Cleric Sees Massacre of Myanmar Muslims as Confrontation against Islam

Tehran’s provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani strongly condemned the ongoing massacre of the Muslim minority in Myanmar, and opined that the move is part of enemies’ plot to confront Islam.

“In the face of (Islamic) Awakening, they kill oppressed Muslims. In fact, the enemy is doing this to counter Islam, Islamic Awakening and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Ayatollah Emami Kashani said, addressing a large congregation of worshippers on Tehran University Campus here on Friday.

He emphasized that the Iranian nation has a duty to follow guidelines of the Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei by taking steps to establish a just system and realize true ideals of humanity.

Meantime, Iran on Wednesday called on the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights and other relevant international bodies to take the necessary measures to prevent the ongoing massacre in Myanmar.

In a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Navy Pillay, Iranian Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva Seyed Mohammad Reza Sajjadi urged rapid and effective steps by all international bodies to condemn and put an immediate end to the massacre of the Muslims and the massive and systematic violation of Muslims and innocent people’s human rights.

The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas, who it claims are not natives and classifies as illegal migrants, although the Rohingya are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Burma as early as the 8th century.

Even Myanmar’s so-called democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has kept quiet on the atrocities committed against the Rohingya Muslims.

Zionist Puppet Myanmar’s President Thein Sein said Rohingya Muslims must be expelled from the country and sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations.

The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services.

Since June, hundreds of members of the nearly-one-million-strong Rohingya Muslim minority have been killed and tens of thousands of others among them have been displaced in the west of the country due to a wave of communal violence.

Over the past two years, waves of ethnic Muslims have attempted to flee by boats in the face of systematic oppression by the Myanmar government.