Establish a Consultative Council from Elites of All Communities to Review Ongoing Policies Alluding to the unstable situation of the country and challenges faced by different classes of the society… But he must speak with care. Prior to the Iranian revolution, Iran was the dominant military power in the gulf region. As Iran moved to condemn attacks against Shias in Pakistan this week, Iranian hardline news site Mashregh once again blamed foreign “Wahhabis” for sponsoring the violence. Sunni Muslims are a minority in Iran, where most Muslims follow the Shia branch of Islam. However, Shia Muslims are the majority in some other countries such as Iran, Iraq, and more recently, Lebanon. The majority of the Zahedan's Baluch population, as well as the refugees, are Sunnis, most adhering to the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence. A map about Arabs and Arabic speakers (including Iran): Out dated Iranian gov. In fact, one Iranian official actually called for the Grand Sunni Mosque in Zahedan to be destroyed, tweeting on May 24, the eve of … Zoheir Seidanloo / Mehr News Agency via AP 411). Bokhari says Iran’s Islamic republic, despite being predominately Shi’ite, could be used as a template in Afghanistan, a Sunni-majority country. Sunni and Shia Muslims share the most fundamental Islamic beliefs and articles of faith and are the two main sub-groups in Islam. The threat of militant extremism among Iran’s Sunnis is being taken very seriously in Tehran. [158] Following the 2005 elections, much of the leadership of Iran has been described as more "staunchly committed to core Shia values" and lacking Ayatollah Khomeini's commitment to Shia–Sunni unity. Some extremist Arab groups (particularly Ahwazis) represent the other side of the extreme, claiming there are 10 million Arabs in Iran. The Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979, refused to grant the Sunnis building permission. Iran wants to maintain good relation with Russia, which supports Armenia and is worried that a prolonged conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh will encourage Sunni extremism in the Caucuses and central Asia. By the way, Iran is deemed as one of the safest countries of the world, even for Sunni brothers who are living in Iran. [159] The truth seems to be… They do differ, however, and that separation stemmed initially, not from spiritual distinctions, but political ones. Iran insists the US was backing the leader of an armed Sunni group heading an insurgency in the country who was captured earlier this week. How They See the Divide The first conclusion of the study is that, compared to Shias, Sunnis are more inclined to... 2. Concise answer: Yes, of course. The mullahs in Iran have increased their persecution of Sunni Muslims in southwestern and southeast Iran, where many Iranian Sunnis live. "We live together nicely," he insists. This memo tries to reassess the impact of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 on Sunni Islamic movements outside of Iran. Washington denies the claims. Shiite-majority Iran is home to millions of Sunnis, including the Sunni imam who opened his door to NPR's Steve Inskeep in Tehran. The Council of Sunni Theologians of Iran (CSTI), representing clerics based in the country’s northwestern Kurdish-populated provinces, suspended operations on July 13, 2017 in response to the ongoing climate of intimidation and fear perpetuated by the Intelligence Ministry, the group’s leader told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Sunni students of Jamiah Darul Uloom University: the city is actually closer to Kabul than to the Iranian capital Tehran. In a letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Sunni Friday Imam of Zahedan, Mawlana Abdul Hamid, his claiming that Sunni citizens in Iran are still considered "second-class citizens." The Iranian Revolution and Sunni Political Islam Toby Matthiesen, University of Oxford *This piece was drafted as part of the New Analysis of Shia Politics workshop. The Shia-Sunni divide in Iran 1. Correspondingly, which countries are Sunni? https://www.islam21c.com/politics/the-oppressed-sunnis-of-iran Indeed, the continued underdevelopment of these regions is … 15 talking about this. In reality, they have remained regional rivals, cold war adversaries, open enemies, and security and ideological threats to one other ever since. Sunni Shia Islam Muslims Iran saudi Bahrain Syria Join our new commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Iran said Thursday it had hanged 20 "terrorist" Sunni prisoners, in one of the Islamic republic's biggest mass executions in recent years. Swearingen argues that, whilst Sunni/Shi’ite tensions played a role, they are ‘most convincingly interpreted as a struggle for status as the region’s most dominant power’ (1988, pg. Defending the Divide The study finds that the majority of Sunnis believe that, culturally, they are very different... 3. Iran’s human rights record does not bother Turkey, and Iranian dissidents seem to be just pawns in the broader game for supremacy over whoever is the enemy at a given time. Last November, two Sunni prisoners of conscience from Iran's Baluch minority were executed. Finally, in 1979, the Islamic Revolution in Iran produced a radical brand of Shia Islam that would clash violently with Sunni conservatives in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the decades to follow. Non-Sunni Iranian opposition parties, and Shia like Ayatollah Jalal Gange’i have criticised the regime's treatment of Sunnis and confirmed many Sunni complaints. Iranian authorities have been exerting considerable effort to stem the spread of Salafism and Wahhabism into Iran’s mainly Hanafi Sunni majority regions. sources (and CIA sources) give a roughly estimate of 1-2 million (2-3% of the entire population). Lambasting the Guardian Council (GC), the body in charge of vetting the nominees in parliamentary and presidential elections, Abdol Hamid said, "The current Majles (Iranian parliament) is the outcome of the GC's decisions. The men, who were hanged on Tuesday, were accused of carrying out a string of attacks against civilians and religious leaders in Iran's western Kurdish region, state media reported. Unfortunately, many Sunni Muslims from all over the world are misguided by this propaganda; thus, thinking that Sunnis of Iran are really persecuted; this is while, to the contrary, their rights and status are guaranteed by the Iranian Constitution as … Tehran also has unease over pan-Turkish separatism in its own northwest , … However, there are no Sunni mosques at all in Iran’s large cities. Shia and Sunni clerics from around the world gather at an anti-extremism conference in Qom, Iran, in 2014. Raising awareness for Sunni prisoners facing persecution, torture and execution in Iran. See POMEPS Studies 28 for the full collection. [1] One strategy that authorities are not pursuing, however, is development. Actually there seems to be approximately 90% of Iran as Shia Muslims + a Shi’i government. In theory, Shiite Iran and Sunni Turkey (both Ottoman and modern) have been at peace for nearly 400 years, with their shared border unchanged since the signing of the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639. Some Sunni dominated countries include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and Syria (see more on Syria, below). Sunnis are the more dominant form of Islam – at least 80 per cent of Muslims worldwide. But the Sunni leader openly questioned the legitimacy of elections organized by the Islamic Republic. For decades, Tehran’s Sunni minority has sought to build a mosque but authorities have always prevented the construction. The salient Sunni and Shia identity in Pakistan created during the 1980s to 1990s, as a result of the state’s exclusionary policies of Sunni-centric Islamization, violence against Shias by Sunni sectarian militants, and state patronage given to such outfits and Iranian Revolution, are sensitive to geopolitics in the Middle East and Pakistan’s policy towards Saudi Arabia and Iran. It has a nice feeling of brotherhood/unity between Shias/Sunnis (and a common life), especially you can feel it in the cities, including both Sunnis/Shias.