The Islamic Republic of Hypocrisy and the Killing of George Floyd

Mohammad Javad Zarif’s text is typical of the way Iran’s leaders twist American words – and deeds – for their own ends. It’s the same old toxic “We may not be perfect, but you’re just as bad. Or worse.”

As if that excused the abuses and excesses of our regime.

These last three weeks the video of American officers kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, and the protesting and rioting that followed, have been endlessly looped on Iranian state TV. 

Various mouthpieces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been marshaled to capitalize on events.

On June 2, the International Association of Muslim University Professors actually booked a cinema on Valiasr Avenue in Tehran to “discuss” systemic racism in America.

They invited a black American academic, Professor Joseph Richardson, to address them on a videolink.  

But the webinar, fronted by government shill Marziye Hashemi from Press TV, was less a discussion and more an episode of self-serving grandstanding. The poor professor was simply a useful prop. 

He, speaking as an African American man, was urged to map out how Iran could “join in solidarity with oppressed people everywhere – for example in the US and Venezuela.”  (The Venezuela reference — with no obvious connection to George Floyd — visibly took Professor Richardson by surprise.)

A whole chorus of tweets from officials vilified America. None of them mentioned the thousands of white and black US citizens who demonstrated peacefully for equality, nor spoke of the American politicians and officials who spoke out bravely on the need for change.

Instead, the Supreme Leader tweeted: "African Americans are deprived of human rights in the United States."

And from the Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi: “The brutal murder of George Floyd committed by a white man wearing police uniform, indicates savage, systemic racism and the illusion of white supremacy. It’s a reality that is hailed and dignified by the ruling establishment in America.”

George Floyd’s murder suits the Islamic Republic to a T because it helps the regime claim two things.

First, the whole American system’s brutality and corruption is revealed by police beating and killing African-Americans (compared with Iran is a model of social justice).

Second, America, the self-styled defender of human rights and the rule of law, uses force to keep a lid on unrest and demonstrations.  We do the same here in Iran. It is the internationally accepted thing to do.

I can tell you right now that the next time there are demonstrations in Iran, whether against corruption, economic hardship or the lack of liberty, they will be put down brutally and our leaders will justify their actions by pointing to America.

You can hear it now. “In the USA they are brutally clamping down on African-Americans and the poor. Here, we are just detaining stooges and lackeys of the Great Satan, and putting them in jail to educate them.”

The mullahs will then brag about how much more stable and free Iran is than America. Despots in China and Russia will applaud from the sidelines, and European diplomats –  the last critics standing – will be drowned out.