When the Saudi grand mufti said Iranians are not Muslims because they are descendants of Zoroastrians, usually mild-mannered Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded in a tweet that there is “no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahabi [sic] top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach”.
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The Nigerian pharmacist, 46, says his faith remains unshaken even after the deaths of at least 2,297 pilgrims during the hajj stoning ritual last September 24.
This year, no Iranians will attend the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, and Khamenei has called on Muslim countries to consider ending Saudi control of the holy sites.
The Saudis maintain that the stampede was an accident, though some have claimed it was begun by Iranian pilgrims who violated the rules of the pilgrimage.
Khamenei said the Saudis did not prosecute those at fault for the stampede, accused them of showing no remorse and said Riyadh had “refused to allow an global Islamic fact-finding committee”.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran will never give up on restoring the rights of the victims of the Mina tragedy, IRNA reported. “They murdered them.” Mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia and majority Shiite Iran back opposite sides of the wars in Syria and Yemen, and support opposing political groups in Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon.
Iran has repeatedly demanded that an independent body take over management of the five-day event, but the Saudi authorities have refused to consider the proposal.
“Accursed tree of tyrants should be stripped of Hajj duties”, the Leader said, wondering: ” if Al Saud were not to blame in Mina incident, then why they denied access of an independent inquiry?
Billboards were erected across Iraqi capital Baghdad on Wednesday emblazoned with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s recent vitriolic quotes against Saudi Arabia.
This attack by Iranian President matters as already relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia were at rock bottom before the regional rivals started trading barbs this week ahead of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage on Saturday.
At least 1.5 million Muslims from around the world came to Saudi Arabia on Thursday for the annual hajj pilgrimage but the Iranians absent. Zoroastrianism predates Christianity and Islam and was the dominant religion in Persia before the rise of Islam.
“What Iranian media and some Iranian officials are raising is not objective and they know before anyone else that the kingdom has given the Iranian pilgrims what it gave others”, Prince Nayef said.
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Iran’s theocratic regime sees itself as the vanguard of Shia Islam, similar to how the Saudis, practitioners of a particular orthodox Wahabist brand of the faith, style themselves as the leaders of the Sunni world.
