Leadership Quote by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

A statesman’s reassurance is rarely just reassurance, and Rafsanjani’s line reads like a carefully calibrated message aimed outward as much as inward. The phrasing does two jobs at once: it separates “Jews” (a people) from “Judaism” (a religion) and then sanctifies the latter as “holy.” That’s not accidental piety; it’s diplomatic architecture.

In the Islamic Republic’s political grammar, acknowledging Judaism’s legitimacy is a way to claim moral seriousness and to blunt accusations of blanket antisemitism, especially in Western media where “anti-Israel” and “anti-Jewish” are often collapsed into a single charge. By stressing “no problems with Jews,” Rafsanjani sketches a firewall: we oppose Zionism or Israeli state policy, not Jews as such. The line is designed to be quotable in international settings, a proof-text of tolerance that can be deployed against critics.

The subtext is also domestic. Iran recognizes Judaism as a protected minority religion; there are Iranian Jews, synagogues, and a reserved parliamentary seat. Saying “highly respect” signals continuity with that framework while keeping the real red line intact: political loyalty to the state’s anti-Zionist posture. “Holy religion” flatters interfaith ideals without conceding anything on geopolitics.

It’s a sentence that wants to sound expansive, but its precision gives it away. Rafsanjani isn’t offering an open-ended embrace; he’s setting terms of engagement, narrowing what kind of Jewishness is acceptable (religious identity) and what kind is suspect (national-political affiliation). The moderation is real, but it’s also strategic.