The unprecedented expose of Zahedan’s Sunni prayer Imam of Ahmadinejad administration’s overt and covert measures to crackdown the Sunnis has been widely covered by Persian language Internet sites.

In his latest Friday prayer sermon - which was posted on Internet sites belatedly - Zahedan’s Sunni Imam Mowlavi Abdol-Hamid talked about the alarming conditions that have come up in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan and addressed Ahmadinejad’s government in these words: “Do not pressure Sunnis and let us live side by side without any problems.”

The official website of the Zahedan Theology Center, Daral Olum, which presents the official views of the Sunnis in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan which published the remarks of Abdol-Hamid wrote, “I his second sermon this Friday, Zahedan’s prayer Sunni Imam Mowlana Abdol-Hamid strongly criticized the summons of many prominent clerics and their detention by the special clerical courts in Mashhad and pointing to the launching of problems and religious pressures on Sunnis by Ahmadinejad’s administration and said, ‘In those days, we had a talk with some senior members of the administration. Their remarks indicated that they had lost their patience with Sunnis and that they could not tolerate religious freedom of the Sunnis and it appeared as if they wanted to take unilateral action against them.’”

The news website dedicated to Sunni affairs continued its report by quoting Zahedan’s prayer imam who listed the problems that had begun with the coming to office of the ninth administration and on the direct instructions of some senior members of Ahmadinejad’s administration, who said, “The first problem [that came up with Ahmadinejad’s administration] was the unprecedented and extensive insults which were expressly made regarding the Sunni religious sensitivities.”

“The second insult, which is unacceptable to the Sunni community and does not cross any person, was the destruction of a Sunni school in Azimabad. We wrote and asked senior officials and tried to solve the problem in a manner that would not cause any problems, but the unfortunately the issue still remains,” Abdol-Hamid said.

“The third problem was the control of Sunni schools by the government. Elections were close in those days and they said that they would give schools five years to come under full government control. As the elections approached, the pressures subsided.”

In his sermon, Abdol-Hamid expressed his concern for the pressures that are increasingly exerted by the government on the Sunni minority and said, “Now, with the elections behind them, we think that the pressures have resumed and they appear in the unprecedented and large number legal summons that have been issued to Sunni leaders.”

Referring to Ahmadinejad, Abdol-Hamid said, “We want to talk with you .. I heard that the representative of the Velayat Faghih (Iran’s supreme religious leader) had held a meeting in the “minority regions,” where they had made decisions regarding Sunni schools. We respect the representatives of Velayat Faghih as is the person of the Vali (supreme leader) himself, but why do they have to make decisions about Sunni schools? Sunnis should be making such decisions not the representative of Velayat Faghih.”

In his concluding remarks, Abdol-Hamid said, “I categorically state that we can never relegate our religious centers and mosques to the government or Shiite clerics.”