Qadir Akaras, the head of the Turkish Kausar Institute, attended the seminary media and cyberspace center in Qom and participated in a joint meeting with Hujjat al-Islam Reza Rostami, the CEO of Hawzah News Agency and head of the seminary media and cyberspace center.
In this meeting, he emphasized the role of cooperation to transfer experiences and utilize the capacities of the two centers, and considered Hawzah News Agency to be a suitable, reliable and trustworthy source for receiving information from seminary centers and added,” Not only do we do this ourselves, but we also recommend Hawzah News to Muslim friends and academic centers to receive scientific content as a specialized scientific reference.
Speaking on how he studied at the seminaries of Qom and Tabriz and the establishment of the Kausar Institute in Turkey, and said, “My late father vowed that one of his children would become a religious student. My elder brother used to study the Quran with a cleric in the city of Igdir, Turkey, but since my father’s financial situation was not good, I had to do it myself. On the other hand, I met a prominent cleric in Turkey in the city of Igdir. This scholar was the imam of our neighborhood mosque. I studied the Holy Quran with him and was attracted to him by his morals. I attended the Quran and preparatory classes for two years. I came to Iran in 1977 and then entered Qom and rented a house together with several non-Iranian students.
He further added, “The police at that time did not treat foreign students well. We had to travel back and forth to Iran and Turkey every three months. In the meantime, we found out that there was a school for foreign Turkish students in Khoy, Tabriz. After attending this school and staying for a short time, we went back to the Muhammadiyah Seminary in the city of Urmia. I was there until the victory of the Islamic revolution. After the revolution, I came to Qom and stayed for a while, and then went back to Tabriz. I lived in Tabriz for two years. After getting married, I came back to Qom, rented a house, and started studying. After 13 years in Qom and studying in the seminary, I returned to Turkey and founded the Kausar Institute with a group of prominent clerics from Turkey. This institute was officially registered in 1991 and is the first Shiite institute in Turkey. In this institute, we translate religious and educational books. We have now translated a large number of books. We communicate with young people and answer their questions about Islam. In addition to that, we have also launched a satellite television, a charity forum with the presence of scholars from Islamic countries, etc. These clerics travel to and from the institute and travel to European countries to promote Islam.
Mr. Akaras stated that Iranian scientific institutions and centers act as think tanks and that we translate their religious and educational products, strengthening coordination between Iranian organizations and Islamic centers, conducting network activities to transfer experiences for better impact, regulating the discourse of education from political to scientific and comprehensive knowledge, using all the capacities of the seminary, especially the use of philosophical and mystical foundations for interfaith dialogues, are among the most important necessities of Islamic and Shiite scientific centers these days.
The director of Turkish Kausar Institute added,” We need a comprehensive discourse to attract the audience, and this is an issue that has not been seriously considered in interfaith dialogue.”
He concluded by stating that all eyes are on the Qom Seminary;” If we are uncertain in our thoughts and ideas, we should look at the seminary, what path should it take, and should the scientific centers of the Islamic world follow the same path.”
