In the first session of his Fiqh course after the first ten days of mourning ceremonies in the month of Muharram, and speaking in the A’ezam Mosque in Qom, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi appreciated the people for holding magnificent mourning ceremonies for Imam Hussein’s (‘a) martyrdom and said: “thank God this year the mourning ceremonies were more magnificent than the previous years and also without any undesirable incidents”.
Condemning the heartrending and bitter atrocity of the assault on the mourners of Imam Hussein (‘a) in the region of Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabia, he stated: “a group of atrocious Takfiris attacked the Shiite Muslims who were holding a mourning ceremony [for Imam Hussein (‘a)] in Al-Ahsa and murdered and wounded some of them”.
Condemning this crime, his eminence noted: “this incident indicates that violence against Shiites has spread to Hejaz and the Saudi Arabia too and this creates a great responsibility for the rulers of Saudi Arabia”.
He further stated: “the grand Mufti of the Saudi Arabia has strongly condemned this crime and has called for the punishment of the perpetrators of this atrocity; we are happy about this stance, yet, we know that finding these criminals, who have attacked the Shiite Muslim with guns and then escaped, is not difficult for the Saudi authorities”.
Emphasizing the duty of the Saudi authorities concerning the quick identification and punishment of the perpetrators of this heinous crime, as well as providing security for the Shiite Muslims of Al-Ahsa and Qatif, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi stated: “finding the perpetrators of this crime must not be difficult for the Saudi authorities”.
His eminence, then, added: “We strongly condemn such atrocities against the followers of the Ahl al Beit (as) and the followers of any other religions and we hope that the security of the Shiite citizens in this country would not be jeopardized, otherwise all Shiite Muslims in the world would react to it. We also pray before Allah for his forgiveness for these martyrs who were martyred while mourning Imam Hussein’s (‘a) martyrdom on the day of Ashuraa and we hope that they would j o i n the martyrs of Karbala in hereafter”.
Referring to the incident of acid assault in Esfahan and the propaganda of the biased foreign media in this regard, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi asserted: “an acid assault has happened in Esfahan and all responsible organizations and institutions are operating at their full capacity to find the perpetrators of this crime and, God willing, they will, and these criminals will be held accountable for their crimes”.
He also stated: “our enemies and dissidents are attempting, through their biased and spiteful propaganda, to attribute this incident to the act of Promotion of good and Prevention of evil, while anyone in their sound minds would admit that these two issues have nothing to do with each other”.
