Iran’s Top Sunni Cleric Blasts Country’s “Closed-Minded” Leadership

Iran’s most prominent Sunni cleric again used his Friday sermon to preach religious tolerance and to criticize the policies of the country’s Shia leadership, amid popular calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.

The ideologies of those “closed-minded individuals who hold positions of power” have “hindered progress and led to irrational decisions," Molavi Abdulhamid, the Sunni Friday prayer leader of the south-eastern city of Zahedan, said on April 14.

The 76-year- old cleric said that Iranians should be allowed to choose their rulers, emphasizing that no one is appointed by God other than Prophet Mohammad himself.

“All officials, regardless of their position, should be appointed by the people rather than God,” he said, in an apparent taunt to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

He emphasized the people's demand for freedom and justice and warned that those who execute anti-government protesters will be “punished on Judgment Day.”

“No one should think of destroying others," he said, adding that Islam “is the religion of tolerance, interaction and peace.” 

Molavi has been a key dissenting voice inside Iran since the eruption of nationwide protests in September 2022 demanding fundamental economic, social and political changes. Zahedan is the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan, home to Iran's Sunni Baluch minority of up to 2 million people.

In his latest Friday sermon, Molavi blamed the Islamic Republic for a wave of poisonings that has affected girls’ schools over the past months, saying, “People do not accept your claim and believe that the poisonings are deeply rooted in the system.”

“The culprit must be connected to an organization capable of attacking multiple schools in a single day. Regardless of whether the perpetrators is from within or outside the government, he must be identified and stopped by force,” he said.

Molavi expressed “surprise” over the fact that those behind the poisonings have not been identified, since the country’s security apparatuses are using sophisticated surveillance systems to identify violators of the Islamic Republic’s mandatory headscarf rules.

He also criticized the government's discriminatory policies toward Afghan immigrants, including the closure of prayer halls for Afghans in some cities.

After prayers, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Zahedan for a silent march out of respect for the month of Ramadan.

Internet monitor NetBlocks reported a “significant disruption” to connectivity in the city, calling the incident “the latest in a cycle of internet shutdowns targeting anti-government protests during Friday prayers.”

Zahedan residents have been holding protest rallies every Friday since September 30, when security forces killed nearly 100 people, in the deadliest incident so far in the nationwide demonstrations triggered by the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody.

Iranian authorities have cracked down hard on the women-led protest movement, killing more than 520 demonstrators and unlawfully detaining over 20,000, activists say. Following biased trials, the judiciary handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.

The protests and clampdown on dissent have been particularly intense in western Kurdish areas and Sistan and Baluchistan.