The way the West insulted the Prophet [Muhammad”> by publishing those cartoons was not just a sacrilege, but a calculated move on their part, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli said during the Friday prayers sermon in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran.
They have also sacrileged the Two Great Shrines, Javadi-Amoli said, referring to the recent bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq. This was in continuation of the chain of cartoons that were published.
The senior Shiite cleric warned the United Nations that it faced being disgraced in the eyes of the world two days after the UNs nuclear watchdog referred the Islamic Republics nuclear file to the Security Council.
This organisation must know that America is jeopardising its reputation and destroying its long-time status,
They must know that Iran is not afraid of any threat, Javadi-Amoli said.
Elsewhere in his sermon, he declared that a traditional Persian celebration that had been used in recent years by Iranian as a pretext to express anti-government sentiment was harmful.
During the pre-Islamic festival, known as chaharshanbeh souri literally, Feast of Wednesday people jump over bonfires to drive away evil. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, however, Irans theocratic leaders have made strenuous efforts to stamp out the festivities, but to no avail. In recent years, there have been extensive clashes between festive crowds and the security forces deployed to prevent street celebrations. The event which is celebrated on the final Tuesday evening of the Persian calendar this year falls on March 14.
Thanks to Islam it became clear that this issue neither has historic roots nor scientific roots and brings about nothing but harm for society. All the countrys officials must strike to make this known.
