Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi issues statement concerning tragic incidents in Pakistan

Rasa – In a message released in regard to the recent attacks on Muslims in Pakistani, Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi said: “We hope that the Pakistani authorities quickly intervene and take the necessary measures in order to prevent such irrational things from taking place, since such things can endanger the unity of the Muslims.”

News ID: 422452

Date: 16 June 2016 - 13:41

RNA – An estimated 95% of Pakistani’s people are Muslim. The other five percent belong to other religious minorities including Christians and Hindus.

Shi’as are a minority among the Pakistani Muslims, comprising about 20% of the total Muslim population in the country. Takfiri fanatics consider them as heretics and thus, they are often persecuted and harassed.

In the last few months, Shi’as have set up roadside camps and have gone on hunger strike, enduring the heat and refusing to eat for 12 hours to protest the persecution and killings.

Since 1986, about 80,000 Pakistani Shi’as have been killed because of persecution.

In this regard, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi has released a statement, saying:

In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

These days, a lot of disturbing news comes from Pakistan. The Shi’a Muslims are being harassed everywhere in the country and the situation has deteriorated to the point where even the police forces sometimes attack their ceremonies and hurt them. There is also word that the Pakistani government and government based organizations have started seizing the lands of the Shi’as by force.

Such new kinds of anti-Shi’a actions in Pakistan have forced a large number of the Shi’as to go on hunger strike to show their objection to these actions and, based on the news that comes out of the country, some of these people are in critical conditions.

Such things which take place in Pakistan today are truly astonishing, particularly because some of them are being done by government agents. We are trying to maintain our good relations with the Pakistani government as well as our Pakistani brothers but such unspeakable oppression leveled at the Shi’a Muslims in that country by the Takfiris and Wahhabis is totally intolerable to all Shi’as of the world, and in particular the Shi’as in Iran.

We hope that the Pakistani officials and authorities quickly take the necessary measures in order to prevent such illogical things from happening, because such things will endanger the unity of the Muslims. We also call upon the international community to react to this heinous crime in a proper way and to take necessary actions to stop it from happening again.

May peace be upon those who follow the path of guidance,
Naser Makarem-Shirazi
June 6, 2016

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