Iran calls for massive turnout on International Qods Day
August 15, 2012 - 17:59
TEHRAN – On Wednesday, Iranian dignitaries, religious scholars, organizations, and political groupings called for a massive turnout on the International Qods Day rallies on Friday.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry, Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Assembly of Experts Chairman Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, and Grand Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani issued separate statements inviting Muslims across the world to participate in the demonstrations on the International Quds Day.
The International Quds Day is a day of solidarity with Palestine observed on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan. Anti-Zionist demonstrations are held on the Quds Day all over the world, especially in Iran, where the event was devised after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The late Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, made the proposal to establish an international day of solidarity with Palestinians in August of that year.
In its statement, the Foreign Ministry emphasized that the Quds Day reminds all Muslims and the free peoples of the world about their religious and moral duty to support the oppressed people of Palestine through holding massive demonstrations across the world.
This year, the International Quds Day will be held as the world is witnessing the aggressive measures of the Zionist regime, particularly the continued Judaization of Beit-ul-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), and the West’s silence over the issue, part of the statement said.
However, the world is witnessing the massive wave of the Islamic Awakening rolling across regional countries and the establishment of governments emerged from the will of the people, which bodes well for the resistant people of Palestine, the statement added.
MJH/PA