Iran’s top Sunni cleric calls for a national referendum to address protesters’ demands

Nov. 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The cleric Molavi Abdolhamid, the main religious representative of the Sunni minority in Iran, has called this Friday for the holding of a national referendum whose issues address the demands of the protesters who, for a month and a half, have protested against the authorities for the death in custody of the young Mehsa Amini for wearing the veil wrong.

“Let a referendum be held with international observers. Authorities, listen to the cries of the people,” the cleric observed during Friday’s sermon in the Sunni-majority city of Zahedan, one of the epicenters of the demonstrations.

“People have been protesting for 50 days,” lamented the clergyman during the sermon. “The authorities cannot suppress the people by killing or imprisoning people, because the people have seen blood, and they have killed their own. Let a referendum be held to see what the people of Iran want, and find out what kind of change it would make for them.” happy”, he added in comments collected by Al Arabiya.

Abdolhamid, a figure of extraordinary repute among Sunni leaders, warned the Iranian authorities that “God would hold them accountable” for the massacre that occurred in Zahedan on September 30, the worst day of the protests in the city.

That day, the so-called “Black Friday”, security forces killed 92 people, including 12 children, according to civil organizations, at the height of protests that first began over the June rape of a Baloch girl at the hands of a police official. and later they fed back with the death of Amini, on September 16.

Despite the fact that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned the cleric that the expression of such sentiments constituted a crime of agitation that “could cost him dearly”, the cleric continues to appear in public to express his rejection of the repression.