AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The Custodian of Imam Reza shrine hosted Nigeria’s top Shia cleric in a meeting on Monday.
Hojat-ol-Islam Ahmad Marvi met and held talks with Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky in Mashhad. The Nigerian cleric and his wife arrived in the northeastern Iranian city on Sunday.
During the meeting held at Imam Reza (AS) shrine premises, Marvi hailed Zakzaky as a prominent role model for the religious preachers.
He also praised Sheikh Zakzaky’s “brilliant” role in “guiding the African people to spirituality, and divine and human values.”
Calling the African cleric’s motivation, struggle, fortitude, and resistance a paragon for all religious preachers, the head of the shrine noted: “You’ve raised the flag of Jihad, Islam and Muslims’ unity in Africa.”
Sheikh Zakzaky, for his part, thanked the warm welcome by Imam Reza shrine, stating: “Thank God, I’ve been blessed with the pilgrimage to the shrine, which is a peaceful haven for everyone.”
Elsewhere, Marvi further pointed to the recent events in Palestine, stating: “The humanitarian disaster in Gaza against the oppressed Palestinian nation at the hands of the usurping Israeli regime is literally a crime against humanity, which is heart-wrenching for any person regardless of nationality, ethnicity, and faith.”
The remarks come as the Israeli regime has been bombing the Gaza Strip since last Saturday, following the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation by Palestinian resistance groups which killed more than 1,000 Israeli soldiers and settlers.
The Israeli attacks have claimed the lives of more than 2,800 Palestinians, including at least 1,000 children. More than one million residents of northern Gaza have been displaced and evacuated southward after the occupying regime issued a warning for possible ground invasion of the area.
Asserting that the Israeli atrocities against Palestinians are supported by the US and the European countries, the custodian continued: “The silence toward the genocide of the Palestinians, and the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip are so heinous as if the human conscience is dead.”
Hoj Marvi concluded his remarks by referring to a Quranic verse, adding: “We are hopeful that the righteous movement of pure Islam will prevail. The insane crimes of Israel against the defenseless Palestinians signal their despair and fear as they see themselves on the verge of annihilation.”
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