Offender of Sunni Grand Mosque Arrested in Mashhad

Police Chief of Sistan-Baluchistan informed that a person who insulted Sunni sanctity in cyberspace has been arrested in Mashhad city.

“The investigation team of the case arrested the offender in coordination of Zahedan’s prosecution with the Mashhad prosecutor’s office on Wednesday morning, May 27, 2020”, Mohammad Qanbari said.

He said that the 50-year-old culprit confessed his crime during interrogations and expressed regret over his actions, saying: “He did not intend to insult the sanctity and his actions were only to show off.”

The detained lecturer has posted a picture of the Grand Makki mosque of Zahedan on Twitter with insulting captions. He had written that this mosque should be demolished as it is the house of corruption and a center of conspiracy.

The man defended first his tweet in comments and said that the architecture of the mosque is also inspired from “the Anatolian occupiers”, alluding to Othmanian architecture of the minarets and domes of Makki mosque.

Following the angry public reactions, he deleted his tweet and two days later apologized.

The office of Shaikh Abdol-Hamid, Imam and Khateeb of the Grand Makki mosque thanked the authorities for arresting the man and asked for sharing information with masses about the process of his trial.

The Grand Makki mosque of Zahedan is the largest mosque of the Iranian Sunni community with the capacity of more than 70.000 worshipers. It was founded in 1970s by Mawlana Abdol-Aziz and re-constructed by Mawlana Abdol-Hamid.