May be many hate mongers on this forum can learn something from these women
Iram Jafri's older brother was 39 when he was killed as he left his office in Pakistan in 2001.
Raza Jafri, she said, was targeted by terrorists because he was a prominent surgeon who also was a Shiite Muslim. He left behind a wife and three young sons.
"He was someone that everyone looked up to. He was very loving, very nurturing. He would guide me," said his sister, a pediatrician who lives in Galena, Delaware County. "He was an icon in a lot of ways for the family and for the community."
As a Shiite, Jafri doesn't blame Sunni Muslims. She blames extremists.
read more
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... erent.html
Shias and Sunnis
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ghulam muhammed
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- Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm
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ghulam muhammed
- Posts: 11653
- Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm
Re: Shias and Sunnis
Saudi Arabia and Iran spar over Hajj pilgrimage
Rhetoric escalates between regional rivals Riyadh and Tehran over 2015 Hajj tragedy and this year's pilgrimage.
Saudi Arabia's grand mufti has said Tehran's leaders are "not Muslims", a day after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Saudi authorities of being responsible for the deaths of Muslims during last year's deadly crush at the Hajj pilgrimage.
The rhetoric from the regional rivals - mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia and majority-Shia Iran - comes as preparations are under way for the start of this year's Hajj pilgrimage, and Islam's holy festival of Eid al-Adha on Monday.
In comments to the Makkah newspaper published on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh was quoted as saying that Khamenei's remarks blaming Riyadh for last year's tragedy were "not surprising" because Iranians are descendants of Magi.
Magi refers to Zoroastrians and those who worship fire. Predating Christianity and Islam, Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in Persia before the Arab conquest.
"We must understand they are not Muslims, for they are the descendants of Majuws, and their enmity towards Muslims, especially the Sunnis, is very old," Saudi's grand mufti said, according to the AP news agency.
Khamenei, in remarks published on his website on Monday, started the verbal jousting, accusing Saudi Arabia of denying medical treatment to the victims of the 2015 Hajj crush.
"Heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers - instead of providing medical treatment and helping them or at least quenching their thirst. They murdered them," Khamenei wrote on his website, AP reported.
Khamenei also urged Muslims around the world to reconsider Saudi Arabia's custodianship and management of Islam's holiest sites, including in Mecca where the Hajj is performed.
Riyadh said 769 pilgrims were killed in the 2015 stampede and crush - the highest Hajj death toll since a crush in 1990. However, counts of fatalities by countries who repatriated bodies showed that more than 2,000 people may have died in the crush, more than 400 of them Iranians, according to news agencies.
Pilgrims need serenity
Khaled Batarfi, senior columnist with the Saudi Gazette, told Al Jazeera that the rebuke to Saudi Arabia over last year's tragedy contrasted with Iran's health minister, who said during a visit to the country at the time of the accident that Saudi authorities had provided all needed medical assistance and care to victims of the crush, including Iranian pilgrims.
Iran has long attempted to politicise the Hajj, Batarfi said, including political marches at the pilgrimage against the US, Israel and Jews that "were not acceptable".
"This is a place where other pilgrims need serenity ... to feel at peace," he said, adding that citizens of more than 50 nations participate in the Hajj each year and keep politics out of it.
"Except the Iranians. They insist year after year on doing that, and every time they do that ... is a crisis happens, accidents happen," he said.
In late May, Saudi Arabia and Iran failed to reach a deal on arrangements for Iranians to attend this year's pilgrimage to Mecca, with officials from both countries trading accusations on who was to blame for the impasse.
Late on Monday, Saudi state news agency SPA quoted the country's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef as saying that Iranian leaders were responsible for keeping their own people from the Hajj by attempting to politicise the pilgrimage.
"The Iranian authorities are the ones who don't want the Iranian pilgrims to come here for reasons concerning the Iranians themselves and in light of them seeking to politicise Hajj and turn it into rituals against Islam's teachings and that compromise the safety of Hajj," the crown prince said, according to Reuters news agency.
Tehran and Riyadh severed diplomatic relations in January after Saudi Arabia executed 47 "terrorists", including a Shia religious leader and a convicted al-Qaeda leader, and angry Iranian crowds stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/s ... 44475.html
Rhetoric escalates between regional rivals Riyadh and Tehran over 2015 Hajj tragedy and this year's pilgrimage.
Saudi Arabia's grand mufti has said Tehran's leaders are "not Muslims", a day after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Saudi authorities of being responsible for the deaths of Muslims during last year's deadly crush at the Hajj pilgrimage.
The rhetoric from the regional rivals - mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia and majority-Shia Iran - comes as preparations are under way for the start of this year's Hajj pilgrimage, and Islam's holy festival of Eid al-Adha on Monday.
In comments to the Makkah newspaper published on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh was quoted as saying that Khamenei's remarks blaming Riyadh for last year's tragedy were "not surprising" because Iranians are descendants of Magi.
Magi refers to Zoroastrians and those who worship fire. Predating Christianity and Islam, Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in Persia before the Arab conquest.
"We must understand they are not Muslims, for they are the descendants of Majuws, and their enmity towards Muslims, especially the Sunnis, is very old," Saudi's grand mufti said, according to the AP news agency.
Khamenei, in remarks published on his website on Monday, started the verbal jousting, accusing Saudi Arabia of denying medical treatment to the victims of the 2015 Hajj crush.
"Heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers - instead of providing medical treatment and helping them or at least quenching their thirst. They murdered them," Khamenei wrote on his website, AP reported.
Khamenei also urged Muslims around the world to reconsider Saudi Arabia's custodianship and management of Islam's holiest sites, including in Mecca where the Hajj is performed.
Riyadh said 769 pilgrims were killed in the 2015 stampede and crush - the highest Hajj death toll since a crush in 1990. However, counts of fatalities by countries who repatriated bodies showed that more than 2,000 people may have died in the crush, more than 400 of them Iranians, according to news agencies.
Pilgrims need serenity
Khaled Batarfi, senior columnist with the Saudi Gazette, told Al Jazeera that the rebuke to Saudi Arabia over last year's tragedy contrasted with Iran's health minister, who said during a visit to the country at the time of the accident that Saudi authorities had provided all needed medical assistance and care to victims of the crush, including Iranian pilgrims.
Iran has long attempted to politicise the Hajj, Batarfi said, including political marches at the pilgrimage against the US, Israel and Jews that "were not acceptable".
"This is a place where other pilgrims need serenity ... to feel at peace," he said, adding that citizens of more than 50 nations participate in the Hajj each year and keep politics out of it.
"Except the Iranians. They insist year after year on doing that, and every time they do that ... is a crisis happens, accidents happen," he said.
In late May, Saudi Arabia and Iran failed to reach a deal on arrangements for Iranians to attend this year's pilgrimage to Mecca, with officials from both countries trading accusations on who was to blame for the impasse.
Late on Monday, Saudi state news agency SPA quoted the country's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef as saying that Iranian leaders were responsible for keeping their own people from the Hajj by attempting to politicise the pilgrimage.
"The Iranian authorities are the ones who don't want the Iranian pilgrims to come here for reasons concerning the Iranians themselves and in light of them seeking to politicise Hajj and turn it into rituals against Islam's teachings and that compromise the safety of Hajj," the crown prince said, according to Reuters news agency.
Tehran and Riyadh severed diplomatic relations in January after Saudi Arabia executed 47 "terrorists", including a Shia religious leader and a convicted al-Qaeda leader, and angry Iranian crowds stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/s ... 44475.html
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ghulam muhammed
- Posts: 11653
- Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm
Re: Shias and Sunnis
Iranians flock to Karbala as Muslims from around the world move to Arafat to perform Hajj
Exposing the Iranian regime's long cherished hitherto unsuccessful dream to undermine the status and sanctity of the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia, some of the Iranian Shiite have converged on the Iraqi city of Karbala for what they mischievously termed as an "alternative pilgrimage".
The Iranian Shiite move came at a time when over two million Muslims from over 164 countries of the world are moving towards plains of Arafat to perform Haj - the annual ritual to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim, his dignified wife Hager and their noble son Prophet Ismael (Peace be upon all of them).
According to media reports, the hard-liner Ali Khamenei regime is diverting Iranians to the shrine of Imam Hussein, one of the holiest sites for Iranian Shias, after it failed to seal an agreement with Saudi Arabia needed for Iranian Haj pilgrims to travel to the Kingdom.
Independent media reports said though some of the Iranians bought to the idea, many refused to follow the hardline Iranian regime's mischievous campaign.
Visiting the Imam Hussein shrine does not have the same religious significance as the Hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam and therefore an obligation for Muslims who are able at least once in their lifetime. But followers of the Shiite sect feel more at home in Karbala than in Makkah.
“Karbala is normal for us. We always come here. This year they have blocked the path (to Makkah) and no one can go,” said Shukrullah, a white-haired Iranian pilgrim sitting on a rug near one of the gates to the mausoleum.
“It’s our duty to come here. This is an Islamic country. It’s good,” he said.
For the city, which lies about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, the extra influx of pilgrims is nothing out of the ordinary.
“We have prepared transport, accommodation and security. We are used to handling bigger occasion such as Arbaeen so we can handle this,” Karbala Governor Aqeel al-Turaihi told AFP.
Nasirah, a woman from the Iranian city of Ahvaz, has not yet performed the hajj and predicted that the substitution trip to Karbala could become a habit.
“In Iran, the pilgrims… pay to get a visa and go to Hajj. We in Iran wait a long time to get a chance to go. It can take 10 or 15 years,” she said.
“So I said let’s go for Arafah day in Karbala,” Nasirah said, referring to a prayer performed by Shiites in Saudi Arabia’s Arafat plain on the second day of hajj.
“If we are in Karbala, it’s the house of God, it can be considered Hajj for us. So for the next few years, we will be coming to Karbala — what can we do?”
Contrary to the claims by the Iranian pilgrims, the Saudi Government does not charge any payment or fee to issue Hajj or Umrah visas.
Iran has accused Riyadh of incompetence and of failing to investigate the 2015 disaster or take satisfactory precautions for this year’s pilgrimage. In a stampede during Hajj last year, more than 300 pilgrims had died - majority of them being Iranians.
Later investigations revealed, the Iranians pilgrims were involved in security breach because of which the stampede had taken place.
The Saudi government accordingly played tough and refused to bow down to unwarranted demand by Iranians - who have a history of creating unrest during Hajj. As a result, agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia for Hajj could not be sealed.
A war of words has since escalated, with both countries’ top clerics exchanging sharp words — Iran’s Ali Khamenei calling Saudi monarchs a “cursed, evil family” and Saudi Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh saying Iranians were not real Muslims.
“The Saudi-Iranian conflict has forced Iranians to come to Karbala to visit the shrine of Imam Hussein,” Mussawi said, adding, “For the Shiites, this is worth 70 hajj.”
In a phone call with the Makkah daily, the Grand Mufti said the attack of Khamenei on the Kingdom and his criticism of the Kingdom’s Haj arrangements is “not surprising", according to Arab News.
“We have to understand that they are not Muslims; they are the followers of ‘majuws’ (a term that refers to Zoroastrians and those who worship fire). Their enmity toward Muslims is old and their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis),” he said.
He stressed that those who are trying to undermine or disrupt Saudi Arabia’s efforts to conduct a peaceful and secure Haj for pilgrims coming from across the world will not succeed in their nefarious designs.
Muslims of the world fully trust and acknowledge the services rendered by the Saudi government toward the Two Holy Mosques and the pilgrims, added the Grand Mufti.
http://ummid.com/news/2016/September/11 ... rafat.html
Exposing the Iranian regime's long cherished hitherto unsuccessful dream to undermine the status and sanctity of the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia, some of the Iranian Shiite have converged on the Iraqi city of Karbala for what they mischievously termed as an "alternative pilgrimage".
The Iranian Shiite move came at a time when over two million Muslims from over 164 countries of the world are moving towards plains of Arafat to perform Haj - the annual ritual to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim, his dignified wife Hager and their noble son Prophet Ismael (Peace be upon all of them).
According to media reports, the hard-liner Ali Khamenei regime is diverting Iranians to the shrine of Imam Hussein, one of the holiest sites for Iranian Shias, after it failed to seal an agreement with Saudi Arabia needed for Iranian Haj pilgrims to travel to the Kingdom.
Independent media reports said though some of the Iranians bought to the idea, many refused to follow the hardline Iranian regime's mischievous campaign.
Visiting the Imam Hussein shrine does not have the same religious significance as the Hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam and therefore an obligation for Muslims who are able at least once in their lifetime. But followers of the Shiite sect feel more at home in Karbala than in Makkah.
“Karbala is normal for us. We always come here. This year they have blocked the path (to Makkah) and no one can go,” said Shukrullah, a white-haired Iranian pilgrim sitting on a rug near one of the gates to the mausoleum.
“It’s our duty to come here. This is an Islamic country. It’s good,” he said.
For the city, which lies about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, the extra influx of pilgrims is nothing out of the ordinary.
“We have prepared transport, accommodation and security. We are used to handling bigger occasion such as Arbaeen so we can handle this,” Karbala Governor Aqeel al-Turaihi told AFP.
Nasirah, a woman from the Iranian city of Ahvaz, has not yet performed the hajj and predicted that the substitution trip to Karbala could become a habit.
“In Iran, the pilgrims… pay to get a visa and go to Hajj. We in Iran wait a long time to get a chance to go. It can take 10 or 15 years,” she said.
“So I said let’s go for Arafah day in Karbala,” Nasirah said, referring to a prayer performed by Shiites in Saudi Arabia’s Arafat plain on the second day of hajj.
“If we are in Karbala, it’s the house of God, it can be considered Hajj for us. So for the next few years, we will be coming to Karbala — what can we do?”
Contrary to the claims by the Iranian pilgrims, the Saudi Government does not charge any payment or fee to issue Hajj or Umrah visas.
Iran has accused Riyadh of incompetence and of failing to investigate the 2015 disaster or take satisfactory precautions for this year’s pilgrimage. In a stampede during Hajj last year, more than 300 pilgrims had died - majority of them being Iranians.
Later investigations revealed, the Iranians pilgrims were involved in security breach because of which the stampede had taken place.
The Saudi government accordingly played tough and refused to bow down to unwarranted demand by Iranians - who have a history of creating unrest during Hajj. As a result, agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia for Hajj could not be sealed.
A war of words has since escalated, with both countries’ top clerics exchanging sharp words — Iran’s Ali Khamenei calling Saudi monarchs a “cursed, evil family” and Saudi Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh saying Iranians were not real Muslims.
“The Saudi-Iranian conflict has forced Iranians to come to Karbala to visit the shrine of Imam Hussein,” Mussawi said, adding, “For the Shiites, this is worth 70 hajj.”
In a phone call with the Makkah daily, the Grand Mufti said the attack of Khamenei on the Kingdom and his criticism of the Kingdom’s Haj arrangements is “not surprising", according to Arab News.
“We have to understand that they are not Muslims; they are the followers of ‘majuws’ (a term that refers to Zoroastrians and those who worship fire). Their enmity toward Muslims is old and their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis),” he said.
He stressed that those who are trying to undermine or disrupt Saudi Arabia’s efforts to conduct a peaceful and secure Haj for pilgrims coming from across the world will not succeed in their nefarious designs.
Muslims of the world fully trust and acknowledge the services rendered by the Saudi government toward the Two Holy Mosques and the pilgrims, added the Grand Mufti.
http://ummid.com/news/2016/September/11 ... rafat.html