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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.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY OF CYRIL JULIEN 
A picture shows an Iranian Sunni mosque in the Teis district of the southern Iranian coastal city of Chabahar on May 11, 2015. Chabahar, located on the coast of Sistan-Baluchistan (south-east), is open to the Oman Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is Iran's gateway to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the east, the Central Asian countries to the north, and Turkey and the Gulf countries in the west. AFP PHOTO / ATTA KENARE        (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Imag

"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."

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