A Sunni Kurd scholar defrocked in Iran

The Special Court for Scholars in Tabriz, northwest Iran, has sentenced a Sunni scholar, Mamousta Salam Golnawaz, to six years imprisonment defrocking him for lifetime on Monday, August 26, 2013.

“SunniOnline” quoted a local news website, Mukrian, a special court in Tabriz city sentenced the Sunni scholar, Salam Golnawaz, to six years custody. The imam of a Sunni masjid in the suburb of Sardasht, Eastern Azerbaijan province, was unfrocked by the court as well.

According to the news agency, Mamousta Golnawaz was tried without advocate; he refused all allegations in the court. He was blamed for ‘criticizing the local officials and defending the rights of people to provoke them against the state, preaching Sunni tenets in order to highlight Shia-Sunni differences, supporting outlawed organizations and being a member of the Maktab-e-Qur’an Movement’, founded by late Kaak Ahmad Muftizadeh.

The news agency quoted Mr. Salam Golnawaz as saying, “The judge who was trying me called my Masjid, ‘Masjid-e-Hazrat Omar’, may Allah be pleased with him, the mosque of Dhirar (Mosque of Hypocrites)!”

The order of the court was conveyed to the Sunni Scholar of Sardasht, simultaneously populated by Kurdish Sunnis, orally on the basis of the Intelligence Ministry’s reports. He can ask for retrial within 20 days. There was not any evidence against him in the court.

It is noteworthy, Mamousta Golnawaz had been questioned by the Intelligence Ministry’s officials before in Urmia, capital city of the Western Azerbaijan province.

Source: Mukrian & SunniOnline.us