Mohammad Khatami

Mohammad Khatami

Former Iranian president

His Excellency Mohammad Khatami served two terms as Iran’s president from 1997 to 2005. He also founded the Tehran-based International Institute for Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures. The “On Faith” panelist was born into a religious family and studied theology in Iran’s holy city of Qom. He also has a Master’s Degree in education from Tehran University. After Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution Khatami served as chief editor of “Keyhan Daily” newspaper, and was elected a member of parliament. He served as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance from 1982 to 1992 and later as President of the High Council for Cultural Revolution. Khatami was elected fifth President of the Islamic Republic in 1997, gaining almost 70 percent of the votes cast. He was re-elected to a second term in 2001. Besides Persian, Khatami speaks Arabic, English and German and has written many books. In 1998, he called for a dialogue among the world’s civilizations and cultures, prompting U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to declare 2001 the U.N. Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations. Khatami presently participates in the High-Level Group of the United Nations’ Alliance of Civilizations. The Group comprises 20 international leaders called together by Annan and the prime ministers of Spain and Turkey to counter the deterioration of relations between societies and nations. The Alliance seeks to establish a relationship of mutual respect between civilizations and rejects religious and political extremism. Close.

Mohammad Khatami

Former Iranian president

His Excellency Mohammad Khatami served two terms as Iran’s president from 1997 to 2005. He also founded the Tehran-based International Institute for Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures. more »

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November 15, 2006 5:00 PM

Absolute Truth Manifests Itself in Diverse Ways

All divine religions have called humanity to the One, Sacred, and Absolute Truth. Should we aim to strip religion of the Absolute and the Sacred, all its content shall be thereby nullified.

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Posted by Seyed Mohammad Khatami | | Comments (165)




April 28, 2007 8:21 PM

God of Islam Compassionate, Merciful

Among all the names and attributes of God, chapters of our revealed scripture begin by referring to Him as the Compassionate and the Merciful.

This is a religion that unequivocally recognizes the belief in all divine messengers as the defining essence of faith, and calls upon followers of all divine religions and doctrines to rally around two fundamentally shared principles, namely monotheism (the injunction that we all worship none but the True God and associate no partners with him) as well as human emancipation and freedom (the command to erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than the True God- Chapter 3: verse 64).

The Prophet of this religion regarded it as his mission to fully develop sublime ethical values. Imam Ali, the exemplary follower of this Prophet, instructed his appointed governor of Egypt to nurture, as a principle of good governance, compassion and empathy for all of God’s creation. He emphasized the essential inter-dependence and oneness, not simply intersection and clash, of humanity and their religious fraternity. How is it at all possible for this religion to be a doctrine of violence?

We should not charge Islam with acrimonious atrocities that may have happened in history. Islam is predicated upon compassion and empathy, calls for justice, and safe-guards human dignity. Even in comparison, the historical record of the deeds of those who claim to follow other religions is darker than that of Muslims. Historically, Muslim societies have offered more grounds for amicable coexistence, toleration and cooperation among various religions and identity-groups with different predilections.

Those who perpetrate violence in the name of religion –Islam, Christianity or any other religion- commit two atrocities: one is violence itself, and the other is perpetrating it in the name of creeds and doctrines which in essence call for tolerance, compassion and peaceful coexistence.

Posted by David Waters | | Comments (10)


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On Faith is an interactive conversation on religion moderated by Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn of The Washington Post. It is produced jointly by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com, as is PostGlobal, a conversation on international affairs. Please send your comments, questions and suggestions for On Faith to David Waters, its producer.