Los Angeles: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has turned to Twitter to lambast US authorities for their treatment of minorities, spotlighting Monday’s anniversary of the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee and tweeting #BlackLivesMatter in solidarity with protesters in New York and Missouri.
In a tweet posted Sunday, Khamenei referred to racial unrest in Ferguson, Mo., asserting: “#Jesus endured sufferings to oppose tyrants who had put humans in hell in this world & the hereafter while he backed the oppressed. #Ferguson.”
He was referring to the fatal shooting of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown on Aug. 9, which set off months of rioting against authorities in Ferguson and a national debate on law enforcement’s relations with minorities.
Later in the day, Khamenei added his voice to the campaign against racial profiling by police that accelerated with the Dec. 4 death of 43-year-old Eric Garner in New York. Garner had been put in a chokehold by officers who stopped him for selling bootleg cigarettes on the street.
“It’s expected that followers of #Jesus follow him in his fight against arrogants and in his support for the oppressed. #BlackLivesMatter,” Khamenei wrote, including the hashtag that has become a rallying cry since the Brown and Garner deaths.
Khamenei had also tweeted a similar message of support on Christmas Eve, likening US minorities’ plight with that of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “If #Jesus were among us today he wouldn’t spare a second to fight the arrogants & support the oppressed. #Ferguson. #Gaza.”
Khamenei added the treatment of Native Americans in the United States to his tweeted laments, noting Monday’s 124th anniversary of the 7th Cavalry Regiment massacre of captured Lakota Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. As many as 300
