IRNA � What terrorists did under the cloak of Islam in Syria and Iraq was tantamount to anti-Islamic movement aimed at representing Islam as a violent and merciless ideology, the head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations said on Wednesday.

Terrorists in Iraq and Syria were trying to portray the Islamic nations as uncivilized countries engaged in anti-human activities, Kamal Kharrazi said in a meeting with visiting Syrian Minister of Endowment and Religious Affairs Mohammed Abdul-Sattar Al Sayed and a group of Syrian religious scholars.

'The Takfiris, by embarking on terrorist activities, defamed Islam across the world,' Kharrazi said.

Islamic nations should prevent such violent and dangerous activities, he added.

What happened in Syria was to the benefit of the United States and the Zionist regime of Israel, he said, urging that the Muslim Ulemas and religious scholars are responsible to introduce the moderate Islam to the world.

Both Shia and Sunni religious scholars should work towards proximity of religions and cooperate in a counter move against what the Saudi Arabia did to promote Wahhabism through the Takfiri terrorists, Kharrazi said.