The Iranian authorities continue their persecution of the Sunnis and the community, the latest of which is depriving them of practicing their religious rituals on the first day of the blessed Eid al-Adha, by preventing the establishment of Eid prayers in some areas in Iran, according to some news reports, and the most prominent of these mosques was the Tehranbars Mosque in the capital, Tehran, and the Salhia Mosque, in Islamshahr.
The imam of the Sunnis and the community, Sheikh Abdul Hamid Ismail, called in the Eid prayer sermon in the city of Zahedan, to empower religious minorities of their rights in the world, and the preacher directed in a message urging officials, including Ali Khamenei in Iran, to take care of the Sunnis and give them positions in the state, and allow them to enter military service .. There are a number of necessary information that we should know about the Sunnis in Iran.
The locations of the Sunnis in Iran
Sunnis belong to most of the nationalities and ethnicities that make up the people of Iran, from Baluchis, Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Turkmen and Arabs, and among them there are those who follow the Hanafi school, but it cannot be said that the Balochs are all Hanafs only. As for the Arab race in Iran, they live in the southern and southwestern regions of Iran. They are concentrated in the Talesh area in the province of Gilan and Anbaran, one of the cities of the province of Ardabil.
Sectarian Division
The vast majority of the Iranian people belong to the Twelver Shi’ite sect, while Sunni Muslims number 8%, and the remaining 2% belong to Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i faith, or Zoroastrianism.
Sunni Muslim Population in Iran
According to the CIA Factbook of 2012, the total number of Sunni Muslims in Iran is 9% of the total population, and some sources indicate that the real number of Sunnis is about 15% or 20%, and some confirm that the percentage reaches 25% and that half of them are Kurds. The dispute over the actual number of Sunnis in Iran is due to the lack of unofficial statistics that have been followed.
Sunni Mosques in Iran
The Iranian authorities impose strict security measures against Sunni Muslims and prevent them from building mosques, the latest of which was the demolition of the Sunni prayer hall in Tehran. Despite this, there are thousands of mosques, which amount to 10,000 mosques, according to unofficial statistics, in addition to Sunni religious institutions in Iran scattered in Sunni areas in The provinces of the North, Baluchistan, and Sistan in particular, and one of the most famous mosques is the “Makki Mosque” in the city of Zahedan in the Sistan region, where it can accommodate thousands and Friday prayers are held. In Tehran, the capital, there are no mosques for Sunnis, but some sources close to the authorities say that there are mosques, As for Sunni sources, there are no mosques, and what is found in Tehran are houses that are rented by Sunnis to turn them into a place of prayer and not an official mosque.
The Decline of The Shiites And The Increase of The Sunnis
A news report indicates that the population growth rate in the Sunni-majority regions is higher than the average population growth in the country in general, which is an indicator of certain concepts. According to some statistics, the population growth index in Sunni regions exceeds three times the average population growth in the country. The followers of the Sunni sect in Iran range from 20 million to 25 million people.
While the website “Shia Online”, which is close to the Iranian regime, mentioned the academic professor at the University of Mashhad, Dr. Seyyed Hussein Alawi, as saying: “The population growth rate in Sunni areas reaches 7%, while in Shiite areas it ranges between 1% and 1.3%.” This is due to the continuous decline of the Shiites in exchange for an increase in the number of Sunni births, and this is due to polygamy among the Sunnis, the abundance of children and the general decline in the growth rate of the Iranian population. And Shiite websites published a report explaining that during the next twenty years the Shiites in Iran will become a sectarian minority and the Sunnis will turn into a majority.
