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Iranwire – Iran’s leading Sunni cleric, in his ongoing series of Friday prayers sermons in which he criticises Iran’s government, has urged the Shia leadership not to attribute the country’s problems solely to “the enemy.”
“Instead of confronting people and attributing everything to ‘the enemy,’ try adopting a more constructive approach,” Molavi Abdulhamid, the outspoken Sunni Friday prayer leader of Zahedan, said in his latest sermon.
He made the comments on July 28, as residents of the restive south-eastern city returned to the streets for weekly protests against Iran’s clerical establishment.
“No government, be it Muslim or non-Muslim, should resort to killing people for its own survival,” he said.
“It is not worth taking lives for the sake of power,” the 75-year-old Sunni cleric added.
In his recent Friday prayer sermon, Molavi, who has consistently criticized the government’s approach to the country’s problems, declared the Islamic Republic’s prospect for solving problems as “hopeless.”
He vehemently demanded the resignation of the officials.
“Ongoing economic problems have wreaked everything,” he said. “In such a dire situation, the government should refrain from imposing strict measures on the people.”
It appears that Molavi’s reference pertains to the government’s growing insistence on imposing the mandatory hijab on women.
This imposition aligns with the resurgence of morality police patrols on the streets of Iran, where they have confronted and arrested women, summoned and prosecuted artists, and even closed down shops and public spaces for failing to comply with the hijab regulations.
Furthermore, in response to recent statements made by some Shia clerics, he said, “Let go of unnecessary desires.”
“One claims that dying in Mashhad guarantees entry to heaven, while another asserts that passing away in Qom leads directly to paradise. Some speak about Medina and its link to salvation. However, neither Mecca and Medina nor Mashhad and Qom can guarantee salvation; it is one’s own actions that determine their fate.”
He went on to question, “Why should we impose beliefs on ourselves or force them upon others?”
Molavi has been a key dissenting voice inside Iran since the eruption of the widespread protests in September 2022, using his sermons to call for fundamental economic, social and political changes in the country.
Zahedan is the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, which is home to Iran’s Sunni Baluch minority of up to 2 million people.
The restive city has seen protest rallies every Friday since September 30 of last year, when security forces killed nearly 100 people in the deadliest incident in the nationwide demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody.
Security forces have responded to the women-led protest movement with brutal force, killing more than 520 people during demonstrations and unlawfully detaining over 20,000 others, activists say.
Following biased trials, the judiciary has handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.
The protests and clampdown on dissent have been particularly intense in western Kurdish areas and Sistan and Baluchistan.
