Gov. must avoid interruption in appointment of Sunni mosque imams

TEHRAN- A member of the Majlis, parliament of Iran, asked the Iranian officials to remove barriers of the Sunni community of Tehran regarding daily five-time prayers and other religious affairs.

“SunniOnline” has reported that Muhammad Reza Sajjadian, representative of Khaaf and Rashtkhar cities in the parliament addressed the members and speaker on Wednesday, 19 October, 2011 in an observable meeting where he criticized the officials over illegal halt on Sunni citizens.

Citing the 12th article of the constitution, he called on the government to remove obstacles from the way of Sunnis in offering daily prayers.

Mr. Sajjadian pointed, ‘the government should stop interfering in religious matters of the Sunni community; appointing members for mosques’ Boards of Trustees by governments is contrary to the 12th article of Iranian constitution. Sunni schools and madaaris must remain independent as they have been saving their independence since beginning in the Islamic history.’

It must be noted that Sunnis of Tehran are not permitted to build separate mosques. Recently, the security authorities forbade them to offer prayers in congregation. Ahmad Shaheed, special reporter of the UN on human rights for Iran has mentioned the problem in his first report about human rights’ conditions in Iran.

Source: SunniOnline