I prayed Eid at a Wahhabi mosque during the war on Iran — and it felt surreal
A microcosm of the cancer afflicting the Muslim community.
The last three Eids have been very difficult, with the relentless slaughter of Muslims in high gear. Since late 2023, ever larger Muslim lands are being incinerated by the Israelis, with nearly all of Europe and North America joining in on the act. This Eid, while Gaza, Lebanon, and Iraq are burning at a lower intensity, Iran is bearing the brunt of a criminal war imposed upon it by the Israelis and Americans. As a country that is seen as the bulwark of Shia Islam, Iran has not seen the same outpouring of rage and anger in some parts of the Muslim world as Gaza has since 2023 or Iraq did in 2003.
In this context, praying at a Wahhabi musalla (an open space used for large congregational prayers, especially for Eid) turned out to be exactly the experience I would have anticipated, had I given it any thought, which I had not. However, the very first lines from the imam after the prayers set the tone for where his khutbah (sermon) would end about 20 minutes later. As is typical of the Wahhabis, the imam began by stating how few people truly understand tawheed (oneness of God, the central tenet of Islam) and how many do not respect the sahabah (the companions of the Prophet ﷺ; unlike Sunnis, Shia perspectives on the companions vary, with strong reverence for some and differing views on others).
The imam’s barely veiled digs at the start of the sermon soon gave way to open invectives. He berated those who regard Ayatollah Khamenei as a shaheed (martyr) and went on to list the crimes of Shias against Sunnis in the Middle East, especially in Syria, which is now ruled by a Mossad-CIA Wahhabi puppet after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. But the slander was not limited to modern grievances. The imam told the congregants — nearly 10,000, including men and women, by my estimate — how the Shias in Iran revere the shrine of Abu Lu’lu’a — the murderer of Umar ibn al-Khattab, the highly revered second Caliph in Sunni Islam. While no Shia authorities celebrate him or his act, a cursory search shows that Abu Lu’lu’a’s shrine has been shut down since 2007. But why let a hateful tirade come in the way of the facts?
Towards the end of the sermon, the imam went full racist, berating those backing Iran as supporters of “the Persians” over “the Arabs” — in complete contravention of the Islamic denunciation of racism. In his last sermon, the Prophet ﷺ stated in an oft-quoted line, “No Arab has superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab; no white over a black, nor a black over a white — except by taqwa (God-consciousness, righteousness).”
To my surprise, the imam even raised the topic of the Epstein files to highlight the degeneracy and depravity of the global ruling class. Unsurprisingly, however, he completely elided the part about the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS) close relationship with Epstein himself. He would have gone to town with it if there had been a similar picture of a top Iranian official cavorting with Epstein.
What did not get even a single mention in the sermon were the aggressors against Iran. There was not one reference to Israel or the United States or, in the context of a religious sermon, even a reduction of them to their religious identities as Jews and Christians. The authorities in the genocidal Jewish state did not allow Muslims to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque (the third holiest site in Islam) this Eid. This is the first time they have taken such a drastic measure since 1967. But it did not befit the imam even to mention it. He also failed to mention that those wanting Shia Iran to collapse are effectively rooting for Israeli plans for Jewish supremacy in yet more Muslim lands and helping to cement their role as the sole hegemon in broader West Asia, lording over nearly 350 million Muslims, a significant majority of whom are of Sunni persuasion.
Painfully absent from the imam’s sermon was any appeal for pan-Islamic unity, such as the one Ali Larijani made in one of his last public pronouncements: “Iran is continuing on the path of resistance in confronting the Greater Satan and the Lesser Satan, meaning the United States and Israel. But is the position of some Islamic governments not contradictory to the saying of the Prophet: ‘Whoever hears a man calling “O Muslims!” and does not respond to him is not a Muslim.’ So what kind of Islam is this?”
It was a truly surreal spectacle to have witnessed on a day of celebration after a month of fasting and reflection. One could have mistaken it for an extremist rabbi’s diatribe or an evangelical’s eagerness to hasten the Rapture.
Saudi Arabia’s enormous wealth, burgeoning oil-based economy, and a largely untrained local population have meant a massive influx of migrant workers from poorer Arab states such as Egypt and Lebanon, and from South Asian countries, especially the Muslims of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Detached from their homelands for two or more years at a stretch, these workers find comfort and belonging in the mosque. Enamoured of being in the land of Islam, they have lapped up the Wahhabi version of Islam, fed to them by state-funded proselytisers as the only true Islam, and brought that understanding back to their localities along with their hard-earned Saudi riyals. Working with the zeal of converts, they have often supplanted the normative mainstream version of Islam in their localities with the Wahhabi deviance. In almost no time, mosques belonging to adherents of the Wahhabi cult have sprung up in nondescript villages and towns across the Muslim world. At a time and on an issue on which no sane Muslim can support the Saudi position, that investment can be seen bearing fruit when one witnesses sermons such as this.
At the end of his sermon, the imam’s pitch dropped several notches as he asked the congregants for donations. For the thousands of pupils — I forgot the actual number — going through training in his sprawling institution and its various branches, he revealed that the annual cost amounted to roughly $200,000. It is an indication of how the Saudi-funded deviant version of Islam is spreading like wildfire and serving to undermine the Muslim community from within in the service of Judeo-Christian supremacy over Muslims.
As I sat on soggy mats after the previous day’s rains under clouded skies, there was still a silver lining. Many had started leaving in the middle of the sermon — I hoped not just to beat the parking rush — and I overheard some voices justifying their support for Iran in this unjust war imposed upon it, despite the imam’s protestations. I also noticed several eyes on me as I dissected the imam’s invective with my companion on our way out. Now that the Gulf states stand exposed as helpless collaborators with the Israelis and Americans in the butchery of Muslims in numerous countries and over several decades, it will become harder to sell their fraudulent brand of Islam if the dust settles — or at least, that is my hope.
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Thank you for reporting so we don't have to.
I am sure that the imam is getting marching orders straight from The KSA.
That is very sad. The imam does the work of Israel in sowing division among muslims. Qatar is learning a lesson about fealty to the US/Israeli demon -- such fealty is extreme folly and a tragedy for the Arab nations.