Pilgrimage Diplomacy in Confronting Takfiri Salafi Trends

The aim of this paper is to make a review of the role of the pilgrimage diplomacy in confronting the Takfiri Salafi trends that have caused extensive challenges in the geopolitically important region of the Middle East and the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thus, the main question raised in the paper is that how a pilgrimage diplomacy can neutralize the existing Takfiri Salafi trends? The first and foremost answer provided to this question is that “owing to its influential identity and strategic geographical location the Islamic Republic of Iran can, by adopting a pilgrimage diplomacy, cause some sort of solidarity among the Shiites of the world for confronting the Takfiri Salafi movements”. In spite of the weakening of the position of certain groups - such as the ISIS - promoting Takfiri thoughts, it should be kept in mind that owing to the political, economic and cultural support they enjoy in certain countries of the region including some neighboring countries of the Islamic Republic of Iran as well as the interference of some regional and trans-regional powers, the Takfiri Salafi trends have the potential of being revived and pose identity and security threats to Islamic countries, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran. By adopting a descriptive-analytical methodology this paper proposes to examine some of the possible new approaches for confronting this trend.