When supreme leaders speak, as “supreme leaders” usually do, they offer superlative nuggets of wisdom that, to say the least, mobilize public opinion. This was what Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian “supreme leader” engaged in when he launched a blistering attack on Saudi Arabia, urging Muslims to “reconsider” the latter’s custodianship of Makkah and Madinah.
Khamenei accused Riyadh of “murder” no less. According to the Iranian’s baseless allegations, Saudi authorities “murdered” pilgrims who were caught up in a deadly stampede during the 2015 Haj. As the Muslim world celebrates Eid Al-Adha and over two million pilgrims perform their religious rites, are these accusations fresh fuel added to the sectarian fires consuming the Muslim world?
Characteristically, Khamenei relied on choice words to make his baseless allegations: “The 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,” he wrote in a statement posted on his website to mark the anniversary of the tragedy that killed many.
In the stampede that saw thousands in a frenzied rush, 769 died according to Saudi authorities. Riyadh rejected allegations that the incident was the result of poor management, which was understandable as authorities went out of their way to look after unprecedented crowds on a yearly basis.
None of that mattered to Khamenei who, buoyed by his own ego, alleged that the Kingdom’s rulers were “satans,” which was not a very clever epithet since no one really knows what satan looks like.
Khamenei accused the Kingdom leaders of transforming the annual pilgrimage into a “religious-tourist trip and have hidden their enmity and malevolence toward the faithful and revolutionary people of Iran under the name of ‘politicizing Haj’.” Continuing with his baseless allegations, Khamenei said, “the Saudis are themselves small and puny satans who tremble for fear of jeopardizing the interests of the Great Satan, the US.”
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, who is also the minister of interior, told the Saudi Press Agency that the Kingdom was committed to ensuring safe and non-political pilgrimage. For his part, Abdul Muhsin Alyas, the Saudi undersecretary for international communications and media at the Ministry of Culture and Information, declared that the Iranian’s accusations reflected “a new low” since such accusations were not only unfounded, but “timed to only serve their unethical, failing propaganda.”
Beyond the commemoration of the 2015 tragedy, what Iran wanted was far more ominous, and was ready to use every scare tactic, including a full-fledged effort to stoke sectarian fires to accomplish its objectives. Of course, this quest, which preceded the last stampede, was to place pilgrimage in the hands of a committee, presumably led by Iranian experts, which was a naïve proposition since Saudi authorities, representing 90 percent of Muslims around the world, were not — now or ever — ready to surrender their custodianship responsibilities.
Still, what irks Khamenei, and Iranians in general, is the simple fact that the Kingdom’s leaders reject the Islamic revolution and its sectarian preferences.
There is no denying that sectarianism has gained mythical proportions to disguise geostrategic objectives, though Iran relies on its religious identity to advance various causes, as it hopes to enhance its power on some kind of puritanical agenda. It carefully mobilizes followers along sectarian lines to impose political objectives, promotes ideological preferences under the leadership of a religious figure who, and this must be recognized, controls a government in which most officials espouse notorious zealotry.
Who doubts that Iranian officials encourage atrocities in the name of religion while claiming they are not sectarian? Who does not see Iran’s partisan, even bigoted, practices in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain and elsewhere? Who refuses to acknowledge that these practices occur inside Iran too, as the Mullahs refer to political foes with the terms “Wahabi-takfiri-terrorists”, which acolytes mimic without giving the words a second thought?
“Takfir” is a derogatory term that refers to the practice of excommunicating fellow Muslims, and it is frequently used, inter alia, to associate Al-Qaeda, Daesh and other extremist and violent groups. This is as good as it gets when it comes to sectarian practices, since the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not called for, and is not calling to, harm or kill a single individual. Iranians, on the other hand, routinely refer to all violent Sunni extremists as “takfiris” precisely to highlight their practice of excommunicating other Muslims and frequently portray Wahabism, Salafism and other Sunni movements, with the same brush. Which is the reason why Khamenei is so comfortable labeling Saudis as “murders.” Pure sectarianism, indeed.
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Dr Kéchichian is a Senior Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh.
Khamenei accused Riyadh of “murder” no less. According to the Iranian’s baseless allegations, Saudi authorities “murdered” pilgrims who were caught up in a deadly stampede during the 2015 Haj. As the Muslim world celebrates Eid Al-Adha and over two million pilgrims perform their religious rites, are these accusations fresh fuel added to the sectarian fires consuming the Muslim world?
Characteristically, Khamenei relied on choice words to make his baseless allegations: “The 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,” he wrote in a statement posted on his website to mark the anniversary of the tragedy that killed many.
In the stampede that saw thousands in a frenzied rush, 769 died according to Saudi authorities. Riyadh rejected allegations that the incident was the result of poor management, which was understandable as authorities went out of their way to look after unprecedented crowds on a yearly basis.
None of that mattered to Khamenei who, buoyed by his own ego, alleged that the Kingdom’s rulers were “satans,” which was not a very clever epithet since no one really knows what satan looks like.
Khamenei accused the Kingdom leaders of transforming the annual pilgrimage into a “religious-tourist trip and have hidden their enmity and malevolence toward the faithful and revolutionary people of Iran under the name of ‘politicizing Haj’.” Continuing with his baseless allegations, Khamenei said, “the Saudis are themselves small and puny satans who tremble for fear of jeopardizing the interests of the Great Satan, the US.”
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, who is also the minister of interior, told the Saudi Press Agency that the Kingdom was committed to ensuring safe and non-political pilgrimage. For his part, Abdul Muhsin Alyas, the Saudi undersecretary for international communications and media at the Ministry of Culture and Information, declared that the Iranian’s accusations reflected “a new low” since such accusations were not only unfounded, but “timed to only serve their unethical, failing propaganda.”
Beyond the commemoration of the 2015 tragedy, what Iran wanted was far more ominous, and was ready to use every scare tactic, including a full-fledged effort to stoke sectarian fires to accomplish its objectives. Of course, this quest, which preceded the last stampede, was to place pilgrimage in the hands of a committee, presumably led by Iranian experts, which was a naïve proposition since Saudi authorities, representing 90 percent of Muslims around the world, were not — now or ever — ready to surrender their custodianship responsibilities.
Still, what irks Khamenei, and Iranians in general, is the simple fact that the Kingdom’s leaders reject the Islamic revolution and its sectarian preferences.
There is no denying that sectarianism has gained mythical proportions to disguise geostrategic objectives, though Iran relies on its religious identity to advance various causes, as it hopes to enhance its power on some kind of puritanical agenda. It carefully mobilizes followers along sectarian lines to impose political objectives, promotes ideological preferences under the leadership of a religious figure who, and this must be recognized, controls a government in which most officials espouse notorious zealotry.
Who doubts that Iranian officials encourage atrocities in the name of religion while claiming they are not sectarian? Who does not see Iran’s partisan, even bigoted, practices in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain and elsewhere? Who refuses to acknowledge that these practices occur inside Iran too, as the Mullahs refer to political foes with the terms “Wahabi-takfiri-terrorists”, which acolytes mimic without giving the words a second thought?
“Takfir” is a derogatory term that refers to the practice of excommunicating fellow Muslims, and it is frequently used, inter alia, to associate Al-Qaeda, Daesh and other extremist and violent groups. This is as good as it gets when it comes to sectarian practices, since the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not called for, and is not calling to, harm or kill a single individual. Iranians, on the other hand, routinely refer to all violent Sunni extremists as “takfiris” precisely to highlight their practice of excommunicating other Muslims and frequently portray Wahabism, Salafism and other Sunni movements, with the same brush. Which is the reason why Khamenei is so comfortable labeling Saudis as “murders.” Pure sectarianism, indeed.
—
Dr Kéchichian is a Senior Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh.
