TEHRAN — In a rare effort to reach out to the West, Iran’s supreme leader released a letter to youngsters in the United States and Europe imploring them to learn about Islam from original sources and not, as he said in a later posting on Twitter, have it “introduced to you by prejudices.”
The Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says in the tweet and in the letter, published on his website, that he does not “insist that you accept my or any particular reading of Islam,” but wants to address young people after the attacks in Paris by militants who said they acted in the name of Islam.
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Read the Quran yourself, he advises. “Have you studied the teachings of the Prophet of Islam and his humane, ethical doctrines? Have you ever received the message of Islam from any sources other than the media?”
“Try and find answers yourself,” he writes. “The future of your nations and countries will be in your hands; and also I find that the sense of quest for truth is more vigorous and attentive in your hearts.”
