‘Ayatrollah’ Khamenei: Iran’s Leader Uses Freddie Gray’s Death to Blast the United States

[okaawhatever]

In the past, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has likened police violence on American streets to unrest in the Middle East. Now he’s seizing on dramatic images of protesters violently clashing with police over the death of Freddie Gray to take the United States to task yet again.

Leading up to Monday’s funeral for Gray, a Baltimore man who died April 19 while in police custody, Khamenei issued a series of tweets Sunday trolling what he called the mistreatment of African Americans by U.S. police. Using the hashtags #FreddieGray and #BlackLivesMatter, the supreme leader also referenced previous incidents where black Americans were killed by law enforcement or wannabe cops, hashtagging #EricGarner, #MikeBrown, and #TrayvonMartin.

Copies of tweets at link, here is the text:

Khamenei.ir @khamenei_ir

It's ridiculous that even though US President is black, still such crimes agnst US blacks continue to occur. #BlackLivesMatter #FreddieGray

5:04 AM - 26 Apr 2015
332 332 Retweets 164 164 favorites

On false pretexts US police shoots ppl on streets. This is a type of power which doesn't ensure security but leads to insecurity. #MikeBrown
4:44 AM - 26 Apr 2015
332 332 Retweets 176 176 favorites

Acquittal of US cops who committed murder is among measures taken by statesmen who ignore humanity& religion. #BlackLivesMatter #WalterScott
4:55 AM - 26 Apr 2015

It would be easy to dismiss Khamenei’s comments as a cynical shot at the state of U.S. race relations. But the containing continuing trend of black Americans dying after scuffling with police makes it hard to ignore the supreme leader’s argument that the United States punishes injustice abroad while tolerating it at home.

Continued at Link:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/27/ayatrollah-khamenei-irans-leader-uses-freddie-grays-death-to-blast-the-united-states/

[Egnever]

1. Fuck him

http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/iran

According to official sources, Iranian authorities executed at least 270 prisoners as of October 2013, though the real number is thought to be much higher. In 2012, Iran carried out more than 544 executions, second in number only to China, according to Amnesty International, which reported that at least 63 executions were carried out in public. Crimes punishable by death include murder, rape, trafficking and possessing drugs, armed robbery, espionage, sodomy, adultery, and apostasy. Most of those executed were convicted of drug-related offenses following flawed trials in revolutionary courts.

On October 2, a local news website reported that authorities executed a child offender on murder charges close to the southwestern town of Kazeroun. It is believed that dozens of child offenders (individuals under 18 when they allegedly committed the crime) are currently on death row in Iran’s prisons. Iranian law allows capital punishment for persons who have reached puberty, defined as 9 for girls and 15 for boys.

In early 2013, Iran’s judiciary implemented an amended penal code under which children convicted of “discretionary crimes” such as drug-related offenses would no longer be sentenced to death. A judge may still sentence to death juveniles convicted of crimes such as rape, sodomy, and murder if he determines that the child understood the nature and consequences of the crime, a vague standard susceptible to abuse. The amended law retains stoning as punishment for the crime of adultery.

Authorities executed at least 16 people in 2013 on the charge of moharebeh (“enmity against God”) or “sowing corruption on earth” for their alleged ties to armed opposition groups, including eight Baluch prisoners executed in “retaliation” for the killings of more than a dozen border guards along the Iran-Pakistan border. Dozens of others are on death row for terrorism-related charges following politically-motivated prosecutions and unfair trials, including Iranian Arab men for their alleged links to groups involved in attacking security forces. At time of writing, at least 40 Kurdish prisoners, including Sunni rights activists branded as “terrorists” by the government, were awaiting execution on national security charges such as moharebeh.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. Fuck racist cops.

The Ayatollah is of no concern to the black community.

The racist criminal justice system in America is much more of a concern.

The funny thing is...he's actually right about US cops. America is a worldwide laughingstock and rightfully so.

We had the nerve to spread our brand of "Democracy" in the Middle East. Is it any wonder the Iraqis fought back against our invasion? I don't blame them for not wanting American-style government imposed on them.

[Egnever]

7. Yea cause that gobbledygook has something to do with the ayatrollah being a total fucking hypocrite.

[katsy]

8. Agree but glass houses and all....

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/police-shootings-ferguson-race-data

We know the atrocities committed by Iranian authorities. I find it hard to throw stones because the slow death of poverty, racism, and wage slavery in the USA is no more honorable than Iranian atrocities.

We just hide our autrocities better. And when union workers are murdered or tortured by our trade partners (think Columbia and China) we turn a blind eye.

[Egnever]

2. More fuck him

Iranian authorities regularly subject prisoners, especially those convicted on politically-motivated charges, to abuse and deprive them of necessary medical treatment. Security forces deprived Hossein Ronaghi, a rights activist and blogger, and opposition leaders Mousavi and Karroubi, from receiving the regular check-ups doctors had recommended for serious medical conditions.

Iranian women face discrimination in many areas including personal status matters related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody. A woman needs her male guardian’s approval for marriage regardless of her age, and cannot generally pass on her nationality to her foreign-born spouse or their children. A woman may not obtain a passport or travel outside the country without the written permission of a male guardian. Child marriage, though not the norm, continues in Iran, where the law provides that girls can marry at the age of 13 and boys at the age of 15;

And the biggest fuck him of all fucking hypocrite.

The government denies freedom of religion to adherents of the Baha’i faith, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, and discriminates against them. On July 31, an Iranian daily reprinted a fatwa, or religious edict, previously issued by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, stating that Baha’is are part of a “deviant and misleading sect” and urging Iranians to “avoid” them. One hundred and fourteen Baha’is were in Iran’s prisons as of September 2013, according to the Baha’i International Community.

[okaawhatever]

5. I know, someone tell him he's probably the largest human rights offender in the world. nt

[msongs]

3. gives him something to do when he's not hanging people for being gay or other things nt

[Bonobo]

6. It's a good things other countries don't have more military might than the US.

Or they might think they have the right to intervene militarily to stop the mistreatment and human rights abuses against our own citizens.