Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei takes to Twitter to chide US on race relations
Khamenei likens police shooting of black men to struggle of the Palestinians
Iran's supreme leader has stepped into the debate over police violence and race in America, likening police shootings of black people in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere to the Palestinian struggle in Gaza in a series of tweets using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.
In a stream of comments on his English-language Twitter feed, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday returned to a theme he has repeatedly struck since Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot dead by police officer Darren Wilson in Missouri on August 9.
In his latest outpouring, Khamenei seeks to highlight what he sees as the hypocrisy of the US at Christmastime by suggesting a link between Jesus suffering for the oppressed and official oppression of protesters in Ferguson. "#Jesus endured sufferings to oppose tyrants who had put humans in hell in this world& the hereafter while he backed the oppressed. #Ferguson," he tweeted .
In another post , from Christmas Eve, the ayatollah wrote: "If #Jesus were among us today he wouldn't spare a second to fight the arrogants&support the oppressed. #Ferguson #Gaza".
When it comes to domestic US affairs, Khamenei is quite the regular commentator. In 2011, when Occupy protests were erupting across America, he predicted the movement would bring down the capitalist system.
After protests exploded in Ferguson after Brown's death, he seized on the events to criticise race relations generally in the US. He wrote: "Today like previous years, African-Americans are still under pressure, oppressed and subjected to discrimination. #Ferguson".