Leader Calls on Muslims to Use Hajj Capacity to Confront Sectarian Strife
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said the Islamic world is now grappling with foreign-fomented sectarian strife, and called on the Islamic community to use Hajj pilgrimage capacity to confront the plot.
“The imposed, deliberate and malignant problem of igniting the flame of discord among the Islamic Ummah (community) is one of the major problems of the Isalmic world today," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing a group of Iranian Hajj officials here in Tehran on Monday.
The Leader also emphasized the role of Hajj rituals to counter the foreign-imposed discord, and stated, “The arrogance and colonialism have a long experience in fomenting religious strife, and in the current conditions, the capacity of Hajj should be activated to counter this plot.”
Ayatollah Khamenei warned against the enemies’ plot to create rift among Shiite and Sunni Muslims and also among all the Islamic sects, and said, “The confrontation between religious sects will not be restricted to Shiite and Sunni, and if the enemies of Islam can institutionalize such confrontation, instigating strife among the sects within Shiite and Sunni Muslims will be on their agenda.”
Ayatollah Khamenei called on all Muslim elites to identify and discover the unknown capacities of Hajj rituals.
In relevant remarks in April 2013, the Supreme Leader had warned against enemy plots to turn Islamic Awakening movements into sectarian and ethnic conflicts.
“Western and Zionist intelligence services are seriously and relentlessly pursuing this plot with the help of petrodollars and traitorous politicians from the East of Asia to the North of Africa and particularly in the Arab region,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in an opening speech at the “Scholars and Islamic Awakening Conference” in Tehran at the time.
