Shaikh-ul-Islam Mawlana Abdol-Hamid criticized killing protestors of rising petrol price in Iran and announced that Mawlana Kohi’s release was the demand of public in his Friday prayer speech of December 6, 2019.
Mawlana Abdol-Hamid expressed his concerns about the mass killing of protesters and pointed out to “two tragic incidents” in these protests and said: “Two things were horrible in recent protests; murdering the protestors widely and the second one burning banks and gas/fuel stations.”
The Friday prayer Imam of Sunnis in Zahedan welcomed the Supreme Leader’s command on “paying blood money to murdered innocent protesters” and calling them as “martyrs”.
He said: “In addition to the leader’s order, killers and culprits behind shooting protestors must be punished so that no one else would commit such a crime.”
The Iranian Sunnis leader once again called for decreasing petrol price and said that the prices of commodities have gone up widely due to high oil price.
“To reduce and control economic crises and social problems, cut petrol price”, he added.
Kohi’s release is a public demand
Imam of the Grand Makki Masque went on to defend Mawlana Fazl-ur-Rahman Kohi, the Friday prayer Imam of Pashamag in Sarbaz County and said: “We are under pressure from public side for being silent about the issue”.
“Mawlana Kohi’s imprisonment concerned all; Kohi speaks with local and rural dialect and literature that maybe intolerable to some, but actually Kohi is a sincere and honest person who never wants to see disturbance in the country. He does not support terrorism or armed movements,” he added more.
“On the subject of Kohi’s arrest, we encourage officials to be more patient and to listen to critics with tolerance for lasting unity.
“To respect public’s demand, Kohi and his companions should be released as soon as possible”, the president of Darululoom Zahedan added.
Authorities should comprehend Sunnis’ conditions
“It has been forty years since the revolution, but Sunnis have not achieved their due rights yet; they still have no a single mosque in Tehran. They have been facing obstacles in offering and celebrating Eid prayers and Friday prayers in the cities where Sunnis are in minority. The Sunnis have a constitutional right to worship freely,” Shaikh Abdol-Hamid urged.
He said more: “Forty years after the revolution, Sunnis still have not played role on the level of a minister or a vice-president in the country.”
Shaikh-ul-Islam Mawlana Abdol-Hamid said that Sunnis are banned from recruiting in armed forces after the 1979 revolution, while the farmer regime used to recruit Sunnis in armed forces on a wide scale.
Mawlana Abdol-Hamid then pointed to obstacles and said: “Sunni scholars face restrictions on national trips and they cannot travel to other provinces to meet their people; I hope these obstacles will be removed.”
The most influential Iranian Sunni scholar concluded his points by saying: “We are under pressure from public side to defend their due rights and express their problems and demands. On the other hand, we observe authorities in some cases that they deny discussing some issues here; therefore, we expect that the authorities will pay a close attention to Sunnis and observe their certain rights in all fields. They should comprehend our situation.”