Pressure on the Ahlus Sunnah

After having dealt with some of the conspiracies against the Ahlus Sunnah, we go on to look at economic pressure and other problems that beset them in the various walks of life.

Most Sunnis live in villages far from the cities. The majority of them work in the field of agriculture, planting crops and breeding livestock. There are also those who work in factories. The chief cause for this state of affairs is the internal pressure upon them, pressure whose origin has been the central government ever since the days of the Safavids and the dynasties that succeeded them. Sunnis were forced out of the cities and had to settle in the border regions, the villages and the mountainsides. It is for this reason that today we see the Ahlus Sunnah living in the far-flung regions of the country, deprived of education, medical facilities, electricity, transport amenities, etc. The result was that they were held back in the fields of business, economics and all levels of education, ranging from the elementary level to the postgraduate level.

If we were to write on this topic in full detail, the available space would not suffice. Therefore, we will keep our discussion short and speak about what is happening to the Ahlus Sunnah in Iran today.

It has been said previously that in the early years of the Revolution, there was no discrimination between Sunni and Shia. Sunnis used to work in government institutions, especially schools. The cause behind that was explained before. After a while, the government changed its position vis-a-vis the Ahlus Sunnah completely. It started to purge school, universities and all other government institutions of its opponents. But what did it do? Was it the atheists and communists who were purged? Or who was it?

The tactics of this government leave one amazed. The body created for purging schools and universities of the opponents of the Revolution had no objective other than to screen beliefs and to throw Sunnis out of the all-important sector of education. Many Sunni teachers and professors were removed from their posts, for no reason other than the fact that they were Sunnis.

Thereafter, the rulers saw that there was a consistent increase in the numbers of Sunni students at school and those entering university. They responded by laying down regulations and conditions for entry into government universities. There had to be support for the Revolutionary Guard and the local councils. Examinations were held in two stages. The first stage, which was a written examination, consisted of questions about Shia beliefs and revolutionary ideology. For example, the students are asked about Wilayat al Faqih, its place in Islam, Imamah, the reappearance of the Mahdi, and other questions of a similar nature which clearly set the Ahlus Sunnah apart from the Shia.

The second stage, which is an oral examination, comes after the student has succeeded in the first one. In this stage, the student comes to the office which oversees the examinations, where he meets a Shia cleric who tests him. He is asked about occurrences inside the country and about his personal position on the Revolution and its leaders. For example, he might be asked about his opinion about the celebrations held to commemorate the Revolution, about the war, about what he himself was doing for the Revolution, about his links with the revolutionary organisations, or about whom of the leaders of the Revolution he knows. Questions like these are aimed at revealing the student’s views and beliefs to the examiners.

Thereafter, his papers are sent to the Revolutionary Guard and the local council in his area in order to find out about his background and his life in his hometown: how he gets along with people, his religious commitment, his ideas and whether or not he propagates them, his leanings, etc. In this way they probe all the student’s secrets before he is accepted at university and allowed to enrol.

It was thus made impossible for the Sunni student to cross this hurdle, since he can only answer the questions according to his own beliefs. If he answers, he fails and is exposed. The Revolutionary Guard and the local councils will then not care to support his enrolment at university.

The student who lacks any of the abovementioned requirements was thus debarred from entering university. It was through this ploy that the government managed to deprive Sunnis of tertiary education on both undergraduate and postgraduate level. We could well say that out of every 100 Sunni candidates, only one would be accepted. This led to large numbers of the Sunni youth leaving schools and universities and opting rather to work in factories and on farms. Some of them left Iran for foreign countries.

When the Sunni youth realised that enrolment at university was not possible for them, they started entering local religious madrasahs after graduating from secondary school. However, the government, ever eager to curb the ways in which these youth can secure a proper education for themselves, promulgated a proclamation that no graduate from secondary school would be allowed to enrol at the religious madrasahs. The heads of these madrasahs were pressurised not to accept students who finished secondary school. After some time, they instituted a rule whereby students could only remain in the madrasahs if they passed an examination similar to the one mentioned in connection with enrolment at university, This, they said, was done with the aim of finding out the level of education and instruction in the religious madrasahs. The questions asked in the examination tell a different story. Student were asked about their teachers, their beliefs, their links with other madrasahs, about Shia beliefs, etc.

It has been stated previously that there are 10 million Sunnis who live in Iran. They have no institutes, universities or colleges for higher religious education, except the few madrasahs run by the people in areas like Baluchistan, the southern port towns and Kurdistan. All of these madrasahs are run on public contributions. However, they are inadequate to provide education and guidance to the youth on a large scale.

In some areas in Kurdistan, like Ravansar and Paveh, there were madrasahs which used to provide educational services to the public at large. As soon as the government came to know of the popular activities of these madrasahs and that they were working towards awakening the people, they had them closed down and expelled the teachers. The premises were then given to agents of the Revolution.

Here we may add something else. When the government saw that the Sunni madrasahs were financially weak and that both teachers and students were living in poverty, it embarked on a new strategy. It started to build its own institutes, naming it “Islamic centers”, in order thereby to minimise the role of the people’s madrasahs. The scheme actually succeeded. Many students, and even teachers, left their madrasahs and entered the institutes built by the government for the propagation of its own creed and ideology under the banner of unity.

It is strange that the government claims to champion the cause of Islam, but that it stands in the way of students enrolling at madrasahs where Islam is taught. It is also strange that it could hinder the construction of madrasahs and Masjids. In Tehran, the capital, which has 300 000 Sunnis, there is still not a single Sunni Masjid. How many times have they petitioned the government for that Masjid? Funds have been collected since almost seven years ago, and the sum of 100 000 tumans was deposited in an Iranian bank. Several attempts were made to construct the Masjid, but the government simply does not permit it. At the same time, it must be remembered that in that very same Tehran, there are churches for the Christians, synagogues for the Jews, fire-temples for the Zoroastrians and places of worship for other religious groupings. The rate of construction for such places of worship has considerably increased over the past few years. Why would a state which calls itself Islamic, stand in the way of the construction of a Masjid?

Sunni residents of Tehran now make their Salah at home. Some of them go to a madrasah attached to the Pakistani embassy for Jumu’ah, since they have no place of their own, neither for Salah nor for Jumu’ah. Muslims, see! In our own country, we do not have a Masjid of our own. We have to go to the Pakistani embassy. Still we said, no problem, we will go to this Pakistani madrasah. Some of the brothers used to give a short talk in Persian on Fridays. When the government came to know that the Sunni youth and university students were making Salah in the Pakistani madrasah and that some Sunnis were even giving lectures in it, they came and said to the people in charge of the madrasahs that it is prohibited to deliver lectures in Persian on Fridays; the sermon would have to be only in Urdu. If anyone spoke in Persian, the madrasah would immediately be closed down.

This is the situation in Iran. We know for a fact that wherever in the Muslim world there happens to be a group of Shia, no matter how small, they build Masjids and madrasahs for themselves. The Iranian government even helps them to do so. By comparing its internal policy with what it does on the outside, we are able to gauge to what extent the Iranian government is betraying the people.

Many people are unemployed. They have no means of supporting themselves. If anyone raises an objection, he is told that we are engaged in a war with the disbelievers of Iraq and the Arab agents of the West. At the same time, the government is spending millions of dollars in foreign countries to indoctrinate and convert the Sunni youth. It opens lavish centers of propagation in countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan; African countries like Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal; and Western countries like America, England, etc. All of this is done in the way of spreading the doctrines and beliefs of Shi’ism amongst the Muslims of the world. The sad truth is that many of the Muslim youth have been successfully indoctrinated and embraced Shi’ism. We ask Allah’s protection.

Today, in the city of Qom, there is a Shia university known as the Madrasah Feyziyya. In it you will see more than a thousand students from various Sunni countries studying the creed of Shi’ism with the overtones of the Iranian Revolution. The university itself bears all their expenses and even supports their families in their home countries, so that they may engage in spreading Shi’ism amongst the Ahlus Sunnah when they return home.

Compare that with the fact that Sunni students in Iran have no university of their own, not to mention financial aid by the government. Even in the Islamic universities of other Muslim countries they are not easily accepted. Such strict conditions are laid down so that their acceptance is automatically rendered impossible. They are thus prevented from the teachings of their own school, from learning and studying their own beliefs and from pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Islamic universities in the Muslim world.

A sad consequence has been that some of the Sunni students turn to the Shia religious institutes, because of the comfort and ease they find there. There are no conditions for acceptance. They study there and graduate and eventually return to become missionaries for Shi’ism, unable to distinguish between correct Islamic beliefs and Shia excesses and distortions.

Finally, as we have said before, the Iranian government has only one aim, and that is expressed in the words of its heads and leaders as follows, “If we cannot completely uproot the Ahlus Sunnah from Iran, we must at least ensure that they are not left clinging on to their creed and their beliefs.” Similarly, they said, “It is better for us if the Sunni youth turn to communism or atheism, than for them to turn to their Sunni faith.” It is for this that in Iran the writings of Sunni scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah are totally banned. If they are found anywhere, they are confiscated and the one in whose possession they are found is punished. As for the books of communists and atheists, they are neither confiscated nor are their owners punished.

Yes, to the Shia the books of the Imams of the Ahlus Sunnah pose a greater threat than the writings of communists and atheists. It is for this reason that they say that “the Wahhabis are the product of America and Israel” and that they accuse believers in true tawhid to be agents of America.

The government is anxious and eager for the Sunni youth to turn away from this line of thought. It therefore allows the drug-trade free reigns in Sunni populated regions. Many of the Sunni youth are involved in buying and selling drugs. The spread of immorality is encouraged by the agents and representatives of the government. All of this points to the aim the government has in mind for the Ahlus Sunnah.

Whatever we have spoken about in these lines will indicate the lengths the government has gone to in order to destroy the creed of the Ahlus Sunnah in Iran. It will give an indication of what is happening to the Ahlus Sunnah in Iran, how they live and especially what conditions the religiously conscious ones amongst them have to endure.

The truth is that I have had to severely abridge much of the topics discussed here on account of the length of discussion. Separate topics thus became compressed together, in order that this may be presented to our brothers in the Muslim world as a brief introduction to the situation of the Ahlus Sunnah in Iran.

We ask Allah to enable us to establish our religion and to serve our creed. We beseech Him to make us of those who hold on fast to the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and the understanding of our pious predecessors. Inspiration and ability come only from Him; and He is All-Powerful.

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