The chairman of the Expediency Council has said that party politics in Islam differs from what is practiced in the West. Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Islam is seeking to guide society toward religious, revolutionary, ethical and human values, but partisanship in the West is confined to material progress.
Entekhab.ir on February 26 reported what Rafsanjani said in a message to a first congress of Nedaye Iranian (Call of the Iranians) Party on Thursday. The following is a partial translation of his remarks:
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With all due respect for the titles and names of parties as well as their officials and members, I stress that parties should abide by law and feel obliged to build trust and promote public participation in efforts to build better tomorrows [for the country].
Although parties may get involved in coalitions and factions, they should not overlook ethics in political rivalries, neither should they think that national and Islamic interests are necessarily the same as their own interest.
They should not arrogantly discredit others. Unfortunately certain parties and their members build on flimsy excuses to put their own mindset above the law and the Islamic establishment.
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It takes bravery to train experienced and elite people for the country’s future and to safeguard the legacy of the late Imam Khomeini and that of the martyrs of the Islamic Revolution; it takes bravery to express views and analyze the radical ideas, no matter whether they belong to the left or to the right which plague today’s society.
Principlist, reformist, moderate, etc. are simply the titles to distinguish different parties; what all [political] parties and groups should take into account is the need for the presence and role of the youth in partisanship which encompasses the national and Islamic interests of Iran and the future of Iranians who are unique in their allegiance to the ideals of the revolution.
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