violent protests across the Muslim world.