Kourosh Ziabari - You might be unfamiliar with the concept of "Wudu". It's an Islamic practice including the washing of some parts of body such as the hands, arms and face in order to get prepared for saying prayers or reciting the Holy Quran. It's is of high value in the Islamic tradition, because it's a preface to inner purity and satisfies the Almighty Creator who wants its creatures to be pure and clean once they want to talk to Him. Wudu is translated into English as "ablution". One who is in the state of Wudu, that is has washed his face, hands, arms and feet, is obliged to adhere to some certain codes of morality, including devotion to honesty, justice and sincerity. One who is in the state of Wudu is supposed not to tell lie, not to judge with prejudice and partiality and not to state or claim what is unrighteous and unfair.

Prior to setting off for writing this article, I conducted "Wudu" and promised myself not to get out of the borders of honesty and objectivity. I promised myself to propose what is my concern in a manner that is justifiable and virtuous, and pose a few questions as someone who has been entitled to ask freely, without being disrupted by projection or disturbance.

It was on the news headlines that the Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center church pastor Terry Jones has decided to burn a set of Qurans on the advent of September 11 in an action which is deemed to be a remonstration against what is introduced as "Islamic extremism".

Regrettably, Wayne Sapp who is an associate pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center has proclaimed that burning the Holy Quran is a direction God wants them to go. "We are convinced this is the direction God wants us to go. That's the only reason we're doing it in the first place," he told the reporters.

First and foremost, it should be noted that the announcement of such a plan, regardless of its being done or not, is an immoral, condemnable and blameworthy action. The immorality and unacceptability of such an action would be underscored by the fact that an evangelical church which considers itself a propagator of Christian religious values has decided to burn a holy book which some 1.5 billion people around the world revere and venerate.

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Kourosh Ziabari - Adnan Oktar, internationally known by his pen name Harun Yahya, is a Turkish public intellectual, writer and speaker. He is a proponent of Islamic creationism and anti-Zionism. He condemns Zionism and denounces Darwinism as the source of terrorism. He runs the Turkey-based Science Research Foundation and Foundation to Protect National Values. He has written numerous best-selling books including "The Atlas of Creation", "The Muslim Way of Speaking", "Allah's Miracles in the Quran" and "The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences". Yahya's books have been translated in more than 20 languages.

He has been interviewed by several international media outlets, newspapers, TV channels and online magazines including Catholic Radio International, Russia's Pravda, Qatar's Aljazeera, Tehran Times, Saudi Arabia's Arab News and Swedish National Radio.

Here is the complete text of interview with Mr. Yahya in which the latest developments of the Middle East, Israel's war threats against Iran, the prospect of Iran-Turkey relations and the ordeal of Palestinian nation under the Israeli oppression have been discussed.

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Kourosh Ziabari - The fourth trilateral summit of three Persian-speaking countries of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan took place earlier this month in Tehran. With numerous cultural, religious, social, lingual affinities, the three countries demonstrated their potential to build one of the strongest diplomatic partnerships in the region and benefit other nations through a unique, fruitful and constructive cooperation.

The people of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, whose countries were parts of the Greater Persia in ancient times, consider Iran as their cultural homeland and believe that the Iranian nation is the inheritor of their paternal legacy, the Persian civilization.

I had the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with the Tajik ambassador to Tehran for a local weekly magazine Hatef published in Rasht last month in which I discovered that the roots of cordiality and affinity between Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan are very deep. Tajik Ambassador Ramadan Mirza talked of Iran so enthusiastically and passionately that I felt for a while that he is more Iranian than I am.

Several times he called Iran a brother nation, and paid homage to the antiquity and preciousness of the Persian language as the common heritage of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and told about his early childhood's aspiration of visiting Iran. Mirza told that when, under the Soviet dominance, he was a high school student, he read about the historical sites of Iran such as the mausoleum of Persian poet Saadi, the tomb of Cyrus the Great or the ancient site of Persepolis in his textbooks, and wished to visit these sites one day. Mirza said that when he was selected as ambassador, his 50-year-long dream came true and he finally succeeded to visit the sites which seemed to him unreachable and inaccessible long ago. The ambassador stated that it is his honor to serve as his country's ambassador in Tehran where he can freely visit the four corners of Iran whenever he likes.

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