Kurdish cleric preaches from the sky

PIRANSHAHR, Iran —— A Kurdish cleric in western Iran delivers his sermons  in a slightly unusual way.

Younis Nokha is a 35-year-old imam from the village of Rzgari, and learned to paraglide four years ago.

Since then, he has used his new skill to preach from the skies, uploading his speeches to social media. 

Nokha says he wants to battle the misconception that Islam does not accept different kinds of sports.

“Religion has nothing to do with sports. It encourages you to do sports and be friendly to people,” Nokha told Rudaw on Wednesday.

“What a great honour it would be if we loved each other for the sake of God. The concept of love is based on the idea that we should not hurt or hate each other, and not violate each other’s rights for the sake of God,” he said in one of his sermons.