Overcoming the Challenges of Approximation of Islamic Religions in the International Sphere: An Approach based on the Views of Imam Khomeini and the Supreme Leader

The approximation of religions is the common goal of the world's Muslims, which has long been the focus of Shia and Sunni religious leaders and thinkers. The approximation of Islamic religions in the international sphere is one of the important issues of the Islamic world, which has its own obstacles and challenges, and trying to find suitable solutions to overcome these challenges accelerates the process of negotiation and interaction between different religions. So far, there has been little research to collect the opinions of thinkers and explain potential solutions to strengthen the relationship between different religions at the international level; Thus, while collecting the prominent views of experts, the present study has extracted the obstacles and challenges of the approximation of Islamic religions from the available sources and divided them into two groups of external and internal factors. Then, by emphasizing the views of Imam Khomeini and the Supreme Leader, and matching the obstacles and challenges with their views, three effective strategies are presented for how to face the obstacles and challenges of the approximation of Islamic religions at the international level including belief-religious strategies, political strategies, and scientific-cultural strategies. Also, by modeling the studies conducted based on the combined method (SWOT), the content analysis method was applied to identify and categorize codes and strategies presented by Imam Khomeini and the Supreme Leader, especially the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Using the opportunities, the present study has presented solutions to neutralize threats and strengthen strengths.