Iranians join in signing ‘largest’ petition against Qur’an desecration

Iranians have joined in signing the “largest” petition against the desecration of the Muslim Holy book of Qur’an after the repetition of blasphemous acts in Western countries.

Some 250 meters of the petition are currently on display in Iran’s holy cities of Qom and Mashahd, officials news agency IRNA reported.

The petition is 1,114 meter long, and 80 percent of it was displayed in Iraq during the Arba’een mourning rituals so that pilgrims coming from across the world can sign it.

Arba’een marks the 40th day that followed the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam, and his 72-strong companions in the Battle of Karbala, in what is now southern Iraq, in 680 AD. The battle featured an unjust fight between Imam Hussein (AS) and his army, and the hugely outnumbered army of the Umayyad caliph of the time, Yazid I.

Each year, millions of Muslim mourners set out on a symbolic 80-kilometer-long walk that begins from the holy city of Najaf in Iraq, where the holy shrine of Imam Hussein’s father, Imam Ali (AS) is located, to the holy city of Karbala that houses Imam Hussein’s (AS) shrine.

The petition was initiated by the Arba’een Qur’anic Camp that issued a statement condemning the desecration of the Qur’an in the four languages of Persian, Arabic, Urdu and English.

The petition is part of practical and effective measures aimed to prevent acts of desecration to the holy books and sanctities.   

Several incidents have occurred in recent months that featured the desecration of the Holy Qur’an both in Denmark and Sweden with the approval of the two countries’ authorities.

These moves drew strongly-worded condemnations from across the globe. The sacrilegious acts also opened the floodgates of protests throughout the Muslim world, including in Iran, with all Muslim countries condemning them in the strongest terms.

‘4.5 million pilgrims headed to Mashhad’

Currently, 150 meters of the petition is displayed in a yard of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (AS) and 100 meters of it is in a yard of the Holy shrine of Fatemeh Masumeh (SA) so that the pilgrims can sign it.

That comes as millions of mourners are gathered in Mashhad of Razavi Khorasan Province to mark the martyrdom anniversary of the eighth Shia Imam, Ali bin Musa al-Reza (AS), which falls on September 16 this year.

Hojjat Ganadabi, an official in the governorate said on Saturday that more than 4.5 million pilgrims have entered Mashhad in the past 10 days.