Iran is outraged!
Iranian pilgrims to Mecca were fingerprinted in Saudia Arabia this year.
This outrageous act drew protests from Iran saying that fingerprinting passengers is usually reserved for terrorists or criminals.
Iranian Fars News reported:
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- In an unprecedented measure, Saudi Arabia fingerprinted Iranian pilgrims in Jeddah Monday night, an informed source said.
Speaking to FNA, the source said that the pilgrims, all students of different Iranian universities, were fingerprinted and photographed by the Saudi police upon arrival in Jeddah international airport.
In another unprecedented measure, the Saudi police have also embarked on scanning passports and other documents of all Iranian pilgrims this year, he added.
According to the international rules and regulations, fingerprinting and photographing passengers should only be done about terrorists and criminals, and the maltreatment by the Saudi police of the two Iranian caravans Monday night is not bearing a good message for the two countries’ relations.
Riyadh has recently embarked on negative and harsh treatment of Iranian pilgrims after radical elements started anti-Shiite propaganda in that country.
Iran is also investigating complaints that an anti-Shia sermons are being heard in the religious capital.
The Pakistani Daily Times reported:
Iran is probing complaints that a prayer leader in the city of Mecca verbally attacked Shiite Muslims amid efforts by Tehran and Riyadh to improve their occasionally strained relations.
The hardline Jomhouri Islami newspaper on Tuesday claimed that television broadcasts of last Friday’s prayer sermon in Mecca were cut short after the prayer leader implied that Shiites had “nothing to do with Islam”.
Jomhouri Eslami reported that prayer leader Sheikh Saleh Al-Taleb had said in Mecca on Friday that “one of the non-Arab nations is provoking a sectarian crisis,” in a reference to Shiite Iran. According to the allegations, also repeated on Iranian state television, he added, “The role played by this group has nothing to do with the prophet,” in reference to Shiite Islam.
Earlier this month British Shia pilgrims accused Saudi Arabian police of a brutal beatdown.
Meanwhile… Iran celebrated the birthday of the Mahdi with a huge blast outside of Qom!
Explosives were brought in.
Kamangir has photos.
