Tehran, Nov 6, IRNA � Head of Strategic Research Center at the Expediency Council Ali Akbar Velayati said on Friday that no ethnic group in history served Islam as the Iranians did.

Separating Islam and Iran sounds impossible and there is no doubt that such move has roots in colonial thoughts, he said.

Addressing a group of university instructors, he said the identity of the Iranian nation is tied to Islam.

Iranian people are from a civilized ethnical group and their roots have been tied to the history and civilization of Islam so it would be a grave mistake to try to separate these two, Velayati said.

By IRNA