The Friday Prayer Leader of Hamburg:

We cannot remain silent in the face of oppression and injustice

Rasa – Ayatollah Ramezani said that the message of Islam is peace, brotherhood and spirituality and stressed that we cannot remain silent in the face of oppression and injustice.

News ID: 422474

Date: 04 July 2016 - 13:22

RNA – Speaking at the Islamic Centre of Hamburg, Ayatollah Dr. Reza Ramezani-Gilani, the German city’s Friday prayer leader, noted that one of the common points in all the messages sent by various Protestant, Catholic and other Christian clerics and others expressed concern about the unstable situation in the world, and said: “The message of the religion of mercy [Islam] is peace, brotherhood and spirituality, can create a peaceful life in society. But paying attention to peace and mercy does not mean we can remain silent in the face of oppression. We cannot be silent in the face of all this injustice.”

He also reacted to recent terrorist attacks all around the world, the crimes against Muslims in Bahrain and Pakistan and the removal of Saudi Arabia from the UN blacklist despite its killing of children in Yemen and also criticized the silence of the international community towards the main perpetrators of the current state of affairs.

Ayatollah Ramezani added that given the current unstable situation that the world faces it simply is not enough to be concerned. Indifference to all the oppression in the developing world is not rational. Justice and fairness is such that we sympathize with the oppressed and take a stance in regard to the oppressors, just as Imam Ali taught us: “Be firm against the ruthless enemies and an ally to be oppressed.”

The president of the Islamic European Union of Shi’a Scholars and Theologians stressed: “Where does the Takfiri ideology originate? Who are publicly promoting the destructive Takfiri ideology in the world? Everybody knows this. So, wouldn’t anyone act and let everything be ignored?”

Ayatollah Ramezani condemned the atrocities carried out by the House of Saud in the region, noting the crimes that have taken place over the past year in Yemen and the United Nations removing Saudi Arabia from its blacklist despite its violation of children’s rights in Yemen.

“The documentation of the Saudi genocide of children is so [severe] that even some European countries have said they would not sell military equipment to Saudi Arabia. But in the end what has happened?” he said.

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