Khamenei says US, Israel seek to divide Muslims in his annual Hajj message.

Khamenei says US, Israel seek to divide Muslims in his annual Hajj message.(JPost). In his annual message to 2012 Hajj Pilgrims on Thursday, the Leader lauded the popular uprisings and revolutions across the Arab countries as "one of the most crucial issues of the Muslim world". DUBAI - Iran's most powerful authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday accused the United States and Israel of fomenting divisions among Muslims to undermine "Islamic uprisings" across the Middle East. "By exploiting inattention ... corrupt American, NATO and Zionist agents are trying to divert the deluge-like movement of Muslim youth and bring them into confrontation with one another in the name of Islam," he said in an annual message to Iranians who have gone to Saudi Arabia for the haj pilgrimage. "They are trying to turn the jihad against colonialism and Zionism into blind terrorism in the streets ... so that Muslims shed each others' blood." Officials in Shi'ite Muslim Iran often describe the "Arab Spring" uprisings as an "Islamic Awakening". Some of those uprisings have brought Islamists to power, while others, notably in Syria and Bahrain, have pitted Sunnis against Shi'ites or Alawites, members of an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "The enemy wants to hit these foundations. By exploiting inattention and shallow-mindedness on behalf of some, corrupt American, NATO and Zionist agents are trying to divert the deluge-like movement of the Muslim youth and bring them into confrontation with one another in the name of Islam, thus converting an anti-colonial and anti-Zionist struggle into blind terrorism waged in the streets of the Islamic world, so that the blood of Muslims is spilled at their own hands and the enemies of Islam are rescued from their dead-end while Islam and its warriors are maligned in public opinion.

After despairing of eliminating Islam and Islamic slogans altogether, they have now turned to inciting discord among Muslim sects and frustrating the unity of the Islamic Ummah through the gimmicks of Shiaphobia and Sunniphobia.

They have created a crisis in Syria with the assistance of their agents in the region, in order to divert the attention of the nations away from important problems of their own countries and the dangers that lie in ambush for them, and towards a gory scenario deliberately staged by them. The civil war in Syria and the bloodshed of her Muslim youth at their own hands is a criminal enterprise launched by the United States, Zionism and their docile governments who keep on blowing into the fire. Who will believe that erstwhile supporters of black dictatorships in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya have now turned into champions of the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people?

The Syrian issue is one of wreaking vengeance upon a government that has stood singly against the Zionist usurpers and defended resisting groups in Palestine and Lebanon."

"If Muslims let go this great opportunity without using it to reform the Islamic Ummah, they would incur great losses," he added. "The aggressive and interventionist arrogant powers are making every effort to divert the course of these significant Islamic movements," Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out, according to Iranian state television, urging Muslims to show solidarity.

Iran has aligned itself with its regional ally Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah movement in what it calls an "axis of resistance" against Israel. At the same time it denies accusations from Sunni-ruled Gulf monarchies that it is encouraging Shi'ite uprisings in their countries.
He reiterated Iran's opposition to outside intervention in Syria, saying only Syrians could decide their own future, and said other unspecified nations could also be engulfed by Syria's turmoil.Read the full story here.