The Necessities of Shi'a and Sunni Intercultural Communication in Iran, with an Emphasis on the concept of the Otherness according to Levinas

Emanuel Levinas, a philosopher of ethics, is highly concerned with the concept of otherness and feels highly responsible for "the other". This article tries to deal with this concept in the thought of Levinas and concentrate on the specific role it could serve in Shi'a and Sunni intercultural communication in Iran. Here, the Iranian Shi'as are considered as "the self" and Sunnis as "the other", and based on Levinas's theory we have sought ways to ameliorate the communication between the two sects for the sake of establishing more national and religious solidarity. The method adopted is documentary and library research with descriptive-analytical approach examining the existing cultural and communicative problems among Iranian Shi'as and Sunnis, and offering ways to solve them. The solutions can be listed as follows: improving mutual relation between Shi'as and Sunnis, improving their mutual knowledge, the necessity of paying more attention to minority groups' rights, respecting other groups' sacred beliefs and avoiding offense. It seems that these are to be included in the Islamic Republic of Iran's policies vis-a-vis Sunni groups.