Ijtihad Network Being Wise and Faithful Muslim in the Contemporary World
British Shiism circles are virtually illiterate in important matters of fiqh and Islamic sharia, the Secretary General of World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought said.
The Secretary-General of World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought (WFPIST) has sat in a long interview, where he believes Britain and Saudi Arabia provided funds for notorious a specific circle of Shiite Authority. The following is part two of this interview:
“The other indication which exposes more the circle’s true nature is its tacit agreement with Zionist line; British Shiism circle has so far rejected any group advocating resistance against Zionist regime; in a TV affiliated with British Shiism circle (Imam Hussein TV), they aired programs opposing Iran’s support for Gazans, spewing surprising lies about these supports and still more entertaining reaction by the Gazans and Palestinians in the West Bank; their version of the story had it that Iran’s Red Crescent Association sent Palestine blood products; however they rejected the offerings on the grounds that the blood was Shia blood and they would not accept the possibility that Shia blood flows in their veins. Such lies were intended to incite Iranian national feelings against Palestinians,” Ayatollah Araki asserted.
“British Shiism circle and others would spread gossips figments of US and Zionist intelligence systems; British Shiism circle have specially carried out the duty well enough to inspire the intelligence systems’ trust and with it flow of resources,” he said. Ayatollah Araki roundly rejected the rumors in the media that Hamas and other resistance groups actually supported the Takfirists; “the command line would mandate its members to remain inside Gaza as its major mission; even again, Hamas is implicated in operations in Sinai and other parts of Egypt, despite the organization’s manifest claim to the contrary; furthermore, extremists would not even require a Hamas logistical support. In disparate cases, few Palestinians would join extremists, just as it would happen in Iran and in Chechnya, cases which are not related to the central command of Hamas,” he emphasized.
“Currently, Syrian Ikhwan (Muslim Brothers) have renounced extremist Al-Nusra Front and ISIL. They have no relation ever to the organization’s branches in Jordan and Hamas in Gaza Strip; Ikhwan lacks the internal solidarity which would be expected of a religious organization, and its affiliated groups in Egypt and Turkey would act in great level of autonomy, depending on the political conditions of the host country. They would show similar sentiments in some issues; however, act independently,” said the former head of London Islamic Center.
He then returned back to British Shiism circle and their callous indifference to crimes and desperate situations in Yemen the US ally Saudi Arabia committed; “no one would hold unaffected upon seeing the plights of Saudi air strikes against civilians in Yemen; however, the circle has adopted a policy of silence. Neither would the group react out of the sense of duty against the US and British similar acts in the region. On Iraqi issues, they would turn a blind eye to foreign troops. However they are quick to implicate Iran in crimes and terrorist acts targeting Iraqis,” he said.
“A fourth characteristic of British Shiism circle is that they are virtually illiterate in important matters of fiqh and Islamic sharia. For example, to cite only single case of the case; a prominent figure of the circle has asserted that all hadith collected in voluminous Bihar al-Anwar of Allama Baqer Majlisi (Safavid era and later) are authentic, an assertion Allama himself would have not imagined to claim. The number of unauthentic and highly controversial reports in Bihar is beyond such a claim for purity. The assertion would let the circle’s hands free in fabricating novel readings of hadith (as pejoratively termed ‘innovations in sharia’) in purportedly justifying new emergent issues of the Islamic world, but actually to justify their own unorthodox interpretation of the sharia,” Ayatollah Araki said.
“British Shiism circle have always generally avoided accurate interpretation of the main line of history of the Battle of Karbala and Imam Hussein’s (as) real objectives; they also waged little effort to defend the Imam’s rationale of the event through publishing pamphlets and statements; today, the Sunni mainstream line of thinking have cast serious doubts to this rationale; however, such doubts have failed to trigger a response in British Shiism circle, despite their claim to Shiism and the glorification of the Battle itself,” Ayatollah objected.
“The circle’s antics in special Shia occasions specifically work to show highly respected rituals of the religion seem ridiculous in the eyes of the non-Muslims; for example, they would walk bare-footed, passing across a field of thorn or fire; such practices would have nothing to do with Husseini (as) rituals, but are set to deviate all those who would seek Shiism as the true version of Islam,” he said.
“The nature of the circle, more or less, has been exposed by their very own conduct; the events surrounding the death of Sheikh Hassan Shahateh (an Egyptian Shia figure) revealed that people of purely lower social class killed the Sheikh due to a provocation; but who was behind the crime? Yasser al-Habib, an associate of a specific Shia Authority, and who acts as his mouthpiece, and is a foster-child of the circle, is the major cast in this gruesome scenario,” Ayatollah Araki accounted. “The story goes on that one week before the martyrdom of the Sheikh, Fadak TV (again that Shia authority affiliate) had an interview with him, trying, through a frantic questioning of him with the blatant, though successful, attempt to record a disparaging remark toward Sunni sacred figures voiced by the Sheikh, which was provocative in a Sunni-majority country, and precipitated the public anger and the events which ensued; a banner in the neighborhood Sheikh was resident of read famously and provocatively, “why would you sit indolent, while some figures desecrate in the daylight your [Sunni] sacrosanct beliefs,”” he lamented.
“A similar case in British Shiism circle’s misguided and extremely gross conduct in creating unbridgeable gaps between Shia and Sunnis is provided by the case of Ablolmalik Rigi; found in his interrogation papers his own measures to incite simple Sunni young people of Sistan and Baluchistan as presenting them audios of speeches by that Shia Authority entourage, who would have no qualms in desecrating Sunni canonical beliefs; in Iraq as well, the circle is behind interfaith internecine strife; for example in Baghdad, extremist Shia engaged in insulting behavior toward the shrine of Abu Hanifa (one of the quartet of Sunni scholars or ‘imams’), which saw as a response a series of suicide attacks on Shia neighborhoods,” he emphasized.
“Fortunately, such provocations would not tantalize ISIL to attempt crossing Iranian borders; all the players of the country are coordinated in strict control of the situation inside; among the players are also Sunni religious leaders as well; so far, we have not seen significant development inside the country in terms of major recruitment by ISIL. With a cursory examination, you readily come to Shia TV family of British Shiism circle which actively spread hatred and angers Sunni young people around the world and makes them steps closer to join the ISIL to fight whom they believe are ‘the rafidhis in Iran and Iraq;’ on the other hand, Sunni TVs brainwash Sunnis against Shia communities in the region, parallel to British Shiism circle machinery to spread interfaith hatred and dismay,” Ayatollah Araki said.
“Unity Conference would only focus on influential leaders, and so far, it has succeeded in wielding a huge impact on the mentality of such leaders; a good measure of success of the Conference is the analyses and reports by famous enemy media such as BBC focusing on the Conference; BBC waged a considerable attempt in minimizing the effect of the Conference, but to no avail; such media reactions in for example CNN indicate well the scope and depth of the impact the event would spread across the Muslim and non-Muslim world; Al-Arabiya as well reacted harshly and disparagingly to the Conference; no such reactions would be seen about for example a similar conference held in Al-Azhar University. This is because their scope of influence is far restricted compared to the Unity Conference held in Tehran. We have also seen reverberations and the way world received the Conference. Religious leaders acknowledged the impact the Conference had on the audience; this is not the only activity by Proximity Forum; the Conference acts only as a place for voicing official position on major issues of the Islamic world. This is the raisons d’être of the Conference,” he concluded.
