CHENNAI: As war continues to rage in West Asia, Shia, Sunni communities in Chennai came together to express solidarity with Iran. On March 27, representative of Iran’s supreme leader in India Abdul Majid Hakeem Ilahi was in Chennai to join the city’s Islamic community to pay tributes to late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Dr Ilahi worked closely with Ali Khamenei and is a good friend of Khamenei’s son and present supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei.The Nazr-e-Hussain committee in the city organised a congregation to condole Ali Khamenei’s death. Several members, including women, congregated at the Thousand Lights Mosque in Chennai where Dr Ilahi addressed the gathering and emphasized on unity among people. “We are in a state of shock over the barbaric act of Israel and America killing such a tall leader,” said Shia Sunni Unity Movement-India president Haji Mohammed Mujibur Rahman Sahib.
Chennai-based Vasanth Kumar invited Dr Ilahi home to convey his condolences and express solidarity along with other Islamic community members. He stressed that Hindus in India condemned the “barbaric act”. He added that Khamenei was not only a political figure but was a religious supreme leader of Shia Muslims across the world and no one or no country had the right “to assassinate” him.The death of Ali Khamenei was a loss to entire humanity, said president of Indo-Iran Chamber of Commerce Syed Hakim Raza. “We are in shock over the killing of such a tall leader and we condemn this act of terrorism,” said Shia-Sunni Unity Movement-India secretary Nusrath Ali Khan. Islamic scholar and former member of Tamil Nadu Wakf Board and Tamil Nadu Haj Committee Amatul Aatifa Shia said, “They may assassinate the bearer, but the message of Karbala (holy city of Iraq) lives on—rising in every age for truth, justice, and humanity beyond religion,” said Amatul Aatifa Shia.Jamaat-e-Islami Tamil Nadu president Moulavi Mohammed Haneefa Manbayie extended condolences for the loss of children and innocent people of Iran in the aggression. “In these testing times we stand in support of Iranian people and pray for their well-being and to bring back normalcy,” he said.
