In his meeting with the secretary general of the ICRC, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi pointed out to the importance and sensitivity of their job and said: “We live in an age that even though human rights law and humanitarian aid groups exist, yet worldly troubles of the human community are increasing every day, which in itself, shows the importance of the Red Cross and Red Cressent even more”.
He pointed out to the fact that we believe that such organizations have risen from the sound conscious of humanity which more or less exists in everyone and emphasized:” We believe that all Godly prophets and religions invite people to such humanitarian acts”.
He said: “In the Holy Qur’an, which is our holy book, the Prophet (s) has been told: You are a reason for blessing and kindness for all humanity. We believe this is generalized to all places and all times”.
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi insisted:” Therefore, regardless of religion, we should always put an effort and care about supporting such acts them wherever and whenever it may be”.
He said:” We believe religious teachings will be very effective on such cause because international law has failed to provide these needs to mankind. We always invite our followers, Muslims and Non- Muslims who live in our country to such issues”.
His eminence added:” Whenever we hear that one of Red Cross or Red Crescent’s men have been kidnapped or killed, we become very irritated. This shows that unfortunately, human moral has decreased to such a point that they harm people who have come to their own aid”.
He said:“Targeting hospitals, schools and universities shows thatthe problems within the human community have increased. But of course the numerous amount of problems shouldn’t take our hope away, instead, we should increase our effort and be hopeful in the future”.Emphasizing on the fact that one of the most important issues of our age is the issue of weapons of mass destruction, He said: “This issue has truly turned in to a horrific subject. As Muslims, we outlaw any kind of weapons of mass destruction and their use in war”.
He emphasized:” There is no chance that we will move towards atomic bombs or deadly chemical weapons”.
Ayatollah Makarem stated:“human conscious should isolate the violators all over the world.Therefore, there should be so much advertisement and information on this issue that the violators become secluded. If we succeed in this, we shall have achieved a great help to the Red Cross and the Red Crescent’s goals”.He added:“It is absolutely certain that in Islam, whenever Muslims gathered to defend in a war, the Prophet (s) constantly reminded them not to bother non-militants, pollute drinkable water, kill the animals or any natural living thing and not to hurt the wounded. These commands which were issued one thousand and four hundred years ago are still valuable to us”.
Ayatollah Makarem addressed the secretary general of the ICRC’s job as very holy and on the same path as God’s prophets and said:” I hope you succeed in your goals and missions”
