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Regime bans sect – which is minority in Iran but majority elsewhere in Middle East – from holding their own ceremonies Sunni Muslims in Tehran have been banned from congregating at prayers marking the end of Ramadan. Iran, a Shia country, ordered its Sunni minority not to hold separate prayers in Tehran for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that brings the month of fasting to an end. They were instead asked to have a Shia Imam leading their prayers – something that is against their religious beliefs. Hundreds of security forces personnel were deployed in the capital to prevent Sunni worshippers from entering houses where they had assigned for their religious ceremonies. In recent decades, Iranian authorities have refused to give Sunnis permission to build their own mosques in Tehran. There is currently not a single Sunni mosque available for use in the capital, despite there being several churches and synagogues. Instead, they have to rent houses for their prayers but were not allowed to use them for this year’s Eid ceremonies. Iran’s Sunni population is far larger than its Jewish or Christian population. “Tehran’s security police prevented Sunni worshippers from performing Eid prayers in various parts of the capital,” the official website of the Sunni community in Iran said. “They surrounded the houses where Sunnis use to perform prayers and have prevented worshippers from going inside.” Thousands of Shia worshipers on Wednesday stood in rows behind Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led the crowd at prayers held in Tehran University . The Iranian regime uses Eid prayers to demonstrate that the country’s political figures are united behind its leader. Politicians from different groups are supposed to attend the prayer and their absence can be interpreted as a possible sign of dissent. Under the Iranian constitution, religious minorities should be respected and should have representatives in parliament. Two days ago, several Sunni MPs wrote a letter addressed to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking for their communities in Tehran to be allowed to hold separate Eid prayers. Sunnis in Tehran have complained in recent weeks that they had been summoned by officials to provide written assurances guaranteeing not to hold Eid prayers in houses in the capital. Shaikh Abdul-Hameed Esmail Zehi, a Sunni prayer Imam based in Zahedan, a city in southeastern Iran, criticised the regime in a recent sermon for imposing restrictions on Sunnis. “I would like to request the supreme leader to stop discriminative and illegal steps of some officials, as they have been forbidding Sunni minorities in mega cities of Iran to offer prayers in congregation specially Eidain [the Eids] and Friday prayers. This is the demand of all Sunnis in Iran,” he said, in quotes carried by the Sunni community’s website, Sunnionline.us. Iran boasts that its Shia and Sunni populations get along, but Sunnis have complained of a new crackdown by the Islamic regime in recent years. Iran on the other hand, has blamed Sunnis for recent bombings in south Iran. The Islamic regime is also at odds with most of the Sunni-ruled countries in the Middle East. Other religious minorities in Iran have also faced restrictions, such as Christians but among them, the country’s Bahá’í community, are currently experiencing the most rigorous crackdown with seven of their leaders serving a 20-year sentence in jail. Bahá’ís in Iran are deprived of many of their rights such as education or owning businesses and are often persecuted merely for their beliefs. Last week, the Bahá’í community’s United Nations office wrote a letter to Iran’s minister of science and technology, Kamran Daneshjoo, calling on the regime to put an end to its discrimination against Bahá’í students who had their universities closed down recently. Iran Middle East Islam Religion Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk