Iranian leader: Muslim states should fix Islam’s public image

TEHRAN — Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday said that Muslim countries should strive to improve the world’s opinion of Islam.

“We must remove Islam’s negative image from today’s cyber- and real space,” he said in Tehran at an international conference on “The Islamic World’s Current Crisis.”

Most “violence, terror and massacres, unfortunately, take place in the Islamic world,” he noted.

Rouhani said the Islamic State group and other armed groups are defaming Islam by resorting to barbaric acts, and that has led to Muslim states forgetting their common enemy: Israel.

“I invite all Islamic countries in this region and beyond — even those who until today have bombed and launched missiles on their neighbors — for all of us to stop this and choose the right path,” he said.

“Does the weakening of Syria benefit its Muslim neighbors? Does the destruction of Syria lead to the strengthening of Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates or other countries? Who is pleased by Syria’s destruction other than Israel?” Rouhani continued.

Rouhani also accused arch-rival Saudi Arabia of promoting poverty and terrorism by continuing to bomb Yemeni rebels and supporting armed rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria.

Tehran backs the Syrian regime, whose army is fighting rebels and jihadists, including the Islamic State group that has taken over large swathes of the country and neighboring Iraq.

“How many bombs and missiles have you purchased from the US in the past year,” Rouhani asked in an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia. “If you had distributed the same money among poor Muslims, none of them would have gone to bed hungry.”

Shiite Iran supports Yemen’s Houthi rebels, while its Sunni-ruled regional rival Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition that has been bombing them in support of the loyalists since March.

“If some groups like Daesh can recruit soldiers, the reason is financial and cultural poverty,” Rouhani said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Both types of poverty should be eliminated from “Islamic society,” he said. “Terrorism will not be destroyed by bombs.

“For years and years, we have talked of unity. Is unity possible without economic connections within the Islamic world?” he asked.

The Syria and Iraq conflicts only benefit Israel and “those who are against Muslims,” he continued.

Rouhani’s comments highlight the struggle for regional supremacy between Shiite powerhouse Iran and the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia that has played out in conflicts in Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military intervention against Shiite rebels who are backed by Iran.

The Yemen conflict pits President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a US ally, against the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthis — who control the capital, Sana’a — and military units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.