TEHRAN – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said here on Tuesday the enemies have launched an open confrontation with Islam, adding the most immediate need of the Islamic world is to put aside differences and unite.
"The deepest and most dangerous differences are ideological and faith-based which are being instigated by the hegemonic hands in order to pit Muslims against each other," the Leader told a group of state officials and foreign ambassadors.
Ayatollah Khamenei touched on the current strife among a number of shadowy groups which claim to be following Islam.
"One group excommunicates another. Another group draws swords against the other. Instead of cooperation and giving hand in hand, our brothers are working with the enemies, triggering a Shia-Sunni war and fuelling sectarian sentiments.
"However, the hands which are behind this are known. If the power of wisdom and the light of thinking and knowledge which the Qur'an has enjoined us to is applied we will see the enemy's hand and realize its motives," the Leader said.
The enemies, Ayatollah Khamenei said, are creating strife among Muslims in order to cover up their problems.
"They are promoting Shia-phobia and Iranophobia in order protect the usurper Zionist regime."
Ayatollah Khamenei further touched on the plight of Muslims in Africa, including their massacre in the Central African Republic.
"Innocent people are being treated in a tyrannical manner because of the name of Islam. In one region, Muslims are massacred because of Islam. In Africa, people are killed, raped and oppressed for being Muslim.
"Elsewhere, a certain group kidnaps girls in the name of Islam and vanishes. This is because the message of Islam has not been perceived properly," the Leader added, Ayatollah Khamenei was apparently referring to the abduction of nearly 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram Takfiris in Nigeria.
The Leader described the occupying regime of Israel as the "biggest affliction" for the Islamic world, saying the most important need for Muslims is to unite.
Ayatollah Khamenei touched on the Islamic Awakening which swept several Arab countries and resulted in the collapse of dictatorial regime allied with the West.
The Leader said the enemies tried to crush the movement and "suppressed it in certain places but Islamic Awakening is not repressible".
"The feeling of Islamic identity among Muslims has become sturdy across the world and will become more robust."
