Iran sympathises with ‘oppressed people of Kashmir’

KT NEWS SERVICE

SRINAGAR, Nov 15: Showing solidarity with people of Kashmiri, supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, has urged the Islamic Ummah to sympathize and provide assistance to Kashmir.

In a message to Hajj pilgrims, Ayatollah Khamenei, said that the major duties of the elite of the Islamic Ummah was to provide help to the Palestinian nation and the besieged people of Gaza, “to sympathize and provide assistance to the nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Kashmir, to engage in struggle and resistance against the aggressions of the United States and the Zionist regime, to safeguard the solidarity of Muslims and stop tainted hands and mercenary voices that try to damage this unity, to spread awakening and the sense of responsibility and commitment among Muslim youth throughout Islamic communities”.

He also expressed confidence about the bright future of the Muslim community due to the growing Islamic awakening in the world.

"The expanding wave of Islamic awakening in the world today is a reality that heralds a bright future for the Islamic Ummah," Ayatollah Khamenei said in the message.

Pertinently, Iran had in the past openly extended its support to Kashmir cause. The separatist youth of Kashmir were highly influenced by the 1979-Iranian revolution. However, after the militancy erupted in the state, Iran became cautious. It is after a long time that ‘oppressed people of Kashmir’ have got a mention in the message of Ayatollah Khamenei.

Significantly, Ayatollah Khamenei is believed to adore Kashmir, its culture and people. He had visited Kashmir in early 80s and also delivered sermons at Jamia Masjid Srinagar and Imambara Budgam.

Condemning the “extensive propaganda of the enemy” to spread Islamophobia, Khamenei said their “offhand efforts to create discord among Muslim sects, to incite sectarian prejudices, to bring about pseudo-confrontations between the Sunnis and the Shiites, to create disunity between Islamic states and to aggravate their differences, to change them into hostility and unsolvable conflicts, its employment of intelligence and espionage outfits to propagate corruption and immorality amongst the youth-all these are nervous and bewildered responses to the steady and firm advances of the Islamic Ummah towards awakening, honor and freedom.”

He said that the Zionist regime was no more the “undefeatable monster” of 30 years ago.

“The United States and the West are also no more the unquestionable decision-makers of the Middle East that they were two decades ago. Contrary to the situation that existed ten years ago, the nuclear know-how and other complex technologies are no longer considered inaccessible daydreams for Muslim nations of the region,” he said. “Today the Palestinian nation is an acknowledged paragon of resistance, the Lebanese nation has single-handedly demolished the fake awesomeness of the Zionist regime and emerged as the victor of the 33-day war, and the Iranian nation is at the vanguard of the movement towards the looming peaks.”

“Today the arrogant United States, the self-styled commandant of the Islamic region and the real sponsor of the Zionist regime, is bogged down in the quagmire of its own making in Afghanistan. As a result of all its crimes against the people of Iraq, it is in the course of becoming isolated in that country. It is hated more than ever before in disaster-stricken Pakistan. Today, the influence of the anti-Islamic front which since the past two centuries has acted as a despotic overlord over Islamic nations and states and plundered their resources, is receding before the heroic resistance of the Muslim nations.”

“On the opposite side, the wave of Islamic awakening is steadily advancing and growing in depth day by day.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said that the glorious spectacle and stage of Hajj provided Muslims with an opportunity for the fulfillment of these duties and “summons us to intensify and redouble our resolution and efforts”.