Friday Prayers in Iran: Reactions to Mina stampede continue

(Photo: Ayatollah Movahhedi Kermani, leader of Tehran's Friday prayers on October 2, 2015)

Tehran, Iran - Friday prayers across Iran revolved around two major themes: the loss of hundreds of Iranian lives in the Mina stampede and Ayatollah Khamenei's warning to Saudi Arabia.

"There is no doubt that the hajj needs a change in its management," said Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Movahhedi Kermani. "The Saudi rulers proved that they do not deserve [to govern the hajj proceedings]". In an implicit reference to Javad Zarif's encounter with Barack Obama, Movahhedi Kermani called the United States "Islam's number-one enemy." Iran will be the United States' all-out enemy, as long as such enmity exists, Movahhedi said.

In Qom, city of influential seminaries, Ali-Reza A'rafi, the Friday prayers' leader, called the Saudi government responsible not only for the Mina incident, but also its oppressive conduct in Yemen and Bahrain. He reminded his audience that the Saudis were not responsive before Ayatollah Khamenei's stern warning. "Inexperience, internal rift in the Saudi royal household, and indifference against the hajis" are paralyzing the Saudi state, A'rafi said.

In Urmia, in the northwestern province of Western Azerbaijan, the sermonizer, Hojjat-ol-Eslam Seyyed Mahdi Qoreishi, focused on Ayatollah Khamenei's reaction to the Mina catastrophe and Riyadh's response. "This detested regime refused to return the sacred bodies of our dear ones who had lost their lives in Mina to the Islamic Republic of Iran; but after the powerful speech of the Leadership, they understood who they are facing and their behavior changed immediately," he said. Qoreishi called upon Iranian politicians to look upon Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks as their model and react strongly, "so no one dares to humiliate the great Iranian nation again."

"The Saudi leaders and some other Muslim countries of the region spend billions in support of terrorists," said Ayatollah Zeinol-abedin Ghorbani, Friday prayers' leader in Rasht, Gilan, in northern Iran. "But this fire will eventually return to themselves."

In Sanandaj, capital of the Western province of Kurdistan, the Mina stampede was called "a bitter, unforgettable incident" while in Saqqez, the second largest city in Kurdistan, Mamosta Abdurrahman Hosseinzadeh, who was speaking to his Sunni congregation, expressed sorrow over the "incapability" of the Saudis, asked for a convincing response from their side and in the meantime, called for a deserving strong response to their misconduct.