Why Would Khamenei Claim Victory? Here’s Why A little knowledge of Islam makes his apparently odd actions completely clear. by Robert Spencer
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/why-would-khamenei-claim-victory-heres-why/
It’s always hard to know if President Trump knows more than he is saying, as his recent feigning of a rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to lull the Islamic Republic of Iran illustrates. Whatever Trump really knows or does not know, however, his statement Friday about the behavior of the Ayatollah Khamenei since the U.S. decimation of Iran’s nuclear program demonstrates the crying need in the West for foreign policy analysts who understand the doctrine and practice of Islam. Through the prism of Islam, much of what Trump professes to be puzzled about becomes perfectly clear.
“Why,” the president asked, “would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so. As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie.” Yet in fact, lying is a centerpiece of Khamenei’s religion.
The concept of taqiyya, or religiously sanctioned deception, originated among Shi’ite Muslims, developed during the time of the sixth Imam, Jafar al-Sadiq, in the middle of the eighth century, when the Shi’ites were being persecuted by the Sunni caliph al-Mansur. Taqiyya allowed Shi’ites to pretend to be Sunnis in order to protect themselves from Sunnis who were killing Shi’ites. Some Shi’ite thinkers turned the deception that had become a necessity into a virtue.
Jafar al-Sadiq, who died in 765, had a servant who was suspected of having revealed some of the secrets of the faith. The Imam declared: “Whoever propagates our tradition is like someone who denies it…. Conceal our doctrine and do not divulge it…. Taqiyya is our religion and the religion of our fathers; he who has no taqiyya has no religion.”
Some sayings of the Imams include, “He who has no taqiyya has no faith”; “he who forsakes taqiyya is like him who forsakes prayer”; “he who does not adhere to taqiyya and does not protect us from the ignoble common people is not part of us”; “nine tenths of faith falls within taqiyya”; “taqiyya is the believer’s shield (junna), but for taqiyya, God would not have been worshipped.” So why shouldn’t Khamenei, who reveres Jafar al-Sadiq and the other Imams, lie? It’s a central aspect of his identity as a “man of great faith.”
Trump went on to say that Khamenei’s “Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life. I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’” Khamenei would never say such a thing anyway. His world view leads him to see the world in terms of strength and weakness. Magnanimity and kindness he views as weakness. Thus if he is aware that Trump spared him at all, this knowledge only leads him to regard Trump with contempt, not gratitude.
Trump added:
In fact, in the final act of the War, I demanded that Israel bring back a very large group of planes, which were heading directly to Tehran, looking for a big day, perhaps the final knockout! Tremendous damage would have ensued, and many Iranians would have been killed. It was going to be the biggest attack of the War, by far. During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery – The sanctions are BITING! But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more. Iran has to get back into the World Order flow, or things will only get worse for them. They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them – A burned out, blown up Country, with no future, a decimated Military, a horrible Economy, and DEATH all around them. They have no hope, and it will only get worse! I wish the leadership of Iran would realize that you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR. PEACE!!!
Yet the leaders of the Islamic Republic will never “get back into the World Order flow” or stop being “angry, hostile, and unhappy” in the eyes of its adversaries. They regard those adversaries as “the most vile of created beings” (Qur’an 98:6), and themselves as “the best of people” (Qur’an 3:110).
If State Department officials knew this and more about Islam, they would be far better equipped to deal with Iran and other Islamic countries. Yet they continue to discount Islam’s importance for their analyses of the various relevant conflicts, to their own detriment and ours.
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