To the Youth in Europe and North America
2015 open letter by Ayatollah Khamenei / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"To the Youth in Europe and North America" is an online open letter written on 21 January 2015 by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.[1][2][3] According to Al-Monitor, it may be the first time that young people in the West have been directly addressed by a senior Islamic cleric about his religion.[4]
Prompted by the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris on 7 January 2015 by militants who said that they had acted in the name of Islam,[5] and writing about the current image of Islam in the West,[6] Khamenei released the letter on his official website. It was also promoted via a Twitter account attributed to him.[7] Khamenei appeals to his audience to have an open mind and not to judge Islam based on the Charlie Hebdo attacks,[8] and implores Western youth to learn about Islam from its original sources, rather than have it "introduced to [them] by prejudices" and Islamophobia.[9][5][10][11] In his letter he writes that he does not insist that young people accept his or any particular reading of Islam, but that he wants young people not to "allow this dynamic and effective reality in today's world to be introduced to [them] through resentments and prejudices".[12]
A second open letter was written by Khamenei on 29 November 2015, following the November 2015 Paris attacks.[13]