Shahram Rafizadeh

Despite more than two weeks having passed since the arrest of a Sunni cleric and the director of ‎the Internet website, Sunni Online, which is the official mouthpiece for the Daralallom Sunni ‎school in Zahedan, officials at the judiciary continue to refrain from disclosing the reasons ‎behind his arrest. The arrest of the Sunni Online website's director takes place a few days after ‎the website was filtered by the Iranian government. ‎

The official website of Zahedan Daralallom announced the arrest of Molavi Ahmed Naroyi, ‎identifying him as the "administrative supervisor of Zahedan Daralallom, professor of Hadith ‎‎[narrative record of the sayings or customs of Prophet Muhammad and his companions] and ‎director of Sunni Online."‎

The website held an online vote inquiring about reasons behind it being targeted, according to ‎which 61 percent of voters blamed "religious discrimination" for the website's filtering, while ‎‎23.7 percent identified "telling the truth" as the reason and only 15 percent blamed the "website's ‎mistakes" for its recent confrontation. ‎

Previously, Norooz website, the official mouthpiece of the reformist Mosharekat Party had ‎confirmed news of Molavi Ahmed Naroyi's arrest and identified him as the second most ‎influential cleric among Sistan and Baluchistan province's Sunni community behind Molavi ‎Abdolhamid. According to Norooz, the arrest of Molavi Abdolhamid's deputy and director of ‎Sunni Online website points to increasing pressure on Sunni activists. ‎

Zahedan's Sunni Friday prayer leader, Molavi Abdolhamid, who also supervises the Zahedan ‎Daralallom seminary school, condemned the cleric's arrest, adding, "He is a prominent figure and ‎uniting and well-intentioned activists for Shia and Sunni… Our expectation is that the sanctity of ‎our clerics must be respected and they should not be summoned to court when they have not ‎committed a crime."‎

Protesting Religious Discrimination

Iran's Sunni minority, which includes more than 15 million members, faces religious restrictions. ‎For instance, the Sunnis have not yet been permitted to build an exclusive mosque in Iran's ‎capital. In addition, Sunni Friday prayers, which were held in recent years at a Pakistani school ‎in Tehran, have not been held since the coming to power of the Ahmadinejad Administration, ‎and security officers do not allow Friday prayers to be held in public parks either. Several Sunni ‎mosques have been shut down in Sunni-populated areas in recent months and Sunni clerics are ‎under pressure or arrest. ‎

In addition, the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution has adopted a resolution under the title, ‎‎"Bylaws of Governmental Council for Planning of Religious Affairs Seminary Schools for ‎Sunnis" since last May. The resolution has been widely condemned by Sunnis, including several ‎Sunni lawmakers, as an instance of government interference in their affairs. Zahedan's Friday ‎prayer leader, Molavi Abdolhamid, has called for the resolution's reversal, announcing that ‎religious affairs constitute the red line for the Sunnis. In this connection, several Sunni ‎lawmakers in the Majlis wrote a letter addressed to Ahmadinejad, who also heads the Supreme ‎Council for Cultural Revolution, protesting the resolution's implementation. ‎

In recent Friday prayer sermons at the Maki Mosque in Zahedan, Molavi Abdolhamid criticized ‎the closure, restriction or threat to closure of several mosques and prayer grounds for Sunnis and ‎lack of access to the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader to share problems and obstacles faced ‎by the Sunni community. Molavi Abdolhamid noted that he expects from Ayatollah Khamenei ‎to personally supervise affairs related to the Sunni community. ‎

Elongated Confrontation

A number of Sunni clerics or social and cultural activists of the Sunni faith have been arrested or ‎put under pressure in recent months in the provinces of Golestan, Kurdistan, and Sistan and ‎Baluchistan. ‎

In one of the most controversial instances, on August 5, Yaghoub Mehrnahad, director of the ‎non-governmental "Youth of Voice of Justice" organization, blogger and editor of Mardomsalari ‎newspaper in Zahedan, was sentenced to death while in prison and without his attorney's ‎presence on charges of "Moharebeh" [armed enmity with state] after spending 15 months behind ‎bars. ‎

On April 9 of this year two Sunni clerics, Molavi Abdolghoddus Molazehi and Molavi ‎Mohammad Yousef Sohrabi were executed in Zahedan after spending four months behind bars. ‎

The head of Sistan and Baluchistan's judiciary, Ebrahim Nekounam, identified the executed ‎clerics as "disrupters of public security who worked to divide Shia and Sunni" hours after their ‎execution in a statement published by the Iranian Students News Agency. ‎
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Zahedan Daralallom