The Iranian Embassy in Jakarta on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance of Iran recently invited numerous senior Indonesian journalists to the country as part of the cooperation.
During their trip to Iran, the Indonesian journalist delegation visited several government agencies and local media offices including those of Iran Daily, Financial Tribune, the state news agency of Iran News Agency (IRNA) and the private news agency Mehr News Agency (MNA).
Managing Director of Irans Cultural and Press Institute, M.T. Roghaniha, said the meeting between Iranian and Indonesian media is very important in an effort to disseminate current and correct information about the two countries as well as to counter biased stories from the western media.
"The presence of Indonesian media in Iran is very important to obtain first-hand information and offset the western propaganda against Iran. Western press coverage about Iran is inversely proportional to the actual situation," Roghaniha said, adding the western press tends to make news cornering Iran to create anti-Iranian state.
He added that the presence of senior Indonesian journalists is also expected to make news stories that can strengthen relations between the two countries that have similarities, among others, about the religion (Islam), hospitable people and accommodating minority groups in many facets of life.
"We also hope that Iran will have media representatives in Indonesia and vice versa," the Iranian public institution leader, who have a number of media businesses, among others Iran Daily, Al Braille (media for the blind) and Financial Tribune and media that specifically addressing the news about women, youths and sports, said.
Roghaniha invited the media in Indonesia which has the largest Muslim population in the world to get together to fight tyranny and injustice as well as defending the oppressed nations.
"Those who are oppressed should awake from their oppression but should not oppress others," he said while urging the media in Indonesia and Iran not to take news from western media that tend to harm the two countries, but better take the news released by ANTARA in Indonesian or IRNA in Iran.
Solidarity
Cultural Deputy to the President of Iran's Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, S.M.H. Hashemi, said the media in the Islamic world should strengthen the relations, togetherness and solidarity to face all the problems experienced by Islam.
"Several times ago we observed such movement bearing the name of Islam as ISIS (a group that calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) that has tarnished the image of Islam around the world, in addition to issues about the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts," he said.
However, according to him, there is also a positive side of such a situation as those issues have actually motivated us to unite Islam to fight the radical group (ISIS) and injustice.
Hashemi described the struggle on the basis of Islam unity as shown by Imam Khomeini who was against Shah Iran regime in a revolutionary move in 1979. The Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979 was indeed a struggle against tyranny worldwide.
Under the leadership of Imam Khomeni, Iran had a firm stance in the fight against injustice around the world including those carried out by Israel against the Palestinians, Hashemi said, adding that Iran has provided various kinds of assistance in the form finance and ideas to solve Muslims' problems.
"Based on every verse of Al Quran against infidels, Iran receives assistance from and calls on other countries to work together to build an Islamic civilization," he said.
The media in Iran and Indonesia are expected to continue fighting against the anti-Islam western press reports and support activities that unite the Muslim world through cultural events and conferences.
"If the Muslim intellectuals and the Islamic nations are united, they will undoubtedly bring remarkable things for the Islamic world," Hashemi said.
Meanwhile, Indonesian media delegation leader Zuhairi Misrawi regretted that most of the Muslim scholars in the world only talk but do not make concrete measures and struggles for the sake of Islam.
To that end, Misrawi suggested that Iran and Indonesia form 'Majma Taqrib' which is an independent institution that endeavors to unite Muslims regardless of maddhab (a school of thoughts within Islamic jurisprudence) to confront radical movements such as ISIS that seeks to divide Islam.
Misrawi said he will ask the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Indonesia to facilitate the establishment of Taqrib institution in the country.
"Therefore media are very important to create public opinion about all efforts that have been done by Muslims to achieve the aspirations of Islam which is known as a religion of rahmatin lil alamin' (blessing for the whole world and its content)", Zuhairi Misrawi said.
In the meantime, in a different occasion, Egyptian Ambassador to Indonesia Bahaa Dessouki also stated that ISIS is a common enemy that must be destroyed because what have been done by the terrorist group are very far from the teachings of Islam.
"Egypt continues to fight ISIS by means of conveying ideas about the truth of Islam. We continue to reassure the public about the true Islam based on the Quran and hadith," the ambassador said.
He also agreed that the Islamic countries all over the world should be together to build a strategy against ISIS that is trying to confuse and divide Islam.
According to Bahaa Dessouki, Islamic countries can have a meeting on combating terrorism through a variety of occasions such as meetings of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference) and the D-8 or organization consisting of eight developing countries of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
(B005/O001)
Reporter: Bambang Purwanto
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2015
