Cleric Criticizes Islamic Leaders for Misleading Public

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Unfortunately some of the Islamic heads of state and clerics are misleading the people instead of leading them, Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said here today.

Addressing a large congregation of worshippers on Tehran University Campus here on Friday, Ayatollah Jannati condemned enemies’ efforts to portray a cruel and barbaric picture of Shiites and called on all Shiite Muslims to be watchful of such moves.

He further pointed to the failure of the United States’ policies in the region, and said, “After the 9/11 incident for which they themselves should be blamed, they tried to misuse the occasion by apparently chanting the slogan of democracy, but they were defeated on all scenes.”

“The Americans used such a pretext to bring up the slogans of campaign against terrorism and promoting democracy and then took advantage of these against the Islamic countries,” Ayatollah Jannati reiterated, adding, “Yet, all their policies and efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Lebanon resulted in nothing but failure.”

He also stressed that the western countries’ slogans of democracy and fight against terrorism have lost their effectiveness.

The Secretary of the Guardians Council further criticized the west,specially the US for their support of terrorists, and tressed, “The US and the UK are supporting terrorists in Iraq. When they realized that their policies in Iraq were inefficient, the US and the UK changed their policies and now they are trying to make people fight against each other calling it a
new policy.

Mentioning that the US and the UK have now resorted to a new policy of sowing seeds of discord among Muslim Shiites and Sunnites, he called the spread of discord among Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq and the world as a weapon deployed by the US and UK.

“Such weapons must be taken out of their hands,” the Friday Prayers Leader of Tehran underscored.

He also underlined that the Shiites seek nothing but unity of all Muslims, and continued, “We are not against Sunnis and the late Imam Khomeini called for unity among Shiites and Sunnis.”

The Iranian official warned the Islamic clerics and scholars as well as heads of certain Islamic states not to walk into the trap the US and UK have set to spread disunity among Shiites and Sunnis.

Elsewhere, he condemned the invasion of the Iranian consulate general and arrest of a number of Iranian employees by the US troops in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil on Thursday and called it as a “foolish step”.

He said such an action means” violence, insurgency and an outlaw state.”