{"id":1982,"date":"2023-08-16T18:28:13","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T18:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1982"},"modified":"2025-01-29T22:40:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T22:40:17","slug":"special-report-sunni-clerics-in-the-crosshairs-of-islamic-republic-repression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1982","title":{"rendered":"Special Report: Sunni Clerics in the Crosshairs of Islamic Republic Repression"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/iransos.com\/en\/photo\/2011\/s\/sunnis-hr.png\" \/>Religious Leaders of Minority Communities Are Arrested, Imprisoned, Defrocked for Supporting Protesters<\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">August 15, 2023 \u2013 Religious leaders of the Sunni Muslim communities in Iran\u2019s Sistan and Baluchistan province and in the Kurdish provinces of the country are being increasingly targeted by Islamic Republic authorities for persecution, arrest, and imprisonment because of their peaceful criticism of the state\u2019s violent repression.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><!--more--><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cIranian authorities are jailing and defrocking religious leaders of the Sunni communities for speaking out against the state\u2019s killings and arrests of protesters,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cSunni clerics in Iran have committed no illegal act other than speaking openly about the state\u2019s violent repression of the people in their communities\u2014and that is a crime in the Islamic Republic,\u201d Ghaemi said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">While religious and ethnic minorities in the Islamic Republic have long been oppressed, the state\u2019s targeting of Sunni clerics intensified after anti-government protests swept across Iran in the wake of the September 2022 death in state custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Many Sunni clerics spoke out strongly against the state\u2019s violence against peaceful protesters. While state security forces killed over 500 protesters across the country and arrested approximately 20,000 people from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, Baluchis and Kurds bore the brunt of the state\u2019s lethal crackdown, with the highest number of casualties taking place in Sistan and Baluchistan province and in the Kurdish areas of the country, respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Sunni clerics have also criticized the state\u2019s disproportionate use of the death penalty against ethnic minority communities such as Baluchis and Kurds\u2014including its heavy use for drug offenses, which violates international standards that allow capital punishment only for the \u201cmost serious\u201d crimes, which do not include drug offenses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In addition, the clerics have spoken out against the indiscriminate shooting by state border guards of couriers in both the Baluchi and Kurdish areas who sell goods over the border.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">As a result, these religious leaders have become targets for heightened persecution by a government that sees any peaceful dissent as a potentially existential challenge to be crushed\u2014especially when the criticism comes from highly respected figures in their respective communities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Iran is majority Shia Muslim, and is ruled by Shia clerics who have made Shiism the official religion of the state. Religious minorities in the country, which include not only Sunni Muslims, but also Christians, Baha\u2019is, Zoroastrians, Jews, the Gonabadi Sufi community, and others have long been persecuted and discriminated against in the Islamic Republic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Religious and ethnic identities in Iran overlap, intensifying the intersectional discrimination these communities face. Sistan and Baluchistan is predominantly Sunni Muslim, but also predominantly ethnic Baluchi, and Kurds, who are the largest ethnic minority in western Iran, are predominantly Sunni.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">But in the wake of the most severe protests the Islamic Republic has faced in decades, the state\u2019s repression and persecution has worsened. The government has moved to crush any significant dissent, and the Sunni clerics, who have openly criticized the state\u2019s brutal tactics, are now in their crosshairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Wave of Arrests of Sunni Clerics in Iran\u2019s Sistan and Baluchistan Province<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The intensity of the state\u2019s lethal crackdown against protests in Sistan and Baluchistan province was unmatched anywhere else in the country. As peaceful demonstrations broke out across the country in September 2022, protesters in Sistan and Baluchistan were essentially met by death squads\u2014during the \u201cBloody Friday\u201d massacre in Zahedan on September 30, 2022, Islamic Republic security forces killed more than 100 protesters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Since that time, even as protests quieted in much of the rest of the country due to the state\u2019s brutal assault on protesters, demonstrations after Friday prayers continued weekly in Zahedan for more than 40 weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Baluchi Sunni clerics have also spoken out against the government\u2019s executions, largely for drug-related crimes, which have disproportionally affected the Baluchi community. While the Baluchi ethnic minority comprises about five percent of Iran\u2019s total population, it accounts for approximately 20 percent of the reported executions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlana Abdolhamid:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Mowlana Abdolhamid, the Friday prayer leader of Zahedan and de facto Sunni leader of the Baluchi community, has regularly criticized the state\u2019s violent repression of protests in the province in his Friday sermons. For example, on April 11, 2023, he held a reception for the families of dozens of protesters killed by Islamic Republic forces on \u201cBloody Friday\u201d in Zahedan, where he stated: \u201cWe\u2019re proud of the injured, and the families of the martyrs of these incidents. Everyone has been patient after these incidents and we wanted to seek justice through legal means. If the law does not address our demands, at least there\u2019s God and God will address our rights. The Almighty is fair and will seek justice for those who have been killed or injured unjustly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>During Mowlana Abdolhamid\u2019s sermon at Zahedan\u2019s Friday prayers on April 21, 2023, he said:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cNot only the perpetrators should be punished but also those who issued the orders [to kill protesters in Sistan and Baluchistan province since September 2022] \u2026 we will not retreat an inch in seeking justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">He has also criticized the wave of executions in Sistan and Baluchistan province. In his sermon on May 4, 2023, he said: \u201cWhere in Baluchistan have you created jobs that today you are executing people [for drug trafficking]? What has the government done for the people? Most people turn to drug trafficking because they\u2019re hungry and don\u2019t have jobs; why do you execute them? You neither created jobs in this province nor allowed them to study. Your only art is to execute people, nothing more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>At Mowlana Abdolhamid\u2019s sermon on June 2, 2023, he said:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cThe executions that took place in the 1980s are shocking,\u201d in reaction to a recent confession by a former Evin Prison director regarding the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. He said: \u201cGovernments come and go, and no regime remains forever. You should stand by the people\u2026. Everyone is thinking about plundering the country, and many have become rich while the majority of the people have become poor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On June 14, 2023, the Iranian authorities canceled Mowlana Abdolhamid\u2019s planned pilgrimage to Mecca.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In June and July 2023, security forces detained at least seven close associates of Mowlana Abdolhamid, including his grandson. Those seven are still detained, even though charges have yet to be issued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On July 9, 2023, the hardline Kayhan newspaper accused Mowlana Abdolhamid of \u201csupporting the recognition of the Zionist regime (Israel) and negotiating with it, as well as supporting the Zionist Baha\u2019is, which shows he is only a pawn.\u201d On July 8, the paper accused the cleric of supporting Baluchi separatists. He had not yet been arrested as of early August, but such accusations may be laying the groundwork for future state persecution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>Abdolalim Esmailzahi,<\/em> son <em>Mowlana Abdolhamid<\/em>, was reportedly interrogated for several hours in the IRGC Intelligence Organization on August 2, 2023. He was ordered to return on August 5. Any charges against him have not been revealed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlawi Abdolmajid Moradzahi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Baluchi Sunni cleric Mowlawi Abdolmajid Moradzahi has been in detention in a solitary cell since his arrest on January 30, 2023, and Haalvsh, a Baluchi news organization, reports that he has been subjected to torture in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province. He is banned from visitations and phone contacts. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">He has been charged with \u201cdisturbing public opinion and speaking with foreign media\u201d for giving interviews to foreign media about protests in Sistan and Baluchistan province. As of August 4, 2023, he was still in detention. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">There is no information regarding any lawyer or any trial set, and the case seems to be in limbo. The Sunni cleric\u2019s family have written an open letter to international organizations seeking help in securing his release.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlawi Ebrahim Hassan-Zahi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Baluchi cleric Mowlawi Ebrahim Hassan-Zahi, 25, was arrested by security agents on his way home from Makki Mosque in Zahedan on February 25, 2023. He has been held illegally and reportedly subjected to torture. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On May 20, 2023, an informed source told Haalvsh Baluchi news agency: \u201cHe is now in Zahedan Central Prison in solitary confinement, under such severe torture that his skin has been completely damaged\u2026\u201d He was still in detention as of August 9, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlawi Amanollah Saadi:<\/em> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">An instructor at the Dar al-Oloum seminary school in Zahedan, Mowlawi Amanollah Saadi was arrested in early April 2023 by security agents, and remains in detention, with no further information regarding charges or other aspects of case status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlawi Abdolaziz Omarzahi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">A lecturer at the Makki seminary school in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province, Mowlawi Abdolaziz Omarzahi, was arrested by Intelligence Ministry agents on April 30, 2023. He is still in detention, and no charges have been reported as of yet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlawi Mohammad Tayyeb Mollazahi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On June 16, 2023, authorities canceled the planned pilgrimage to Mecca of outspoken Sunni cleric Mowlawi Mohammad Tayyeb Mollazahi, the Friday prayer leader of Iranshahr, in Sistan and Baluchistan province.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On June 23, 2023, state security agents arrested Hafez Kamran Salemizahi and Mowlawi Nazir Bakhshzahi, two teachers at the Mafatih al-Oloum Seminary in Rasak, Sistan and Baluchistan province. Farzad Dehghani, a student at the seminary, was also arrested. All three were still in detention as of August 9, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em><strong>Mowlana Mohammad Osman:<\/strong><\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In his sermon on August 11, Mowlana Mohammad Osman, Friday prayer leader of Khash, Sistan and Baluchestan province, said: \u201cThe executions will have irreparable consequences for society and many orphan children and women will be left without a guardian, which endangers the future of society and individuals. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Instead of executing people, they should be given time to stop buying and selling drugs and find another job, and the government should provide the opportunity to create jobs and deal with the problems of unemployment and lack of livelihood.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlana Mohammad Hossein Gorgij:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Speaking out against the mounting executions of Baluchis, Mowlana Gorgij, Friday prayer leader of Galikesh, bordering Sistan and Baluchestan province, said in his sermon on August 11:\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cIt is our request that political prisoners and prisoners of conscience to be freed and the executions to be halted. [We] \u2026 hear slogans about unity but on the other hand see the spread of fear and terror in society.\u201d Earlier, on January 15, 2023, supporters of Mowlana Mohammad Hossein Gorgij gathered in front of his home, preventing him from complying with a summons to appear in the Special Court for Clergy. So far, he has not appeared at the court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlawi Abdollah Barahouie:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Iran\u2019s security agents on August 12 arrested Mowlawi Abdollah Barahouie, a scholar at the Madineh al-Oloum seminary in the city of Khash, as well as Safiollah Sharif, an Afghan national studying at the school.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mowlawi Fathi Mohammad Naghshbandi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On August 14, 2023, Mowlawi Fathi Mohammad Naghshbandi, the Friday prayer leader of the city of Rasak, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, was summoned to the local offices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization and the Ministry of Intelligence, as well as to the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s Representative in the provincial capital, Zahedan, and threatened with arrest if he continued to deliver sermons critical of the Islamic Republic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Kurdish Sunni Clerics Sentenced to Long Prison Terms<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Kurdish regions of Iran were also disproportionally subjected to lethal state violence during the protests that erupted across Iran since September 2022. Massacres of unarmed protesters by Islamic Republic security forces took place in multiple cities in predominantly Kurdish provinces, including Mahabad, Sanandaj, Javanrud, Piranshahr, Dehgolan, Bukan, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Its clerics (often referred to as \u201cMamostas,\u201d which means religious teacher), who are highly respected in these communities, not only frequently spoke out in defense of the people\u2019s right to peacefully protest and against the state\u2019s violence against them, but also often tried to intervene directly during lethal clashes between protesters and Islamic Republic security forces, to implore the security forces to stop shooting at the unarmed protesters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">These Sunni Muslim clerics have also spoken out against Islamic Republic border guards\u2019 indiscriminate shooting (and often killing) of couriers, known in these regions as \u201ckulbars,\u201d who trade goods illegally across the border due to a lack of economic opportunity in these impoverished and undeveloped regions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">For these \u201coffenses,\u201d these Kurdish religious leaders have been targeted for severe persecution and retribution by the Islamic Republic. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Seifollah Hosseini:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On November 21, 2022, Mamosta Seifollah Hosseini, the prayer leader of Khatam al-Anbiya mosque in Javanrud county, and a member of the Quran School Leadership Council in Kurdistan province, gave a speech at the funerals for two protesters who were shot and killed in Javanrud by state security forces (one of whom was an unarmed 16-year-old boy). <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Sunni cleric was arrested and imprisoned for his speech that day. One of Mamosta Seifollah Hosseini\u2019s close associates, described his arrest: <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cOn the night of December 13, [2022], IRGC Intelligence Organization agents raided Mamosta Seifollah Hosseini\u2019s home. They broke down doors and window panes and arrested him. During the arrest, the cleric\u2019s wife, Khatun Ghaderi, was also assaulted by the security agents and her hand was injured. Following the news of [the cleric\u2019s] arrest, hundreds of people gathered at night in front of the governorate and the Intelligence Ministry\u2019s office in Javanrud, demanding his release. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The agents took [the cleric] to the IRGC\u2019s Intelligence Organization\u2019s detention center in Kermanshah. After about two weeks of interrogation, they moved him to solitary confinement in Hamedan\u2019s Central Prison. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">He was kept for nearly 40 days in a cold cell with no heating [in December] in Hamedan Central Prison. Deprived of the right to have a lawyer of his own choice, the Sunni cleric was defrocked by the Special Court for the Clergy in Hamedan and sentenced on January 25, 2023, to 17 years in prison, 74 lashes, and exile in Ardabil for two years (six years in prison for \u201cacting against national security,\u201d 15 months for \u201cpropaganda activities against the state,\u201d six years for \u201cinciting the people to disrupt the country\u2019s security,\u201d two and a half years for \u201cinsulting the founder and leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran,\u201d and 15 months along with 74 lashes for \u201cdisrupting public order\u201d). <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The cleric has not appealed because he does not have a lawyer.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Jafar Parvini:<\/em> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The leader of Haj Shafie Mosque in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province, Mamosta Jafar Parvini was arrested by Intelligence Ministry agents on February 21, 2023. There have been no further public reports since his detention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Hossein Alimoradi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The director of a Sunni seminary school in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, Mamosta Hossein Alimoradi, was handed a suspended two-year prison sentence by the Special Court for Clergy for \u201cdisturbing public opinion\u201d on April 5, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Saber Khodamoradi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The prayer leader of a mosque near Saqqez, Kurdistan province, Mamosta Saber Khodamoradi, was sentenced on May 2, 2023, to 74 lashes and 7.5 months in prison by the Special Court for Clergy in connection with recent protests. No further information regarding his current status was publicly available as of early August.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Amin Gheisari:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"> The prayer imam in the village of Zarwaw Olia, near Baneh in Kurdistan province, Mamosta Amin Gheisari was arrested on May 18, 2023, by Intelligence Ministry agents. There has been no further information made public since his arrest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em><strong>Mamosta Madeh Karami:<\/strong><\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On May 23, 2023, a one-year suspended sentence was handed down against Mamosta Madeh Karami, the prayer imam of Howiyeh village near Sanandaj, in Kurdistan province, for his support of the people\u2019s protests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em><strong>Mamosta Abdoljabbar Lotfi:<\/strong><\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On May 24, 2023, the religious instructor and Friday prayer leader of Ershad Jame Mosque in Sanandaj, Mamosta Abdoljabbar Lotfi, was defrocked by the Special Court for Clergy and sentenced to 74 lashes and 7.5 months in prison in connection with protests in Kurdistan province. There are no further public reports regarding his current status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Zana Khoshaman:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On June 15, 2023, Mamosta Zana Khoshaman, a Kurdish Sunni cleric from Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province, was sentenced to 25 months in prison for being an alleged member of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran. There have been no further public reports regarding his status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Ebrahim Karimi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In mid-June 2023 Mamosta Ebrahim Karimi, Friday prayer leader of the Jameh Mosque in the village of Nanleh was sentenced to 12 years in prison (5 years mandatory if upheld), in addition to being defrocked and banished to Bushehr for two years, by the Special Court for Clergy in Hamedan on various sham charges, including \u201cpossessing a handgun,\u201d \u201cpropaganda against the state,\u201d and \u201cinciting riots and supporting protests.\u201d There are no further public reports regarding his current status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em><strong>Mamosta Loqman Amini:<\/strong><\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In mid-June 2023, the Special Court for Clergy in Hamedan sentenced Mamosta Loqman Amini, Friday prayer leader of the Jameh Mosque in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, to 11 years in prison (5 years mandatory if upheld) on the same baseless charges, in addition to being defrocked and banished to Ardabil for two years. There are no further public reports regarding his current status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Mohammad Arman Sadeghi:<\/em> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The director of Dar al-Oloum seminary in Dehgolan, Kurdistan province, Mamosta Mohammad Arman Sadeghi, was defrocked by the Special Court for Clergy and sentenced to 74 lashes and 7 months in prison in May 2023, in connection with the protests, and on July 3, 2023, Iran\u2019s Appeals Court upheld the sentence against Mamosta Mohammad Arman Sadeghi. There have been no new reports since his sentence was upheld.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em><strong>Mamosta Omar Ebrahimi:<\/strong><\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Kurdish Sunni cleric Mamosta Omar Ebrahimi was arrested on July 10, 2023, after being summoned to the Intelligence Ministry office in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province. Ebrahimi is the Friday prayer leader of Gargul Sofla village. There have been no further public reports since he was arrested.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On July 13, 2023, Friday prayer imams, Mamosta Jamaleddin Vaji and Mamosta Sharif Mahmoudpour, were summoned and interrogated in the Intelligence Ministry office in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><em>Mamosta Saber Khodamoradi:<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">On July 23, 2023, Mamosta Saber Khodamoradi, a Sunni prayer leader of a mosque as well as a seminary instructor in a village near Saqqez, Kurdistan province, was resummoned\u00a0 to the Special Court for Clergy in Hamedan, which on May 2, 2023, had sentenced him to 74 lashes and 7.5 months in prison on charges of \u201cpropaganda against the state,\u201d \u201csupporting riots,\u201d \u201cinsulting officials,\u201d and \u201cdisturbing public opinion.\u201d There have been no further public reports since then.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Islamic Republic Violates Both Iranian and International Law<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Islamic Republic\u2019s persecution of the country\u2019s Sunni clerics for speaking out peacefully against the state\u2019s illegal acts\u2013including its lethal repression of protesters, its indiscriminate killing of border couriers, and its targeting of minority communities for unlawful death sentences\u2014profoundly violates Iranian law and multiple international treaties to which Iran is a signatory, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as well as the UN\u2019s Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">These clerics are typically prosecuted in trials severely lacking in due process, including the denial of independent legal counsel, and are largely defenseless against the state\u2019s onslaught against them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) urges the international community\u2014including the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s (UNHRC) International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the UN\u2019s special rapporteurs and experts\u2014to highlight the plight of these persecuted clerics, especially those that are now behind bars, and to call upon the authorities in Iran forcefully and publicly to immediately release these individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cBaluchi and Kurdish Sunni clerics are among the few voices peacefully speaking out against the state\u2019s lethal violence toward these oppressed communities, and they are being locked up for it,\u201d said Ghaemi. \u201cThe international community must forcefully raise its voice in their defense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">This report was made possible from donations by readers like you. Help us continue our mission by making a tax-deductible donation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Religious Leaders of Minority Communities Are Arrested, Imprisoned, Defrocked for Supporting Protesters August 15, 2023 \u2013 Religious leaders of the Sunni Muslim communities in Iran\u2019s Sistan and Baluchistan province and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[666,664,668,662,661,669,665,670,671,663,660,667,650,657,656,654,658,651,653,652,659,655,92],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-mamosta-abdoljabbar-lotfi","tag-mamosta-amin-gheisari","tag-mamosta-ebrahim-karimi","tag-mamosta-hossein-alimoradi","tag-mamosta-jafar-parvini","tag-mamosta-loqman-amini","tag-mamosta-madeh-karami","tag-mamosta-mohammad-arman-sadeghi","tag-mamosta-omar-ebrahimi","tag-mamosta-saber-khodamoradi","tag-mamosta-seifollah-hosseini","tag-mamosta-zana-khoshaman","tag-mowlana-abdolhamid","tag-mowlana-mohammad-hossein-gorgij","tag-mowlana-mohammad-osman","tag-mowlawi-abdolaziz-omarzahi","tag-mowlawi-abdollah-barahouie","tag-mowlawi-abdolmajid-moradzahi","tag-mowlawi-amanollah-saadi","tag-mowlawi-ebrahim-hassan-zahi","tag-mowlawi-fathi-mohammad-naghshbandi","tag-mowlawi-mohammad-tayyeb-mollazahi","tag-sunni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}