The outstanding Iranian Sunni leader called on the Iranian president, Dr. Hassan Rouhani, to fulfil his promises on the rights of the nation including the Sunni community. He was talking to thousands of students in the Grand Makki Masjid of Zahedan on Thursday, March 13, 2014.
Pointing out to some changes in the schedule of the meeting, he said, “Due to some problems many intellectuals from inside and outside of the province could not take part in this gathering. As well as, duration of the meeting was decreased to a half day.”
Without making clear the ‘obstacles’, he promised to compensate this defect in future with cooperation of officials.
Pointing out to the background of such meetings, he said, “Sunni students have been gathering here (Zahedan) to meet their Ulama and intellectuals directly for many years. There is no any political agenda and we think such gatherings are in favor of society and country. These meetings aim to unite seminary and university calling students to be good Muslims and seek more knowledge.”
The prominent Sunni Alim in Iran alluded to the brilliant past of Muslims and said, “Muslims lost their dignity and pride only because of negligence. Our enemies took the advantage of that negligence and eliminated the Islamic rule allocating it among them.”
Khateeb of Sunni Muslims in Zahedan, southeastern Iran, pointed out to the tricks of anti-Islam sides and urged, “The enemies have been striving to create gulfs between Islam and Muslims by some attractive and deceptive terms; they work hard to make people believe Islam is a hard religion, and it cannot be adopted as it forbids wine, adultery, usury and other illegal temptations.”
“It was a very hard era that is continued yet, but today the world witnesses an Islamic awakening which was begun some decades ago by great intellectuals like Iqbal Lahori, Allamah Nadwi, Sayyid Jamal Uddin Assadabadi, Sayyid Qotb and the rest of scholars. The revolutions in Iran in 1979 and in recent years in some Arab countries like Egypt, Tunis, Syria and Yemen have links to the struggles of those dignified men,” he underlined.
The member of the International Union for Muslim Scholars said, “Today’s people proclaim to be advanced! However, they need Islam more than anything does; many developed states have advanced in politician, economy and industry, people enjoy good democracy over there, but they suffer from malformations and immoralities. Islam is a comprehensive religion that can make human beings perfect and prosperous; it has a great capacity.”
“Islam is the religion of freedom which recognizes freedom of speech. Even a woman or a common villager could stand up before the caliph, Omar bin al-Khattab, and talk freely. It is another point that we do not tolerate others’ objections,” Shaikh Isma’eelzahi added more.
Khateeb of Ahl-us-Sunnah advised the students to focus on invention and ingenuity in objective fields. He said, “Students are requested to get higher education and be specialized in their areas of interest. The country needs independent economy and you can fulfil this ambition.”
Iranian Sunnis love their country
In another part of his speech before thousands of Sunni students gathered in the Grand Makki Masjid, the rector of Darululoom Zahedan stated, “The Sunni community of Iran is abided by the sovereignty of the country. Iranian Sunnis are not traitors; they love their country as they sacrificed their souls during Iran-Iraq war.”
“We have been suffering from some critical problems in our country, among them religious discrimination and limitation of religious liberties and other civil rights can be mentioned. We had informed the authorities on our issues by different ways. But when Dr. Rouhani came to the scene and Sunni masses cast their votes in favor of him mostly; it made us hopeful. Thus Sunnis want the president to fulfil his promises made during the campaign for election, he urged”
He further said, “We want national unity and security; Iran can be a developed state by durable security and solidarity. Muslims should be like a unified nation; all should concentrate on their mutual points. We think extremism is dangerous for any sect or religion including Shia and Sunni Muslims.”
The eminent Islamic scholar alluded to the importance of dialogue and root of contentions across the world, saying, “Most of the clashes in the world have erupted due to neglecting rights of nations; if rulers recognize and provide their masses and minorities their due rights, clashes would be uprooted. We support peace and security; global and regional contentions can be resolved by negotiations and dialogue.”
He indicated to the votes of Sunni voters to Dr. Rouhani and said, “Iranian Sunnis did not vote in favor of any particular man because of his personality; rather they liked views and ideas of the current president. It was a unanimous participation; now Sunnis expect the government of Mr. Rouhani to bring its promises into actions and provide Sunnis and the entire nation their due rights.”
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