More Than 100 Mosques, Prayer Rooms Massively Attended By Sunnis In Tehran
MEP: Mamousta aziz Babai, Friday prayer leader of the Sadeqieh mosque of Sunnis based in Tehran, in an interview with Islam World news agency’s reporter emphasized that: “more than 100 Sunni mosques have been in operation in the suburbs of Tehran. In addition to Sadeqieh mosque, there are some other mosques, including” Masjid Al-Nabi ” located in district 18 in Tehran and” Tehranpars mosque” which is the main Sunni mosque in Tehran and hundreds of Sunnis attend the mosques to hold Eid prayers as well as the Friday prayers.
By pointing to holding the Friday Prayers continuously and prayers of the Eids in Tehranpars mosque he continued the remarks: Sadeqieh mosque located in the Second Sadeqieh Square have been in place since 1382 onwards, people with strong presence attended the Friday prayers, and Eids, but gradually more and more people of different Sunni ethnicities in Tehran including Kurds, Turks, Turkmen, Baluchis, people from southern parts of the country attended Sadeqieh mosque so much so that now the population of the worshipers attended in Eid al-Fitr reaches more than 7 thousand people and the number of the participants present in the Friday prayers is about 2 thousand people.
Mamousta Aziz Babai made the remarks pointing to the unity of Shiites and Sunnis in Iran: I was born in a village in the city of Khalkhal in Ardabil province. Sunnis form the majority of the population of the village and the region, but we have had no problem with the Shiite residents of our village and always space between us is endowed with unity and brotherhood of Islam, but enemies of Islam seek to sow seeds of discord and sedition between Sunnis and Shiites. For example, recently I had an interview with a foreign journalist along with his interpreter. After a while, Voice of America (VOA) in cyberspace released a false report, citing a statement from my side which is titled as: “conservative life of Sunnis in Iran ” while, after the Islamic revolution and thanks to the revolutionary movement of Imam Khomeini, we witnessed that many of the restrictions in Pahlavi era were removed and We were able to freely practice our religious activities. In addition, after the Islamic Revolution the Sunnis have been able to have extensive presence in the government and security organizations and held positions in the country, whereas before the revolution the Sunnis even had hard time doing their educations. Thanks to the Islamic Revolution of Iran, now thousands of Sunnis in Iran are employed in different government agencies, the military, the army, the police and other organs of the country and tens of thousands of others are studying or teaching in important centers in the country.
Tehran’s Sunni Friday prayer leader’s support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and the need to combat oppressive powers of the era.
Sadeqieh Mosque Friday prayer leader added: We strongly believe that we must stand in front of the oppressive powers of the era and support Islamic resistance groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and this is what causes panic among enemies. I personally gave more than two thousand lectures in Tehran Sunni mosques and also Shiite mosques of this city, and I’ve worked for 6 years at the University of Qom (4 years of study and two years of teaching) and have closely observed scientific environment and space for discussion at the University and other religious and scientific centers in Qom. One of my dreams was the establishment of a science center like the city of Qom in Islamic history back in Abbasi Caliphate so that many arisen concerns would have been removed about the Shiites in Sunnis’ point of view.
Mamousta Aziz Babai, pointing to the distance between the Sunni and Shiite and false rumors, told Sunnis about Shiites and vice versa: there have been many times that even scholars of Hanbali jurisprudence in Saudi Arabia have repeatedly asked me about “different versions of the Shiites Qur’an ” in Iran and I have noted many times in conversations with such people that a copy of the Holy Quran published in the same edition in Iran is the same as the one published in Mecca and Medina. Interesting to note that the reading of the version is the same reading version of the famous “Hafs from Asim”, which is published in Saudi Arabia, while some Islamic countries publish other interpretations of the Koran. However, they hardly believe it. And this reflects the widespread propaganda by foreigners against the Islamic schools. In such circumstances, we must strive to use correct information to enlighten the dark minds of the fanatics among different classes. Thanks to God and thanks to the efforts of the Iranian authorities, the Sunnis are in good condition and despite the efforts of the enemies of Islam, Sunnis in Iran, whatever the ethnic, work for construction and development of the Islamic republic.
