SalarHaqq
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Six pages of mostly baseless talk ignited by an incorrect thread title reflecting an equally erroneous tweet, and apparently none of the commenters bothered to autonomously verify the source material... The intellectual misery of our postmodern "social media"-fed epoch.
Either that, or those who lashed out at Iran or Hezbollah in the present thread for a supposed "statue" are collectively suffering from some form of bizarre eye disease, by virtue of which two-dimensional objects are rendered as three-dimensional ones in their view.
I shall make it simple:
This is no "statue" at all but a two-dimensional, printed panel made of cardboard or wood.
Statues by definition, are three-dimensional objects.
Just contemplate the images more carefully and you will realize by yourselves.
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It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel. Surprised now?
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel though.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel.
True but the weirdest thing about the whole discussion is that this is no "statue" to begin with, it is a two-dimensional panel.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel. Besides, in Lebanon Hezbollah has fought two victorious wars (a protactracted one plus a short and violent one) against Isra"el". I. e. more than can be said about any other movement or state actor for the past 40 years outside the oppressed Palestinians themselves.
Where was that? If you mean islamophobic Iranians who claim to have left Islam, these are no supporters but opponents of the current political system of the Islamic Republic, in fact many of them long for US-sponsored "regime change".
Again, where was that? Most Iranian users here are no staunch supporters of the Islamic Republic (although most support the IR for pragmatic reasons because they know full well that a fall of the IR would result in the destruction and balkanization of Iran itself). None apart from three or four seem to have any particular admiration for the Supreme Leader. So I'm puzzled as to where you are getting your impression from.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel. No different in essence from a large poster.
So in reality there's nothing wrong with it. Even from your theological perspective.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel. Nobody is being deified by this simple cardboard panel.
Neither Qasem Soleimani nor any other Iranian official has ever presented Iran's intervention in Syria as "jihad against Sunnis".
Much rather, Iran considers that it is fighting takfiri and extremist groups who:
- seek to destroy holy shrines
- tend to oppress Muslims and minorities alike
- aim to cut off its access to its Lebanese and Palestinian allies; and to Tehran, these Levantine allies represent a major security guarantee and deterrence factor in the face of potential military aggression by the zio-American regime
- meet with the subversive MKO terrorist sect responsible for the deaths of some 14000 Iranians
- strive to topple a loyal ally, given that Syria is known to have helped Iran during Saddam's war of aggression in the 1980's, something hardly any other government was willing to do.
In short, Iran never gave sectarianist justifications for its Syria policy.
Not once did anyone linked to Iranian authorities call for "jihad against Sunnis", whether in Syria or elsewhere for the matter. And no one will be able to credibly argue to the contrary, because there simply doesn't exist any such call.
What is more, hajj Qasem like the rest of the IRGC and IR officials have consistently spoken out against sectarianism.
Hajj Qasem himself once explained how he was strictly refusoing to assist any Shia Muslim group in Palestine (there are some small scale organizations of Shia Palestinians) and that his support towards Palestinians was going to Sunni Muslim formations only. Will find the speech and post it, God willing.
Likewise, the Islamic Republic's policy is not sectarian.
The constitution of the Islamic Republic was (co-)written by a Sunni Muslim aalim. The committee which authored Iran's current post-revolutionary constitution consisted of just a few members, one of whom happened to be a Sunni Muslim scholar. This is something the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, had also wished for.
Every year, the Islamic Republic organizes an Islamic unity conference bringing together Sunni and Shia Muslim scholars and activists to forge political unity and promote inter-denominational dialogue.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution, ayatollah Khamenei, has issued a fatwa against slandering historic figures dear to Sunni Muslims but criticized by Shia Muslims (Aisha and califs Omar, Othman, Abu Bakr and so on).
In the early 1980's, Imam Khomeini ordered the banning of the Shia Hojjatieh society, a sectarianist current that attacked Sunni beliefs in an antagonistic and provocative manner. While under the current Supreme Leader Khamenei, the offices of the numerous UK- and US-backed satellite TV broadcasters affiliated with the anti-Sunni sectarianist Shirazi clan of scholars were shut down; websites were launched denouncing the anti-Sunni fitna of the Shirazis and ayatollah Khamenei himself explicitly condemned these sectarianist narratives. Iranian state controlled media are consistently referring to said anti-Sunni (pseudo-)scholars as "British Shias".
It is thus not surprising that both Hojjatieh and Shirazi currents are vehemently opposed to the Islamic Republic, to its Velaayate Faqih governing principle as well as to its Supreme Leader Khamenei. Their supporters curse and insult ayatollah Khamenei on a regular basis for his unflinching rejection of anti-Sunni sectarianism.
Proportionally to the respective size of the Shia and Sunni Muslim populations in Iran, a greater number of mosques managed by Sunni Muslim prayer leaders were built under the Islamic Republic, than mosques managed by Shia Muslim prayer leaders.
Jamaat Tabligh enjoys a legal presence in Iran, mostly in Sistan-Baluchestan province. Their center in the provincial capital Zahedan is one of the largest buildings in town.
There are major Sunni Islamic centers of theological learning in Bandar Abbas, Sanandaj, Zahedan and other Iranian cities.
On the political level, the Muslim Brotherhood is allowed to have a branch in Iran called Noor Party, active mostly in the province of Kordestan.
Islamic Iran came to the aid of Sunni Muslims in:
- Sudan: multi-level cooperation under president Omar al-Bashir, including transfer of technology and local manufacture of Iranian arms.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: during that country's civil war, no other Muslim state actor assisted the government in Sarajevo as much as Iran. Any and all sorts of light weapons were flown in from Iran to save the Sunni Muslims of Bosnia. The IRGC helped create and train an entire brigade of the Bosnian army and several IRGC advisers were martyred at the hands of Serbian and Croatian militiamen.
Bosnian Sunni Muslim president Alija Izetbegovic had excellent contacts with Iran stretching back to the time of the Yugoslav Federation and spent years in jail for participating in a conference in Tehran in the early 1980's. Later he publicly thanked his Iranian friends for their flawless assistance to Bosnian Sunni Muslims when these were threatened by extinction.
Iran proceeded with this despite the fact that post-Soviet Russia, with whom Iran had just begun developing a partnership in various fields, was supportive of the opposite Serbian side.
- Northern Iraq: several Kurdish leaders from Iraq have publicly thanked Iran .or its selfless, prompt assistance in the face of ISIS's onslaught in 2014 and beyond. Iran has had a long-standing partner in northern Iraq, in the form of the Kurdish PUK party whose membership consists of Sunni Muslims.
- Occupied Palestine: today Iran is the only state actor on the entire planet to dare arm Palestinian resistance groups and back them not only in the political and diplomatic but also in the military realm.
- Afghanistan: apart from smaller Shia Muslim movements, Iran's major allies in Afghanistan have all been of Sunni Muslim faith. Whether one appreciates them or not is a different matter and not the point here.
- All over the Muslim world, from the Philippines to Morocco, Iran has been supportive of various Sunni Islamic groups, some of them linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and some not. Rashid al-Ghannoushi, the Tunisian En-Nahda leader, was famously inspired by Iran's Islamic Revolution. The Egyptian MB used to have an explicitly khomeinist, pro-Iranian faction until its members resigned in the late 2000's due to certain political differences.
With all the above in mind, labelling the Islamic Republic's policies or ideological stance as "sectaranist" or as "anti-Sunni", represents a thoroughly ignorant misrepresentation of reality.
What? Conscription is mandatory by definition, otherwise it's no longer called conscription. And it's a perfectly common thing, practiced in dozens of countries accross the planet.
Also, what about the many Sunni Muslim generals in the Syrian armed forces? What about the famous Aleppo merchant class, part of Syria's economic elites, which almost exclusively consists of Sunni Muslims? What about all the civil servants of Sunni Muslim faith in Syria? Were they all "forced" into their jobs?
There is no such thing as a "sectarian" government in Syria.
Either that, or those who lashed out at Iran or Hezbollah in the present thread for a supposed "statue" are collectively suffering from some form of bizarre eye disease, by virtue of which two-dimensional objects are rendered as three-dimensional ones in their view.
I shall make it simple:
This is no "statue" at all but a two-dimensional, printed panel made of cardboard or wood.
Statues by definition, are three-dimensional objects.
Just contemplate the images more carefully and you will realize by yourselves.
-------
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel. Surprised now?
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel though.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel.
True but the weirdest thing about the whole discussion is that this is no "statue" to begin with, it is a two-dimensional panel.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel. Besides, in Lebanon Hezbollah has fought two victorious wars (a protactracted one plus a short and violent one) against Isra"el". I. e. more than can be said about any other movement or state actor for the past 40 years outside the oppressed Palestinians themselves.
Where was that? If you mean islamophobic Iranians who claim to have left Islam, these are no supporters but opponents of the current political system of the Islamic Republic, in fact many of them long for US-sponsored "regime change".
Say a word against their chootiya Imam khameini and watch them burn
Again, where was that? Most Iranian users here are no staunch supporters of the Islamic Republic (although most support the IR for pragmatic reasons because they know full well that a fall of the IR would result in the destruction and balkanization of Iran itself). None apart from three or four seem to have any particular admiration for the Supreme Leader. So I'm puzzled as to where you are getting your impression from.
Its all they can do. Building statues of a roasted man
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel. No different in essence from a large poster.
So in reality there's nothing wrong with it. Even from your theological perspective.
It is no "statue" but a two-dimensional panel. Nobody is being deified by this simple cardboard panel.
Neither Qasem Soleimani nor any other Iranian official has ever presented Iran's intervention in Syria as "jihad against Sunnis".
Much rather, Iran considers that it is fighting takfiri and extremist groups who:
- seek to destroy holy shrines
- tend to oppress Muslims and minorities alike
- aim to cut off its access to its Lebanese and Palestinian allies; and to Tehran, these Levantine allies represent a major security guarantee and deterrence factor in the face of potential military aggression by the zio-American regime
- meet with the subversive MKO terrorist sect responsible for the deaths of some 14000 Iranians
- strive to topple a loyal ally, given that Syria is known to have helped Iran during Saddam's war of aggression in the 1980's, something hardly any other government was willing to do.
In short, Iran never gave sectarianist justifications for its Syria policy.
Not once did anyone linked to Iranian authorities call for "jihad against Sunnis", whether in Syria or elsewhere for the matter. And no one will be able to credibly argue to the contrary, because there simply doesn't exist any such call.
What is more, hajj Qasem like the rest of the IRGC and IR officials have consistently spoken out against sectarianism.
Hajj Qasem himself once explained how he was strictly refusoing to assist any Shia Muslim group in Palestine (there are some small scale organizations of Shia Palestinians) and that his support towards Palestinians was going to Sunni Muslim formations only. Will find the speech and post it, God willing.
Likewise, the Islamic Republic's policy is not sectarian.
The constitution of the Islamic Republic was (co-)written by a Sunni Muslim aalim. The committee which authored Iran's current post-revolutionary constitution consisted of just a few members, one of whom happened to be a Sunni Muslim scholar. This is something the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, had also wished for.
Every year, the Islamic Republic organizes an Islamic unity conference bringing together Sunni and Shia Muslim scholars and activists to forge political unity and promote inter-denominational dialogue.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution, ayatollah Khamenei, has issued a fatwa against slandering historic figures dear to Sunni Muslims but criticized by Shia Muslims (Aisha and califs Omar, Othman, Abu Bakr and so on).
In the early 1980's, Imam Khomeini ordered the banning of the Shia Hojjatieh society, a sectarianist current that attacked Sunni beliefs in an antagonistic and provocative manner. While under the current Supreme Leader Khamenei, the offices of the numerous UK- and US-backed satellite TV broadcasters affiliated with the anti-Sunni sectarianist Shirazi clan of scholars were shut down; websites were launched denouncing the anti-Sunni fitna of the Shirazis and ayatollah Khamenei himself explicitly condemned these sectarianist narratives. Iranian state controlled media are consistently referring to said anti-Sunni (pseudo-)scholars as "British Shias".
It is thus not surprising that both Hojjatieh and Shirazi currents are vehemently opposed to the Islamic Republic, to its Velaayate Faqih governing principle as well as to its Supreme Leader Khamenei. Their supporters curse and insult ayatollah Khamenei on a regular basis for his unflinching rejection of anti-Sunni sectarianism.
Proportionally to the respective size of the Shia and Sunni Muslim populations in Iran, a greater number of mosques managed by Sunni Muslim prayer leaders were built under the Islamic Republic, than mosques managed by Shia Muslim prayer leaders.
Jamaat Tabligh enjoys a legal presence in Iran, mostly in Sistan-Baluchestan province. Their center in the provincial capital Zahedan is one of the largest buildings in town.
There are major Sunni Islamic centers of theological learning in Bandar Abbas, Sanandaj, Zahedan and other Iranian cities.
On the political level, the Muslim Brotherhood is allowed to have a branch in Iran called Noor Party, active mostly in the province of Kordestan.
Islamic Iran came to the aid of Sunni Muslims in:
- Sudan: multi-level cooperation under president Omar al-Bashir, including transfer of technology and local manufacture of Iranian arms.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: during that country's civil war, no other Muslim state actor assisted the government in Sarajevo as much as Iran. Any and all sorts of light weapons were flown in from Iran to save the Sunni Muslims of Bosnia. The IRGC helped create and train an entire brigade of the Bosnian army and several IRGC advisers were martyred at the hands of Serbian and Croatian militiamen.
Bosnian Sunni Muslim president Alija Izetbegovic had excellent contacts with Iran stretching back to the time of the Yugoslav Federation and spent years in jail for participating in a conference in Tehran in the early 1980's. Later he publicly thanked his Iranian friends for their flawless assistance to Bosnian Sunni Muslims when these were threatened by extinction.
Iran proceeded with this despite the fact that post-Soviet Russia, with whom Iran had just begun developing a partnership in various fields, was supportive of the opposite Serbian side.
- Northern Iraq: several Kurdish leaders from Iraq have publicly thanked Iran .or its selfless, prompt assistance in the face of ISIS's onslaught in 2014 and beyond. Iran has had a long-standing partner in northern Iraq, in the form of the Kurdish PUK party whose membership consists of Sunni Muslims.
- Occupied Palestine: today Iran is the only state actor on the entire planet to dare arm Palestinian resistance groups and back them not only in the political and diplomatic but also in the military realm.
- Afghanistan: apart from smaller Shia Muslim movements, Iran's major allies in Afghanistan have all been of Sunni Muslim faith. Whether one appreciates them or not is a different matter and not the point here.
- All over the Muslim world, from the Philippines to Morocco, Iran has been supportive of various Sunni Islamic groups, some of them linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and some not. Rashid al-Ghannoushi, the Tunisian En-Nahda leader, was famously inspired by Iran's Islamic Revolution. The Egyptian MB used to have an explicitly khomeinist, pro-Iranian faction until its members resigned in the late 2000's due to certain political differences.
With all the above in mind, labelling the Islamic Republic's policies or ideological stance as "sectaranist" or as "anti-Sunni", represents a thoroughly ignorant misrepresentation of reality.
What? Conscription is mandatory by definition, otherwise it's no longer called conscription. And it's a perfectly common thing, practiced in dozens of countries accross the planet.
Also, what about the many Sunni Muslim generals in the Syrian armed forces? What about the famous Aleppo merchant class, part of Syria's economic elites, which almost exclusively consists of Sunni Muslims? What about all the civil servants of Sunni Muslim faith in Syria? Were they all "forced" into their jobs?
There is no such thing as a "sectarian" government in Syria.
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