In an exclusive interview with IranPress, a senior Sunni cleric who is also the Chairman of the Council of Ulama of Nigeria Sheikh Dan'azumi Musa Tafawa Balewa said that before Imam Khomeini's revival, Muslims all over the world were hopeless but with the teaching of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, symbolizing enjoining good and forbidding evil, Muslims realized that Islam is the only hope and way.
"Imam Khomeini was an ideal figure, the sign of hope to Islam, the sign of the positive resurgence of Islam globally. Muslims surfed a lot of setbacks by colonization and also the First and the Second World Wars in which the world was divided into two blocks, East and West, Soviet Union headed by Russia and NATO headed by America," he said.
Balewa stated that Muslims suffered from the dawning of Wahhabism, the foundation of the Israeli regime, and the Egypt war in October 1969, but Imam Khomeini spent a lot of years resurging that Islam was the best way and the hope to bring humankind prosperity.
Iran Press/ Africa: Sheikh Dan'azumi said that the life of Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution led by him in Iran in 1979 signified the unity of Sunni-Shi'a thoughts:
"Imam Khomeini showed the Shi'a-Sunni unity. The major differences were mainly political, so he united Muslims and also made them understand the meaning of the Prophet's tradition saying: I left among you two treasures, the book of Allah and Ahlulbayt," he said.
Referring elsewhere to the influence of Imam Khomeini in the Islamic world, Sheikh Dan'azumi went on to say: "Nigerian former military Head of the State Brigadier General Murtala Muhammed was influenced by Imam Khomeini's thoughts. General Murtala Muhammed helped the liberation of South Africa from the apartheid of South America in which Nelson Mandela and his Movement became trim."
He said that Iran's scientific and technological advances, including drones, have frightened the US: "There is a clear indication of Iran's advancement in science and technology."
He referred to the lessons of the Islamic Republic and said: "Recently on social media we saw the former President of Iran who was on a bus. He spent eight years as President of Iran, yet, he is a teacher. And he is moving on a bus with ordinary people. This news shocked Nigerians. I am talking about Iranian former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This news is circulating among Muslim circles in Nigeria."
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