Why is the Shia Religious Authority of Iran harsher on the Shia of other nationalities?

If we consider Einstein’s theory of relativity, the Iranian Shia leadership, despite its severity on the Shia of Iran, are currently most severe and cruel to the Shia of other nationalities.

The reason for this is itself the difference in nationalities and what the ultimate reasons were for the Shia Religious Authority in Iran being elected and given its virtue.

So, as we mentioned previously, while the Shia in other parts of the world do not give any consideration to nationality in their choice of a spiritual leader, the Iranian Shia Religious Authority does keep nationality in mind when dealing with the Shia of the rest of the world. In fact, nationality runs deep in every cell of theirs; and I do not have to go to any great lengths to establish this.

When the Shia Religious Authority sends hundreds of thousands of Iranian Shia to kill and exterminate the Shia of Iraq, to destroy their lands and properties, to kill their women and children—without any mercy or compassion—and thereafter wishes to include the properties of the Iraqi Shia in their tax revenue, which they enforce upon them utilising the harshest methods possible; then what other explanation is there for this besides the nationality that instigated the Shia to kill other Shia, at the expense of the Shia?

When the Shia Religious Authority sends thousands of Iranian Shia to Lebanon to kill the Lebanese Shia and destroy their towns and cities, so that the Shia rule may spread over them at the expense of the Shia—this will clarify the level of extreme nationalism the Shia Religious Authority in Iran possess against the Shia outside of Iran.

When the Shia Religious Authority sends tens of thousands of Shia to Pakistan and India to expand their rule and religious authority over the Shia of those places, using strength and wealth; this translates into what is binding on us to clarify so that the Shia of the world may see, and I say to them, “O Shia of the world, wake up!”

When the Shia Religious Authority sends tens of thousands of Shia to the sacred House of Allah in Makkah Mukarramah to make the naïve Shia that are gathered in the pure House a tool, dragging them into rallying, that will lead to corrupt motives and unrest. They make the Shia of the world a cover and shield behind which they hide and push them into such a matter which they have no interest in—this means that nationality plays an important role in making the non-Iranian Shia a lamb which is sacrificed for the ulterior motives of the Shia Religious Authority.

While I am writing these few lines, I know with certainty that in Iran there are hundreds of Shia refugees from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Pakistan that are waiting for support from the Shia Religious Authority in Iran to overthrow the current authority in their countries. However, these refugees are interacting with the Iranian Shia Religious Authority like how a servant interacts with its master, where the Shia Religious Authority treats them like beggars and travellers who neither have any support, strength, home, honour, or nobility. They sometimes call them strangers and sometimes homeless, and many a time they are called by their nationality in order to belittle and disgrace them.

Before I end this chapter, I wish to expose an important secret to all the Shia, although it may not be hidden to those who are familiar with what transpires in the chambers of the Shia Religious Authority. This will make the Shia around the world come to know the extent to which nationalism has dominated and continues to dominate the minds of the Shia Religious Authority in their dealings with the non-Iranian Shia.

I refer to the grants and allowances stipulated for Shia students in the religious seminaries. Up to this day, it is stipulated according to the nationality they belong to. The Religious Leadership has divided them into four classes:

The privileged class, who are the Iranians. They secure the highest grant and allowance. They are followed by the Arabs and then the Indians and Pakistanis, and the fourth class is the Afghans, who receive the lowest grant and allowance.

This was the trend that was followed in the religious seminaries until my grandfather, the great Imam Sayed Abu al Hassan, took over the leadership and cancelled this preferential treatment based upon nationality, and announced that he will practice upon the verse:

إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللّٰهِ أَتْقٰىكُمْ

Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous.^[1]

He stipulated an equal grant for all students, despite the difference in their nationalities. The religious seminaries that my grandfather, the great Imam, headed for twenty-five years continued operating in this manner until he passed on, and after him Imam al Burujirdi took over and maintained it in the same way for fifteen years. When Imam al Burujirdi passed away in 1960, the Iranian Shia Religious Authority returned to the system of classes that was prevalent before the leadership of my grandfather. This condition continues as I pen these lines.

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^[1] Surah al Hujurat: 13.

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