Tehran Fans Muslim Anti-U.S. Rage Over Anti-Islamic Film

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced his harsh condemnation of the U.S. and Zionism over the YouTube film, saying that it was aimed at degrading and humiliating Islam. He added: "The Muslims should know that this desperate move [i.e. the film] in response to the Islamic awakening is a sign of the glory and importance of this uprising, and of its growth."[2]

Source: Fars, September 15, 2012

The Killing Of The U.S. Ambassador To Libya Will Be "The Opening Shot For The Killing Of U.S. Ambassadors In The Region"

Iranian officials and ayatollahs called on Muslims worldwide, especially Shi'ites, to actively protest across the world. In an interview broadcast on Al-Alam TV, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said: "This wave of holy rage must turn into a hurricane or a tsunami against the U.S., so that they will refrain from toying with what is holy to the Muslims. They should learn that toying with Islam and with its most honorable prophet is tantamount to playing with a lion's tail. They will pay a steep price for this. They have already paid for this, and they will pay more."[3]

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, Al-Alam, September 16, 2012.

The Jomhouri-e Eslami daily called for attacks on Western and Zionist interests, as an effective response to the insult to the Prophet Muhammad. The paper explained that demonstrations and condemnations were of no use and have no impact on the West or Israel, and that "the people of the West and the Zionists have no problem with peaceful demonstrations by Muslims. What worries them, and without a doubt sets them back, are attacks on their interests... Endangering the interests of the U.S., the Great Satan and the leader of corruption, is a different way to coerce the leaders of corruption to withdraw."[4]

Some senior ayatollahs welcomed the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and warned that the U.S. should expect further harsh reactions from the Muslims.[5] The Global Ahl-e Al-Bayt Foundation, which is directly subordinate to the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, urged Muslims worldwide, and especially the Shi'ites, "to demonstrate and protest against this offensive move [of making the film], and do everything they can to ban it, in order to prevent the continuation of these satanic actions."[6] On September 13, senior ayatollah Mohammad Ali Alavi Gorgani exhorted the Shi'ites worldwide to "express their outrage to the people of the world" and that Muslims should "react to this satanic move... behind which stands global Zionism."[7] Student Basij representative Ali Hassan Zadeh called on Muslims to remove the cancerous growth – Israel – from the Middle East.[8] Kazem Tabatabai, a Friday prayer leader from the city of Zabol, said: "The Muslims must no longer keep silent. They must launch all-out jihad to eliminate the arrogance [the West headed by the U.S.]."[9] Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Abbas Ka'abi said: "The entire Muslim nation must join forces with the zealous Libyan people against the film that insults Islam and the Prophet."[10] Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani said: "The U.S. must expect [even] harsher measures."[11]

Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi said that the Iranian government would search for the producer of the anti-Muhammad YouTube film and would place him under surveillance.[12]

Two prominent regime mouthpieces, Kayhan and Fars, stressed that the targeting of U.S. diplomats in the Middle East would now become a trend.[13] A September 15, 2012 Fars analysis said that the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya will be "the opening shot for the killing of U.S. ambassadors in the region." It also warned Arab leaders not to suppress the masses' rage against the U.S., because doing so could bring down their regimes: "The Arab leaders... of the post-Mubarak, post-Qadhafi and post-Ali 'Abdallah Saleh [era]... must realize that the revolutions do not depend on them, but that they depend on the revolutions. If they stray from the path [of the revolutions], they will undoubtedly be deposed. This time, the insults to Islam came up against the dam of the Islamic awakening. The offending country [i.e. the U.S.] can no longer insult [Islam] and expect that its ambassadors in the Islamic countries will remain safe. The Islamic awakening has significantly increased the cost of insulting the sanctity of Islam. It is not only [the YouTube film's purported director] Sam Bacile who should go into hiding; now the offending country's ambassadors in the Islamic countries will [also] feel unsafe, even though the Egyptian and Yemeni police fired on the protestors... [The killing of the U.S. ambassador] is a phenomenon that possibly could continue – and even if it does not continue with the same determination, it may make the U.S. diplomats feel constantly unsafe."

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Fars also warned the leaders of Arab countries where revolutions have recently taken place that "if they want to grow close to the West and sacrifice Islam in favor of liberal democracy, they will face their peoples' demands, and they should not expect that to end well." It added that Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi's September 12 speech condemning the film but banning attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo pleased both Islamist and Western ears, and reflected his understanding that "anti-Western sentiment now prevails in his country."[14]

Source: Fars, September 14, 2012

In an editorial, the daily Kayhan, which is close to Supreme Leader Khamenei, issued a call for a repeat of the Benghazi events and for harming Americans in Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Stating that the events would continue the "stoning of the Great Satan" that had begun with the 1979 occupation of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, it stated: "America is now paying... a minimal price for its direct and indirect crimes in the four corners of the Islamic Middle East – from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Syria to Lebanon, and from Gaza and Bahrain to Saudi Arabia and Yemen...

"The same arsenal of rage that exploded in Iran on November 4, 1979 [with the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran] is exploding today against the U.S. embassies and diplomatic centers in various countries... Here [i.e. Tehran] is where, three decades ago, the Great Satan was first stoned; now stoning it has become customary for the people of the region. If the price for [the U.S.'s] pleasure district in Libya is the life of the [U.S.] ambassador, what will be the price for the U.S. presence in Egypt, Bahrain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia? The answers to this equation are clear."[15]

Iran Ups Reward For Assassinating Salman Rushdie

Khamenei's office also increased the reward for whoever implements the fatwa of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Office representative Hassan Sanei announced on September 15, 2012 that the reward was now $3.3 million, and added: "Now is the most suitable time to undertake this mission... its necessity is now clearer than ever." He stated further that there would have been no cartoons or films insulting Islam had the fatwa already been implemented.[16]