Mohammad-Baqer Khorramshad, director of the Iranian government’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, meets with Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in Tehran this week. (Photo: ICRO)

(CNSNews.com) – The head of an official Iranian religious body that is holding talks in Tehran with senior Vatican officials has called for the establishment of a “united front of monotheistic religions.”

The Vatican is holding a three-day interfaith dialogue this week with the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO), a department falling under the Iranian government’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

ICRO’s objectives include disseminating “the true message of Islam” around the world.

Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted ICRO director Mohammad-Baqer Khorramshad as making the “united front” suggestion during the meetings.

Mehr also quoted the visiting delegation head Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, as saying that unity within a monotheistic front was the only way to avoid depravity arising from polytheistic beliefs.

Tauran is president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The Pontifical Council has not issued any statement out of the talks, which apart from an opening session are being held behind closed doors.

Earlier the Holy See’s press office released a notice about the meeting, saying it was the seventh between the two bodies, and would conclude with a visit to Qom, a city holy to Shi’ites.

A statement by ICRO said the theme was “Religion and Society” and the meetings would discuss papers on philosophical, theological, historical and legal approaches, as well as on “contemporary opportunities and challenges.”

ICRO’s objectives, as spelled out in its constitution, include “revival and dissemination of Islamic tenets and thoughts with a view to reaching the true message of Islam to the people of the world” and “creating awareness among the people of the world as regards the principles, the objectives, and the stance of the Islamic Revolution of Iran as well as the role it plays in the international arena.”

Another objective is to expand cultural relations with various nations and communities.

Iranian and Vatican officials hold interreligious dialogue in Tehran. (Photo: ICRO)

ICRO also holds “scholarly debates and confrontations with anti-religion, anti-Islam, and anti-Revolutionary cultures with a view to awakening the Muslims of the world regarding the divisive conspiracies of the enemies as well as protecting the rights of the Muslims.”

Khorramshad, who is also Iran’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, recently took the helm of ICRO. The man he succeeded, Mehdi Mostafavi, spoke out over the summer against the Quran-burning threats in the U.S., describing them as “radical, irrational, and Zionist moves [that] only aim to trigger chaos and seek division among followers of different religions.”

An earlier round of the dialogue between ICRO and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, held in Rome in 2008, released a communique that included an agreement by the two sides “to encourage respect for symbols considered to be sacred” and to avoid generalizations when speaking of religions.

Vatican-Islam dialogue arose after Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 delivered a lecture at a university in Germany that angered Muslims and sparked protests, demands for an apology, and death threats.

In his academic address, the pope cited a 14th century discussion between a learned Persian and a Byzantine emperor on Islam and Christianity.

He quoted the emperor as saying, “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

The pope said the emperor then explained why spreading faith through violence was unreasonable, that “violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul.”

The furor prompted to an open letter to the pope from several dozen senior Muslim clerics, followed by a bigger initiative – a letter from 138 Islamic scholars addressed to Pope Benedict, heads of various Orthodox and Protestant denominations, and “leaders of Christian churches everywhere.”

That in turn led to the start of the Vatican-Islam dialogue.