Saudi Arabia’s top cleric said Iranians are “not Muslims” in response to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s criticism of the Saudis’ handling of the hajj pilgrimage.
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The statement was signed by 648 legal professionals, ISNA reported. Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti dismissed Iran’s ire by arguing that Iranians are “not Muslims”. “We also call upon Iran’s Foreign Ministry as well as the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization to pursue the rights of the victims through legal channels”.
On Monday, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei accused the Saudis of murder, saying the injured had been “locked up” with the dead instead of being cared for.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said the ministry has formed a committee to investigate the issue and pursue it in worldwide forums, without elaborating.
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and interior minister, Mohammed bin Nayef, said that Iran was merely trying to “politicize” the hajj, while warning that the agitation could compromise the safety of pilgrims. Tehran has said 464 of the dead were Iranian and blamed the catastrophe on Saudi mismanagement of the annual pilgrimage.
Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh fired back at Iran on Tuesday in a growing war of words over the hajj pilgrimage, saying Iranians were “not Muslims”, as the country’s armed forces put on a show of force with a military parade. Rafsanjani recounted how he and former Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz were able to begin negotiations and address issues after Iran-Saudi tensions had caused Iranians to miss hajj for three years in the late 1980s.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are regional rivals boasting two different majority Muslim populations, with Saudi Arabia being home to majority Sunni Muslims and Iran the world’s largest majority-Shiite nation.
Ayatollah Khamenei further stressed, “The world of Islam, including Muslim governments and peoples, must familiarize themselves with the Saudi rulers and correctly understand their blasphemous, faithless, dependent and materialistic nature”.
Official numbers from Riyadh said that 769 pilgrims were killed in the 2015 disaster – the highest haj death toll since a crush in 1990. Even before last year’s stampede, he writes, “Tehran has been involved in many incidents that led to the death of pilgrims”.
The kingdom says it is deploying extra staff and increasing coordination with hajj missions from pilgrims’ home countries to ensure worshipers comply with agreed schedules to perform various rituals.
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Al Arabiya is itself a Saudi media outlet, so it can not be taken as an unbiased source.
