Referring to the tragic and horrendous crime of the killing of a large number of Shia Muslims in Nigeria, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi noted at the beginning of his fiqh course in the A’zam Mosque in Qom: “In the incident of the massacre of Muslims in Nigeria, the Nigerian army attacked a number of Shia Muslims, who were totally unarmed, with full force.
He stated: “the actual reason why they were massacred was that they had taken part in a peaceful procession, in which millions of people had taken part, to mark Arba’een (forty days after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam al Hussein (a))”
His eminence further stated: “What is wrong with such a peaceful religious gathering that justifies opening fire on a large number of innocent people, including Shaykh Zakzaki the leader of Shia Muslims in Nigeria, killing some of his relatives and family members and wounding and capturing him? This is while last year the Nigerian army had killed three of Shaykh Zakzaki’s sons in a single day!”
Emphasizing that the Muslim world should announce public mourning in solidarity with the Muslims of Nigeria, and that an emergency conference must be held by the Muslims in this regard, his eminence noted: “Is it not the responsibility of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to hold a meeting regarding a critical issue like this and hold the Nigerian government accountable for this?”
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, then, noted: “the leader of the Shia Muslims of Nigeria must be immediately released and the perpetrators of this heinous atrocity must be put on trial and punished for their crimes”
Criticizing the double standards of the human rights organizations and other responsible international organizations, his eminence stated: “Why has the international community, which reacted so severely to the Paris incidents by condemning them, remained silent in the face of this horrendous crime? Surely any act of killing innocent people is condemned, regardless of where and against whom it is committed, but is the life of Europeans more valuable than that of the Muslims?”
His eminence further noted: “the real enemy of the people of Nigeria is the Boko-Haram terrorist group, which is armed with various kinds of weapons and has committed countless atrocities, not the peaceful and unarmed Shia Muslims who love their own country.”
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, then, said: “we are sure that all those who perpetrated this unspeakable crime, as well as those who encouraged it, will ultimately receive their due punishment”.
