According to the news published in some sites affiliated with the Sunnis in Iran, on Wednesday morning Aug 22, security forces showed up at the entrance to the Sunni’s prayer chambers in some areas of Tehran including Resalat, Yaft Abad, Punak, Khalij Fars and a number of other places to prevent Sunni worshippers from holding Eid al Adha Prayers.
According to a Sunni citizen from Tehran in an interview with “Sunni Online”, the security police of Tehran has summoned some of the officials managing Sunni prayer chambers in Tehran on August 21 and told them that they were not allowed to hold Eid prayers. Tehran’s security police has not shown these officials any order in this regard but has stated that the order had been issued by the Provincial Council.
The website of “Eslah Web” (affiliated with the Iranian Call & Reform Organisation) has also published a piece of news in this regard while adding that the ban had been issued although, following the advent of some MPs, the president’s adviser on affairs, the promise of one of the deputy ministers of the interior as well as Tehran’s Governor’s Office, permission to hold Eid al-Adha prayers had been previously communicated to the Board of trustees by Tehran’s Deputy Governor of Political Affairs.
A Sunni activist living in Tehran told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that the Iranian officials had been treating Sunni citizens living in Tehran in this way for the past several years and banned them from holding their religious ceremonies with the involvement of police force each year on the pretext of lack of authorisation and with the involvement of police forces. This religious activist also stated that Sunni citizens in Tehran were deprived of the right to build their own mosques in Tehran and there were only 9 rented prayer champers in the capital, He concluded that the Sunnis citizen had been occasionally forced to hold Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha religious ceremonies in private parking and houses during the past several years due to the restrictions imposed by the Iranian officials.
It should be noted that during the past few days security forces have called number of Sunni clerics in other cities of Iran and threatened them with arrest if they held the Eid al-Adha’s prayers on the same day as Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries.
