Iran has been rocked by anti-government demonstrations for more than two months, with some demonstrators even receiving the death penalty. A well-known Sunni preacher has reacted angrily to the death penalty, claiming it was incorrect to charge demonstrators with murder.
In the Shi’ite-ruled Islamic Republic, dissenting Sunni leader Molavi Abdolhamid argued that demonstrators shouldn’t be charged with ‘moharebeh,’ an Islamic crime that carries the death penalty and means ‘warring against God.’
‘A person who has protested with stones and sticks or just by shouting should not be accused of moharebeh. What the Koran calls moharebeh is when a group uses arms and engages (in fighting),’ Molavi Abdolhamid said in a Friday prayers sermon, according to his website.
New protests appear to have started in Iran, according to social media footage from areas including Chabahar, Taftan, and Zahedan, the Sistan-Baluchistan province’s capital where Molavi Abdolhamid gave a speech.
Videos of minority ethnic Baluch women yelling ‘I will kill whoever killed my brother’ have been released online by the Iran Human Rights group.
Police may respond by firing what they claimed to be birdshot and tear gas at protesters. In another unconfirmed video, injured protestors were seen receiving care inside a mosque’s makeshift clinic.
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