Mosques hold memorial services for Khamenei
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin: 'We cannot allow terrorists to be glorified in our country or for such actions to occur without consequence'
A number of Australian mosques have held memorial services for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following his assassination by Israel on Saturday, drawing condemnation from the Jewish community and political leaders.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said any Australian mosque or centre honouring Khamenei should immediately be subject to a criminal investigation for supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a listed terrorist organisation.
“The fact that Khamenei’s forces coordinated at least two terrorist attacks in Australia makes this public adulation for him all the more concerning,” Ryvchin said.
“We cannot allow terrorists to be glorified in our country or for such actions to occur without consequence. We have seen where brazen support for terrorism and glorification of violence can take our country.”
The Australian Jewish Association said mosques across Australia holding mourning vigils for Khamenei showed “Australia has imported a major problem”.
“If the government doesn’t take action, Australians can only blame ourselves,” the AJA said.
El Zahra Centre in Melbourne announced a gathering in commemoration of Khamenei, offering “condolences and congratulations” on “the honourable martyrdom of the pious scholar”, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Arrahman Islamic Centre in Sydney held a mourning gathering for the “pure soul” of Khamenei and “for the souls of the martyrs who rose in the face of the American-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The Flagbearer Foundation in NSW referred to Khamenei as “the Imam of Our Time” and held three nights of recitations for him.
According to the Daily Mail, Ali Safdari, who preaches at the Al Zahra Mosque in Arncliffe in Sydney’s south, described Khamenei as a “noble man” and “the embodiment of everything we wanted in a leader”.
“Will we turn our backs on a time like today? Never. Brothers, we lost someone very special, we lost someone who is very dear to us, but we cannot lose our vision, we cannot lose our fight,” Safdari told worshippers at a service on Sunday night, according to the Daily Mail.
Services were also held at the Zainabia Islamic Centre in Brisbane.
NSW Premier Chris Minns told journalists on Monday “I think we can call the mourning of this tyrant atrocious and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
“[Iranians] they’re not mourning the death of an evil dictator, and that’s what they had in Iran for the last 30 years, and prior to that, with his predecessor,” he said.
“By any objective measure, the Ayatollah was evil, and I don’t think that we should be mincing words about this. The truth of the matter is, weeks ago, he and his regime were responsible for killing 30,000 protesters.”
Academic and former Iranian prisoner Kylie Moore-Gilbert told Radio 2GB that those mourning Khamenei were “non-Iranian Shia Muslims”.
“I would urge such people to think about what the Iranian people are telling them, and the approach of their Iranian brothers and sisters, who would absolutely not want to be mourning such a mass murdering tyrant,” Moore-Gilbert said.
Khamenei ruled Iran as its supreme leader for over three decades and was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths through state-sponsored terrorism.
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