Mohammad Ali Abtahi is a 57-year-old Iranian cleric and politician who served as former President Mohammad Khatami’s chief of staff and later as his first vice president. He is known for being the first cleric in the Islamic Republic to start blogging and therefore popular among the youth as a pioneer. He has one of the most active Facebook accounts of current or former Iranian officials, sharing jokes, poetry and pictures of his latest activities.

During the tumultuous 2009 presidential elections, Abtahi supported Reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi. After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, Abtahi was arrested and imprisoned in July 2009. After his arrest, Iran's state-run television station broadcast highlights of a court session including footage of Abtahi addressing the court. Abtahi later wrote in his private blog that a few days before the session, the prisoners had been taken to a location outside of the prison to practice for it.

Since being released, Abtahi has spent most of his time at the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue, of which he is the chairman, and is less concerned with political activities. Abtahi is also a prominent member of the Association of Combatant Clerics, an organization of Reformist clerics led by former President Khatami and Karroubi.

In a phone conversation from his office in Tehran, Abtahi spoke with Al-Monitor about the challenges of his work in interreligious outreach, the reason he avoids intrareligious outreach and the perception of Muslims in light of the terrorist attacks in France against Charlie Hebdo magazine. The text of the interview follows: