(AhlulBayt News Agency) - In a surprise move Saudi Wahhabi authorities have launched Persian-language television broadcasts from this year's hajj, the information minister said on Sunday, following tensions with Iran over the annual pilgrimage. Minister of Information and Culture Adel al-Turaifi claimed the 24-hour satellite channel would cover hajj rituals and prayers from the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
"The channel aims to broadcast the message of the hajj, the eternal meanings of Islam and to show what is being provided by the kingdom" during the pilgrimage, the Saudi Press Agency quoted Turaifi as claiming. It targets "Persian-language speakers, whose number is estimated at 130 million all over the world," he said.
Persian, also know as Farsi, is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
It is while Saudi Arabia has always been spreading Wahhabism and sow discord among Muslims by launching such satellite channels.
For more than two centuries, Wahhabism has been Saudi Arabia's dominant faith. It is an austere form of Islam that insists on a literal interpretation of the Koran. Strict Wahhabis believe that all those who don't practice their form of Islam are heathens and enemies. Scholars and critics say that Wahhabism's rigidity has led it to misinterpret and distort Islam.
The Holy Quran stresses upon the unity between Muslims, however the enemies of Islam, and in particular the Wahhabies want to sow discord and create division between Sunni and Shia Muslim
Earlier Supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, called on the Islamic world to reject the Saudi royal family as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in Mecca and Medina, according to an official statement issued by his office on Monday. The statement, which included a letter to Muslims all over the world, carried sharp criticism of Saudi Arabia’s current rulers and accusations of them being infiltrated by Israel.
“Saudi Arabia is a 'cursed tree'; its rulers involved the Islamic world in civil wars that resulted in the death of innocents by establishing takfiri [Islamist militant] groups,” the statement read.
Ayatollah Khamenei also referred to past incidents during last year’s hajj when at least 600 Iranian pilgrims were killed in the ‘2015 Mina Stampede’. He argued that such incidents are a [clear sign] of Saudi Arabia’s failure in managing the holy pilgrimage and its rituals.
“Instead of providing an official excuse for the incident and holding accountable any officials who were responsible, Saudi officials simply evaded the matter, even refusing to formulate a fact-finding committee. This step showed apparent hostility towards the Iranian Islamic Republic,” Ayatollah Khamenei continued.
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source : ABNA24
Tuesday
13 September 2016
5:45:36 AM
778705
In a surprise move Saudi Wahhabi authorities have launched Persian-language television broadcasts from this year's hajj, the information minister said on Sunday