Hawzah News Agency (Qom, Iran) – Hujjat al-Islam Ahmad Moballeqi, head of the Islamic Research Center at Iranian Parliament, had an interview with Hawzah News in which he remarked," Shia Islam enjoys a rich historic background hence it  has the potential to reach wide range of audience worldwide; but in order to reach that objective something needs to be considered and that is, the rich historic background of Shiism is not the only requirement to initiate dialogues with the world, since our methods of interaction and communication always play pivotal roles in furthering our cause."

Warning that hasty and unpremeditated relations with academic centers around the world must be avoided, Hujjat al-Islam Moballeqi said, "We must make effort to conduct a rational relationship with world's academic centers in order to initiate scientific cooperation between Shia seminaries and international academic institutes."

"Basically, every constructive interaction needs to be two-sided serving both sides' interests; therefore, in order for the Islamic seminaries to initiate constructive interactions with global academic centers and universities, it's necessary to accept some requirements. One of the main prerequisites of such useful relations is for it to be a bilateral one. That is, if the Shia seminaries wish to hold a course on Shia jurisprudence in Egypt's al-Azhar university, they must be open to the possibility of having a course on Sunni jurisprudence in Qom as well as it's a two-sided relation." Hawzah quoted Moballeqi as saying.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the seminary lecturer added, "One must not be so prejudice as to think that because they are right, there's not any truth in other's beliefs or ideas. Shia Islam is based on genuine Islamic principles, but we need to keep in mind that the rest of the world might also have some useful ideas to offer which can help our religion grow and prosper."

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