Tehran, July 12: A senior Iranian cleric strongly condemns the killing of Egyptian Marwa al-Sherbini, dubbed ‘Hijab martyr,’ in a courtroom in Germany.
Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri, Secretary-General of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, characterized the ‘heart-rending disaster’ in the German court as clear proof of the West’s racist and biased stances towards Islam and Muslims, IRNA reported.
“They (the Westerners) kept mum on the incident for a whole week,’ Taskhiri said. “This signifies the racism and biased nature of the news covered by the Western media outlets.”
32-year-old Marwa al-Sherbini was stabbed 18 times by a Russian-born German inside a Dresden courtroom. The attacker was being tried on charges of insulting al-Sherbini with racial slurs. In 2008, the Egyptian woman had filed a complaint against the defendant, identified only as Alex W. Al-Sherbini’s husband, Elwi Okaz, was also injured as he tried to save his wife.
Egyptians have expressed outrage at the attack, denouncing the belated response from the German government.
The cleric, speaking on the sidelines of a gathering on Islamic Sharia, lashed out at the Westerners’ denial of the rights of minorities and their provoking of Muslims’ feelings. “Those who claim to be the front-runners in defending human rights run roughshod over the rights of minorities.”
—–Agencies