Religious Discrimination And Injustice To Ahlesunnat, Geneva July 22, 2012, Presented By Nasser Nabatzahi, Balochistan Human Right Organisation

The Iranian Sunnis are treated with discrimination not only at hospitals, courts, and other government services, but even in the choice of names for their newborn babies.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION
 DESTRUCTION, CONTROLLING AND PREVENTING THE MOSQUE
 ARREST, EXECUTION AND KILLING OF SUNNI SCHOLARS AND PREACHERS
 PREVENTING FROM PRAYERS IN THE BIG CITIES
 PREVENTING FROM HAVING A HIGH POSITIONS
 VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
 PRESSERING THE SUNNI SCHOLARS BY ARRESTING THEIR RELATIVS
 INTERVENTION EVEN IN SOCIAL LIFE

• BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Iranian regime thinks that Iran is populated by a single religion group, but in fact there are several religions other than Shiaa in Iran. Such as Sunni, Bahai, Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism.)
Iran treats its religious and ethnic minorities as second or third class citizens. Sunnis are made up mostly of Baluchs, Arabs ,Turkmen and Kurd. The Shiite Iranian government treats them with discrimination because of their Sunni identity. They are denied their legitimate political, legal, constitutional, social, cultural and economic rights. Their miseries multiply because of lack of support or assistance from within or outside the country. The Sunnis had sided with Khomeini in the revolution against the Shah of Iran. But he turned against them after the revolution and refused to honor his promises made to them.
The 20-million strong Sunnis are the largest minority accounting for 35 percent of the 70 million Iranian population. In fact, the number of Sunnis is much higher than the official figures.
However, they are economically poor, less educated and live far away from the capital city. Hated by the Shiite regime, the Sunni districts are neglected – they lack utilities, basic amenities and other essential services.

• DESTRUCTION, CONTROLLING AND PREVENTING THE MOSQUE

Sunnis are denied the right to build mosques or religious schools. Building a Sunni school or a religious school(madrasa )is considered an unpardonable crime. Existing Sunni mosques are subjected to close monitoring.
Many of them were demolished on the pretext that they were built for purposes other than worshipping or without a specific license needed for a mosque. While no Sunni mosques are permitted, these cities have Jewish, Christian churches and Zoroastrianism temples. This is nothing but the arrogant injustice for the Sunnis. Iranians have a perverted and dictatorial Shiite regime. Its domestic and foreign policies are based on strategic politics, racist nationalism and sectarianism and the victims are non-Persian Sunnis in that country.
Article 12 of the constitution states: “the official religion of Iran is Islam and the Twelve Ja’fari School of Thought and this principle shall remain eternally immutable”. This explicit endorsement of a school of Shia Islam alienates the Kurds, Turkmen, Baloch, and Ahwaz, who practice Sunni Islam. Tehran has a population of 1 million Sunni Muslims, but planning permission for a Sunni mosque has yet to be granted, all application to build a Sunni place of worship have been rejected and or ridiculed.
Not only they prevent to build or repair the sunni schools and mosques but also they have closed the following mosques and Islamic schools in different area of ahle sunnah such as:
1- Seal the praying place which was a private home in Tehran
2-Mosque of Taybad city has been sealed (In Khorasan)
3-Shekh Faiz Mosque in Mashad has been demolished whish was one of the biggest mosque in the area
4- Prevent to repair 4 Aban mosque in Mashad also.
5- Mosque and Madrash Shafee in Kurdestan has been sealed
6- Qoba Mosque in Turbat Jam has been occupied by Sepah (islamic guard)
7-Hasanain Mosque in Shiraz which Dr Ali Mozafariyan was the Emam has been confiscated
8- Mosque and Islamic school in Negwar Balochistan has been demolished
9- Mosque and islamic school in Talesh confiscated and Shekh Quraishi who was the preacher was prisoned
10- Islamic school of Abu Hanifa in Azimabad Zabol completely destroyed.
11……12………. And many more
Even sunni muslims are not allowed to do their five time prayers in group in Tehran and Tehran is the biggest islamic city which sunni muslims does not have a mosque.
They can not celebrate their Eid and Friday pryers ,they use to go to the Pakistani embassy which this also has been banned by the anti sunni regime.

• ARREST, EXECUTION AND KILLING OF SUNNI SCHOLARS AND PREACHERS

The status of Sunni scholars in Iran is far worse. Their lives are under the constant threat of assassination. The two options they are left with are either to embrace Shiism or flee. Their murders are arranged to appear as traffic accidents. If anyone is lucky enough to survive an accident, he would end up in some jail, if not exiled from the country. The authorities are motivated by the hope that the oppressive treatment will prompt Sunni scholars to embrace the Shiite school of thought as the country aims to convert all people to the Shiite creed, or at least reduce the Sunni population to a minimum.
Arresting , presoning and killing the sunni scholars became a routine for the regime specially for those shiia brothers who converted from Shiia to sunni which I would like to mentions some in brief :
Those who has been kidnapped, tortured and killed or assassinated inside or outside of Iran by regime:
1- Molawi Shaheed Abdulmalek Mullazadeh (Balochistan)
2- Naser Jamsheed Zahi (Balochistan)
3-Dr Ahmad Sayyad Mireen (Balochistan)
4-Dr Abdulaziz Kazemi (Balochistan)
5-Molawi Habibullah Husainbor (Balochistan)
6-Molavi Yarmaohammad Kahrazai(Balochistan)
7- Molavi Abdulsattar |(Balochistan)
8- Molavi Ibrahim Damoni (Balochistan)
9- Molavi Abdulqoddos Mulazahi(Balochistan)
10- Molavi Abdulsattar Kordnejad(Balchistan)
11- Molavi Neamatullah Towhidi(Balochistan)
12- Molavi Shikh Ali Dehwari( Balochistan)
13- Molavi Shamsuddin Keyani(Khorasan)
14- Molavi Abdullatif Haidari(Khorasan)
15-Molavi Nooruddin Gharibi(Khorasan)
16-Molavi Moosa Karampoor(Khorasan)
17-Molavi Abdulaziz Allahyari(Khorasan)
18-Molavi Abdulwahab Sidiqqi(Khorasan)
19- Dr. Ali Mozaffaryan( Shiraz)
20- Shekh Mohammad Zeaii ( Bandar Abbas)
21-Shekh Sharif Saeediyani(Kermanshah)
22-Judge Bahman Shakoori(Talesh)
23- Mulla Mohammad Rabee (Kermanshah)
24- Kak Farooqu Farsad (Kordestan)
25-Kak Naser Subhani
26- Kak Ahmad Moftizadeh (Kordestan)
And many more………………….
And those who are converted to Sunni are and has been killed by regime are as :
1- Allam Shekeh Borqaee (Qom) 1992
2- Haidar Ali Qalamdaran(Tehran)1989
3- Dr. Ali Mozafaryian (Shiraz) 1992
4- Ayatullah Mortaza Radmehr(Qom)2004
5-Dr Mossa Al Moosawi
and many more………….

• PREVENTING FROM HAVING A HIGH POSITIONS

Sunnis do not have any high position in the government or presidency of the republic, as Shiites alone are eligible for such positions. Religious and national minorities particularly Sunnis in Iran.
Article 115 excludes non-Shias from holding the office of the Presidency of the Republic.
The Sunnis have only a symbolic representation in the country’s Parliament. The representation does not reflect the real Sunni population. The election victory is possible only for Sunnis who support the government.
A widely used practice which discriminates against Sunnis and other religious minorities is Gozinesh, meaning “selection”. Gozinesh is an ideological test requiring candidates for some government jobs to demonstrate loyalty to Shia Islam and the Islamic Republic of Iran including the concept of Vilayat-e Faghih (Governance of Religious Jurist), a concept not adhered to by Sunnis. The adherence to this practice effectively excludes Majority of Baloch, Turkmen, Arabs (Alahwazi) and Kurds from employment in the government and, in some cases, within the private sector. Some applicants to universities are also subjected to Gozinesh.

• VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Sunni Muslims of Iran mostly live in the preffery areas; they remained away of reputable universities and important educational centers of the country as they are located in the central cities of Iran. As a result Sunnis’ intellectuals and academians are less than others. Besides, there are some other reasons which caused their backward in academic grounds as despite Article 15 of the Iranian constitution and Article 27, the Ahwaz, Baloch, Kurds, Azerbaijani, Turk, Turkmen face difficulties in exercising their rights to use their own languages, in private and in public. For example, all state-schooling in these regions is conducted exclusively in Persian.
Gozinesh is also applies for higher education .
AND preventing to publish Islamic books to publish or participate the international book exhibition in Tehran which recently happened with the two publisher which has been sealed from the authorities.
1- Siddiqi Publisher – Zahidan
2- Farouq Azaam Publisher – Zahidan
Both had the permission to participate the exhibition .

• PRESSERING THE SUNNI SCHOLARS BY ARRESTING THEIR RELATIVS

The Iranian government with intelligence service, police and “Pasdaran” in the tip has intensified arrest of the religious scholars relatives in sunni areas.
1- Molawi FatehMohamad Naghshbandi, 55 years old arrestedin Rask
2- Abdulghafar Naghshbandi, arrested on 14 May, 2012, in Rask
3- Molawi Abdolahe Molazadeh 48 years old arrested in Parood
4- Hamed Molazadeh 23 years old arrested in Zahidan
5- Habibal rahman Molazadeh 29 years old arrested in Zahidan
6- Nezamodin Molazadeh 18 years old arrested in Zahidan
7- Jaber Molazadeh 22 years old arrested in Hiet
8- Hafez Mohammad Ismail Mullazahi – Zahidan
8- Afsheen Shafee PhD student at the University of Lester UK in information and security – Arrested in Tehran
9- Kaka Abdul salam – Kurdestan
10- Molawi Zafar Ahmad Didgah – Iranshahar
11- Ali Akbar Mahmoodi – Qaser Sheerin , Kermanshah
12-……………………

• INTERVENTION EVEN IN SOCIAL LIFE

The Iranian Sunnis are treated with discrimination not only at hospitals, courts, and other government services, but even in the choice of names for their newborn babies.
For instance:
Ü Sunnis are banned from calling their sons with names such as Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, or Abdul Rahman. This, in fact, amounts to a violation of the Iranian constitution, which respects, at least in theory, the minority community’s right to practice its religious ceremonies . But in practice, the government follows the ideology of the Al-Jaafari school of thought of the Shiite Ithna-Asheri sect and discriminates between Shiites and Sunnis.
 Propagating in national TV to prevent to give the birth certificate(Shenasnameh) to sunni who has more than two children and they don’t have the right of voting. (Daneshman)
 Insult to the Sunni Muslim in the national TV.
 Preventing the sunni students to have meeting with the scholars in mosque or in the university to have unity of university and seminary.
These anti sunni projects have been political disaster resulting in an enhancing sense of alienation among non-Shiite populations in Iran.

We appeal to international human right organization, democratic countries to pressures the Iranian government to stop unlawful arrest, killing and executions of Ahlesunnat scholars.
We appeal to United Nation, international agencies and human rights organizations to act against violation of human rights for Ahle sunnat (Kurd,Baloch,TurKman, Alahwazi and …) of Iran.
We appeal the International Human Right and European Union to pressure to Iranian government to stop insulting sunnin Muslims in their National TV and arrest and trial the offenders and its factors in public.
We appeal the International Human Right and European Union to pressure the Iranian government to respect the sunni’s full political, social , educational and economical rights and freedom to establish prayers in any part of the country without hesitation as well holding the meetings and other religious practices such as Friday prayer and Eid prayers.