Jahangiri highlights Iran's role in countering regional terrorism

Addressing the 10th edition of Farabi International Festival on Humanities and Islamic Studies, Jahangiri reiterated that the terrorist groups are seeking to portray a tarnished image of Islam as mixed with violence, massacre, bloodshed and extremism. 

He noted that the terrorist groups would have succeeded in creating their own governments in Iraq and Syria, had not Iran played an effective role in uprooting them. 

Commenting on the occurrence of historical events in Iran as well as the region during the past 40 years, he said this era was very 'exceptional'. 

'The Islamic Republic of Iran experienced eight-year imposed war during this period,' he said, adding that the traces of Persian Gulf war waged by US and certain regional countries are still apparently visible in the region. 

Jahangiri noted that the effects of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and US conflicts also could be traced in Afghanistan. 

Along with Jahangiri, Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari, the Iranian Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Mansour Gholami, and a number of other officials attended the ceremony during which awards were handed over to the 36 winners of this year’s festival. 

The festival, commonly known as the Farabi International Award, is specifically aimed at the development of Islamic Humanities and has been held by the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology on an annual basis since 2008. 

The festival is held in honor of Iran's medieval Muslim philosopher, scientist and jurist, Al-Farabi, or as he is commonly known in the West, Alpharabius. He authored many books in the fields of political philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and logic. Al-Farabi was also a scientist, cosmologist, mathematician and music scholar. In the philosophy tradition of Muslims, he is usually known as the Second Master, after Aristotle.