RNA – In a statement, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpaygani, a revered Iranian Shi’ah source of emulation, condemned the recent killing of mourners of Imam Husayn in Nigeria.
At least 10 people were killed and several others sustained injuries when Nigerian forces opened fire at a group of Shi’ah Muslims holding a demonstration in preparation for the upcoming Arba’in mourning rituals in Kano.
Violence broke out when police tried to disperse thousands of followers of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), who were marching from Kano to Kaduna for the mourning rituals.
In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
In the Holy Quran, God Almighty says: “And they did not take vengeance on them for aught except that they believed in God, the Mighty, the Praised” [85:8].
In these days where astonishment and amazement are the manifestation of the emotions of the millions of pure-natured and freedom-seeking people over the occasion of the greatest epic in history, Arba’in, the fortieth day after the martyrdom of the ‘Master of the Free,’ Imam al-Husayn, unfortunately in Nigeria we have witnessed horrible crimes by which have been committed by the army of this country which hundreds of innocent people have been effortlessly attacked and many were martyred just for expressing their condolences to the Noble Prophet Muhammad and his oppressed family through establishing the rituals of mourning and by remembering and keeping the oppressed of Karbala alive in the hearts of the world.
“Surely we are God’s and to Him we shall surely return” [2:156]
Although martyrdom for these innocent people is victory and prosperity, but for the world whose human conscience is asleep, such an act is despised and humiliated.
Instead of standing against these crimes, the international community, which claims to be the defenders of human rights, and also the Organization of Islamic Cooperatioan and the Islamic governments, have remained silent and even some of them have confirmed these crimes!
Have these oppressed and defenseless people, committed crimes and sins that their shouts of “Labbayk Ya Husayn!” [“At Your Service, Oh Husayn!”] must be replied to with bullets?
I call on the Islamic Republic of Iran and the scientific and religious centres of the Islamic world to condemn this harrowing tragedy and take measures to prevent such accidents and through any means possible, help their innocent voices to reach the world.
The world must know that the name and memory of the Master of the Martyrs, Imam al-Husayn, and his holy aims will always be alive and abiding and the enemies and wrong-thinkers cannot make the people of the world forget this great epic.
“And do not think God to be heedless of what the unjust do” [14:42]. God Almighty has spoken the truth.
Lotfollah Safi
Islamic Seminary of Qom
Safar al-Mudhaffar, 1438 AH
16, November 2016
112/930/467