TEHRAN – Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri met with a number of top clerics in Qom, home to Iran’s major seminary Feizieh, on Wednesday to hold discussions on cultural issues.

“Some ministries only focus on finding solutions for people’s mundane problems while the Culture Ministry has the task of solving people’s spiritual problems, so this make the ministry’s task more difficult,” Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi said during his meeting with Salehi-Amiri.

He asked the ministry to exercise strict control over the social networks like Telegram and Instagram and added, “The virtual environment has turned into a huge problem and a space for corruption… Purifying the networks is good, but suitable replacements should be found for them.”

Salehi-Amiri served as the director of the National Library and Archives of Iran for over three years before November 1, 2016 when he was appointed to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.  
   
“Since the beginning, my attention was really on providing stability and tranquility to the county’s cultural environment and avoiding involvement in political issues,” Salehi-Amiri said at the meeting.

“In addition, I have also intended to allay the concerns of the Leader [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] and top clerics about the cultural issues,” he added.    

He also held a meeting with Ayatollah Hossein Nuri Hamedani.
  
Nuri Hamedani pointed to the concerts being organized in the country and said, “Islam is not opposed to happiness, but this happiness should be in accord with the Islamic culture.”

“One of the ways to produce happiness in the country is to create employment,” he added.

Salehi-Amiri also visited Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, and several other top clerics.  

Photo: Culture Minister Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri meets with Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi in Qom on January 18, 2017. (IRNA/Mohammad Akhlaqi)

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