Hawzah News Agency- The 15th Meeting of the Religious Dialogue Workshop in the International Arena was held with the participation of 50 multilingual students and the presentation of Dr. Abdul Rahim Govahi as a university professor at Jamiat Al-Zahra University (PBUH).
Dr. Abdul Rahim Govahi holds a doctorate in religion from Uppsala University in Sweden, a faculty member of International Relations of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a member of the founding board, the president and head of the scientific council of the World Religions Research Center, a member of Iran’s religion policymaking council, the former ambassador of Iran to Scandinavian countries, Japan, and Norway and Finland who is the owner of many authored and translated works such as: "Islam from the point of view of Anne Marie Schimmel", "Introduction to the history of religions in the Quran", "Living religions of the world", "Dictionary of religions (Persian to English and English to Persian)".
At the beginning of his speech, the member of the Faculty of International Relations of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned the topic of discussion, which is "principles of dialogue with followers of Eastern religions".
He stated,” In terms of geographical division, the religions of Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism are called Western religions; That is, the Middle East. Eastern religions include the religions that exist in China, Japan and India. No religion has been born in Europe.”
The faculty member of the Faculty of International Relations of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued,” Religion has a historical and temporal division that started from the time of Noah (PBUH) and then Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Islam appeared at the end of religions.
Dr. Govahi further stated,” From another point of view, religion has two curves of faith and disbelief. At the time of Prophet Noah (PBUH), the curve of faith was 5% and disbelief was 95%. Over time, the curve of faith increases until the advent of Islam, these two curves intersect; And now there are eleven living religions in the world; Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism exist in West Asia. Mandaeans, although their name is mentioned once in the Quran, but they are not mentioned among the living religions of the world. There are seven living religions in the East, namely in China, Japan, India and Korea.
He added,” In China, there are two main religions called Confucianism and Taoism, and in India there are two main religions called Hinduism and Buddhism, and in Japan there is one main religion called Shintoism, and in India we also have two branches called Sikhism and Jainism.”
The faculty member of the Faculty of International Relations of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs added,” Humans used to worship objects six or seven thousand years ago; That is, the belief in objects that they called fetishism. A thousand years later, mankind turned to living things, such as trees; They were called animism. Then they turned to nature worship, which is called totemism which still exists in Japan.”