By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

Iran is proud of the freedom and liberties that the Islamic Revolution granted to not just the women on its triumph in 1979 by restoring to them the dignity of the Hijab, but to all sections of the people, including the religious minorities, whether non-Muslim such as Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, or our Sunni Muslim brethren of the Hanafi, Shafei, Hanbali, and Maliki schools of jurisprudence – all of whom have the right to practice their rites and rituals, and even elect their own representatives to the national parliament.

This spirit of national solidarity and Islamic unity has been on spectacular display over the past 43 years on every occasion – at the Bahman 22 rallies marking the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, at the Qods marches on the Last Friday of Ramadhan to show support for the oppressed Palestinian people, on the 4th of November to celebrate the capture of the US den of spies, and on every instance requiring allegiance to the Islamic Republic and its pious leadership.

Although people may have economic grievances because of the illegal sanctions of the US to try to disturb Iran’s unstoppable progress, scores of millions of Iranian patriots have never hesitated to take to the streets whenever the situation demands to decry the plots of the enemies and the treason and terrorism of the minions slavishly serving American/Zionist interests.

True to its Islamic nature, the government has never differentiated between Muslims and non-Muslims, or between Shi’as and Sunnis, all of whom revere the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt by participating in the mourning ceremonies for Imam Husain (AS) and pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in Mashhad.

This year saw thousands of non-Shi’a Iranians amongst the four-and-a-half million Iranian pilgrims who made it to holy Karbala for the Arba’een ceremonies for the Chief of Martyrs – a month and a half ago.

This unity in diversity has alarmed Global Arrogance and as part of its plot to try to derail the progress and development of the Islamic Republic the US and its comrades-in-crimes ordered thugs, terrorists, traitors, and characterless women to indulge in acts of violence, murder, arson, plunder, and sacrilege that included blasphemous slogans, attacks on mosques, burning of copies of the holy Qur’an and snatching of headscarves of dignified ladies in defiance of the laws of Islam.

Iran’s police personal whose gentlemanly behaviour is a byword in contrast to the cruelties of their counterparts in other countries, especially the US, bore the brunt of these unmanly attacks and offered scores – if not hundreds – of martyrs to maintain peace and order in society.

Unfortunately, these lenient policies of the authorities have emboldened the thugs, traitors, terrorists and morally-loose women to indulge in sporadic crimes on the streets and committing sins in public by dressing provocatively.

And now comes the shocking news for every Iranian whatever his/her religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation, that the sanctity of the holy shrine of Shah Cheragh in Shiraz was desecrated by a team of terrorists who indiscriminately fired upon pilgrims, martyring (according to the last reports), some twenty men, women, and children, and injuring over 50 others.

Leniency has its limits and freedom its well-defined frontiers that ought not to be transgressed. This incident should be fully probed and the culprits meted out the deserving punishment with stern warning to the habitual rioters flaunting public morals to desist from treason against the Islamic Republic and disobedience of Islam’s benign rules, or face dire consequences.

One thing that became clear during the recent scattered incidents of riots in a few localities of Tehran and parts of some other cities is the fact that the rioters are not ordinary citizens, neither they belong to any religious, political, or ethnic group, nor is their intention welfare of the Iranian people.

As is obvious by their acts of vandalism and desecration of sanctities, these are irreligious anti-social elements, who should not be dismissed as mere agnostics or apostates, since they are agents of the US and Israel bent upon destruction of Iran and turning it into an American client state, with Islam totally removed from public life.