How Much Rights Do Sunnis Have?

Official statistics indicate that they make up eight percent of Iran's population; the largest religious minority in the country, which many say have been deprived of some of their rights. Recently, conflicting news about the 'destruction' or 'renovation' of a Sunni prayer house in Tehran has once again brought the issue of Sunni rights in Iran into discussion. Some sources and websites, such as 'Sunnionline', reported that on the morning of Wednesday, July 28, the Sunni prayer house in the Punak area of Tehran was 'destroyed by municipal forces' with 'support from security and law enforcement forces'; a news that provoked a protest and complaint from Molavi Abdolhamid, the Sunni Friday prayer leader of Zahedan. According to him, 'the intolerance towards a regular prayer house and its destruction in a city where Sunni citizens are not allowed to build mosques, and their 37-year demand since the victory of the Islamic Revolution has remained unfulfilled, not only hurts the feelings of the Sunni community in Iran but also offends the feelings of Muslims worldwide.' Meanwhile, other news sources, including the Mehr News Agency, reported that 'multiple violations', including 'change of use' of the building of this prayer house, led the Tehran municipality to seek 'renovation' after sending 'multiple warnings'. According to Mehr, 'multiple warnings regarding the correction of these violations and the necessity to restore the uses to their previous state have been communicated to the building owner since 2010 and several times', and that the municipality ultimately 'acted according to regulations and without causing any damage to the original building and its contents, to rectify the violations and restore the aforementioned location to its former use.' This week, alongside Radio Farda's audience, Majid Mohammadi, a sociologist and political researcher from the United States, was a guest on the sixth hour program to discuss the rights of Sunnis in Iran.