Muslims pray on Mount Arafat during the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Head of Experts Assembly Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said the distinguished religious scholars and professors of the Muslim world must be brave in forging unity among Muslims.
Addressing the 21st International Conference on Islamic Unity themed “Charter of Islamic Unity“ on Sunday, Rafsanjani stressed that today the need for forging unity among Muslims is much higher than in the past, IRNA reported.
“We are duty-bound to work for consolidating Islamic unity and settling disputes among Muslims,“ he said.
Rafsanjani, who is also chairman of State Expediency Council (SEC), opined that presently the Muslim world is in a miserable condition due to the serious discord among Muslims.
“Today we are witness to religious-oriented clashes and disputes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Due to the intensification of disputes, the people of Lebanon cannot even choose a president. Furthermore, there is no sustainable stability and security in Pakistan, which is a big Islamic state, due to religious differences,“ he said.
The senior Iranian official lambasted some officials of Muslim countries for their hesitation in implementing Islamic directives, including respect for the public votes.
“When Muslim youth see that there is freedom of choice in non-Muslim countries, but no parliamentary elections in their own country they feel humiliated. We must respect the people’s choices and seek their views. Consulting is one of the most fundamental Islamic tenets,“ he said.
He also warned about non-observance of women’s rights.
“The arrogant world powers criticize some Islamic countries for not observing women’s right. We should not allow the violation of women’s rights because of some baseless accusations that have gradually penetrated into the Islamic world. There should be no prejudices in the society,“ he said.
The prominent cleric denounced superstitions that have entered the realm of Islam in the wake of the machinations of Israelis and arrogant powers.
“It is necessary that Islamic scholars and professors distinguish such unacceptable thoughts from genuine Islam,“ he said.
Referring to the spread of discord between Shiite and Sunni scholars, Rafsanjani said, “This dispute has spread in the Muslim community like a virus. Why should some permit themselves to focus on historical disputes that are of no use to Muslims? The discord cannot be removed by the mass media, but it is the duty of religious scholars to settle it in an effective manner.“
“The crude and faulty thoughts of a Muslim in Iraq reach a point where he describes himself as a freedom fighter and then carries out a suicidal attack in a mosque where Muslims are praying, kills many Muslims and naively thinks that he will go to heaven. Such faulty thinking is the main dilemma facing the Islamic world and must be resolved,“ he said.
Rafsanjani criticized some Muslim leaders for their cooperation with the Zionist regime.
“They (some Muslim leaders) are not willing to conclude economic accords with regional Muslim countries, but they make friends with those who are Islam’s staunch enemies,“ he said.
He emphasized that the weaknesses of the enemies of Islam are more than those of Islamic states.
“We should not think that only Muslim countries have disputes. In fact, the disputes among western countries are more serious, but they are smart enough to hide them,“ he said.
Rafsanjani pointed out that the presence of North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) forces in Afghanistan and the US forces in Iraq, Persian Gulf and the Indian subcontinent is dangerous for regional Muslim countries and the whole world.
The 21st International Conference on Islamic Unity opened in the presence of 850 thinkers and intellectuals from 45 countries.
Over 100 articles from foreign and domestic authors have been received by the secretariat of the conference, of which 70 were selected for presentation.
Promoting unity and solidarity in the Muslim world and bringing closer cultural and scientific views are major goals of the conference.
The Islamic unity charter, which has so far been signed by over 2,000 Muslim thinkers and scholars, will be discussed by the delegates.

Five US and two Georgian soldiers have been killed in roadside bombs across Iraq, the US military announced on Saturday.
The US military said four soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in Anbar province, Alalam reported.
Another one died of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb that struck the soldier’s vehicle during a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad on Friday.
At least 4,071 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Meanwhile, Georgian Defense Ministry Spokesman Giga Tatishvili said two servicemen from the ex-Soviet republic were killed and one wounded south of Baghdad on Friday when a parked car bomb exploded.
The deaths were the first combat fatalities the nation’s military has suffered in Iraq, where it has had a presence since August 2003.
In another incident in the war-torn country, the US military fired guided missiles into a hospital in Sadr City which leveled a building near the hospital and wounded nearly two dozen people.
Several ambulances were destroyed and burned down in the attack.
Dr. Ali Bustan Al-Fartusee, director general of Baghdad’s health directorate, said 23 civilians were wounded in the strike.
He also said 17 ambulances were damaged or destroyed.
A deep crater was seen just yards from the hospital, which is surrounded by 15-foot-tall concrete blast walls.
American and Iraqi troops in recent weeks have moved into Sadr City, hoping to push the insurgents far enough from the Green Zone so their rockets and mortars would be out of range.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki shows no indication of easing the pressure on militia groups, including the powerful Mahdi Army led by Muqtada Al-Sadr.
During clashes over the past two days in Sadr City, at least 100 people have been killed, Iraqi health officials said.