Tehran's Sunnis still waiting for their own mosque
The campaign pushing for Iranian authorities to allow the construction of a purpose-built Sunni mosque in Tehran is gaining steam.
"Mr. Rouhani! No need to give them positions in your administration — just allow them to have a mosque to perform the Eid al-Adha prayer."
Reformist parliamentarian Mahmoud Sadeghi addressed these words to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a Twitter post from Sept. 1, while communal prayers marking the major Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha were being performed all over the country. Sadeghi attached an image to the Twitter post showing Sunni worshipers standing in a long line on a street in Tehran's Sadeghiyeh district. A few days later, Hojjat Nazari, a newly-elected member of Tehran's City Council, said in a speech, "Certainly, Sunni citizens are also entitled to their own places of worship in Tehran. The city management is asked to follow up on this issue."
The issue of building a mosque for the Sunni residents of Tehran has long been a topic of discussion among Sunni elites, members of parliament and civil rights activists. However, the Iranian government insists that Tehran already has Sunni mosques. On Aug. 5, 2015, the website of the Mosques Affairs Regulating Authority reported that Tehran has nine Sunni mosques. According to prominent Sunni figures, however, these are merely prayer rooms.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, former Sunni parliamentarian Jalal Jalalizadeh noted that Tehran's Sunni residents do not have a place that can be called a mosque and that the prayer spaces available to Sunnis are "rented houses," meaning that the property owners can evict them "at any given moment." He added, "Mosques, on the other hand, have a particular identity and a set location. One cannot refer to a private house that does not have [a relevant] identity as a mosque. When we don't have the right to broadcast a call to prayer or have a sign, then we have a prayer room and not a mosque."
