SHAFAQNA (International Shia News Association) Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Takfiri groups are spreading atrocities in the West Asian region in a bid to sow discord among Muslims.
Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a message to the Hajj pilgrims on Friday.
The full text of the message is as follows:
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
And praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds and Allah’s Greetings to Mohammad (PBUH) and His Holy Progeny
A salutation and greeting arising from enthusiasm and reverence to you, the fortunate people who have accepted the call of Quran and have rushed to be the guests at the House of God. The first word of advice is to know the value of this great blessing and endeavor to get close to its goals by musing about personal and social and spiritual and international dimensions of this unique obligation and ask the Merciful and Powerful host to help you do this.
I, accompanying you both with my heart and my words, ask the forgiving and gracious God to complete His blessing on you and since He has bestowed upon you the success of taking this trip, [He may] also help you to fulfill the Hajj rituals in their entirety and then through his generous acceptance, see you off to your destinations with full hands and complete health.
In the good opportunity that has been provided by this rich and unparalleled ritual, apart from spiritual purification and rehabilitation, which is the most sublime and the most basic achievement of Hajj, due attention to various issues of the Islamic world as well as a comprehensive and broad-based approach to the most important and highest-priority issues related to the Islamic Ummah, should top the list of duties and rites of Hajj pilgrims.
The issue of unity among Muslims and cutting the knots that have created distance among various parts of the Islamic Ummah is among these important issues, which are of high priority today.
Hajj is the manifestation of unity and integrity and the bedrock of brotherhood and cooperation. In Hajj, everybody should learn a lesson about focusing on commonalities and doing away with differences. Sowing discord to meet their ominous ends has been high on the agenda of the filthy hands of colonialistic policies since a long time ago.
However, now that in the light of the Islamic Awakening, Muslim nations have correctly found out about the animosity of the Arrogant and Zionist front and have taken stances against it, policies that aim to divide Muslims are being pursued with more fervor.
The deceitful enemy is bent on fanning the flame of civil wars among Muslims in order to deviate motivations for resistance and struggle among them and create a safe margin for the Zionist regime and other agents of Arrogance that are real enemies. Launching Takfiri terrorist groups and the likes of them in countries located in West Asia region is a consequence of this treacherous policy.
This is a warning for all of us to put the issue of unity among Muslims on top of our national and international duties.
Another important topic is the issue of Palestine. With the lapse of 65 years from the outset of the usurping Zionist regime and through ups and down of this important and sensitive issue, and especially as a result of bloody developments of the past recent years, two realities have been revealed to all people. Firstly, the Zionist regime and its criminal backers know no boundary and limit for cruelty and brutality and trampling upon all human and ethical norms.
They consider themselves authorized to commit any crime, genocide, destruction, massacre of children and women and defenseless people, and any other act of aggression and oppression that they can do, and they are also proud of it. Woeful scenes of the recent 50-day war on Gaza were the latest example of such historical crimes, which have been of course repeated frequently during the past half a century.
The second fact is that all these brutalities and catastrophes have not been able to help the leaders and supporters of this Zionist regime to achieve their goal. To the contrary of the foolish aspiration of strength and power, which evil politicians wished for the Zionist regime in their minds, day by day, this regime is getting closer to collapse and annihilation.
The 50-day resistance of the besieged and defenseless Gaza against all the power that the Zionist regime had brought to the scene, and finally, the failure and retreat of that regime and its submission to conditions set by the Resistance, were clear manifestations of this weakness and inability and impotence.
This means that: the Palestinian nation should be more hopeful than ever; the fighters of [Islamic] Jihad and Hamas should reinvigorate their endeavor, determination and resolve; the West Bank should continue on its regular proud path with more strength and vigor; Muslim nations should require their governments to lend real and serious support to Palestine; and Muslim governments should take this path with honesty.
The third important and high-priority issue, is the smart approach that should be taken by sympathetic activists in the Muslim world to the discrepancy between pure Mohammedan Islam and the American Islam, and while avoiding mistaking and mixing this two, prevent others from doing that. Our late great Imam was the first person to try to differentiate between these two categories and entered [that difference] into the political lexicon of the Muslim world. The purified Islam is the Islam of serenity and spirituality, the Islam of piety and democracy, and the Islam that is tough on infidels but lenient on the faithful.
The American Islam is the result of putting the costume of Islam on subservience to foreigners and enemies of the Islamic Ummah. An Islam that fans the flames of division among Muslims; instead on trusting the Divine Promise, puts its trust in the enemies of God; instead of fighting Zionism and Arrogance, fights its Muslim brethren; [and] becomes united with the Arrogant America against its own nation or other nations, is not [true] Islam. It is rather a dangerous and pernicious hypocrisy against which every true Muslim should fight.
An approach combined with insight and deep thinking will clearly reveal these important facts and issues in the reality of the Islamic world for any person who seeks truth; and also determines the duty and obligation of the day without any ambiguity.
Hajj and its rituals and rites provide a golden opportunity to acquire such insight and I hope you, the fortunate Hajj pilgrims, would be able to take full advantage of this divine blessing.
I leave all of you under protection of Almighty God and ask the Almighty to accept your endeavor.