Senior Iran cleric calls non-Muslims “animals”

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 20 – A senior Iranian cleric said on Sunday that all non-Muslims were “animals engaged in corruption” and defended the path of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the only path to heaven. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 20 – A senior Iranian cleric said on Sunday that all non-Muslims were “animals engaged in corruption” and defended the path of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the only path to heaven.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati who heads the powerful Guardians Council and is a close adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a gathering of Revolutionary Guards commanders, “Human beings, apart from Muslims, are animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption”.

Jannati was speaking at a ceremony in north-eastern Iran to commemorate the “martyrs” of Revolutionary Guards.

“If the Islamic Republic of Iran is still standing on its feet, we owe it to our martyrs”, he said, “If it was not for our martyrs, we would not have these precious young men with vivid Islamist views”.

Still, Jannati lamented, the Islamic world did not fully appreciate martyrdom.

“Human beings who don’t put the memoirs of martyrs into practice and forget the values that martyrs created become like animals”, Jannati said.

The powerful ayatollah is a mentor of hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.