Should it surprise us that two of the world’s great human rights violators have so little regard for human life?
From biblical times to the Nazi Holocaust to the present suffering in northeast Nigeria to our local emergency room, the suffering of innocents has often prompted the same question: Where is God?
When it comes to COVID-19, no one can blame God. It’s people who have gotten us into this coronavirus mess, and it’s people – with God’s help – who can help heal a world deathly ill from it.
We are beginning to see how we got here, and as we do, we must take our own medicine. That medicine is the truth. And you don’t have to look to the Heavens to find the truth in this case.
While there is plenty of blame to go around for mistakes and failures made as the coronavirus spread throughout the United States and European Union, in some segments of our religious communities and beyond, we must call out the main culprits responsible for turning the coronavirus into a global pandemic.
Look no further than Beijing and Tehran.
The Chinese government is playing us all for fools and they need to come clean, owning their culpability in the pre-pandemic phases of COVID-19.
They identified the virus as early as November, and the mayor of Wuhan, before being fired, admitted in January that over 5 million people from Wuhan were allowed to leave the city before the travel restrictions had been enacted. The government then proceeded to weaponize medical supplies by importing tens of millions of surgical masks and respirators – a large portion of the world’s supply. These are facts.
It is also a fact that two spokespersons from its Foreign Ministry have engaged in a blood libel against the United States armed forces by claiming that they may have brought the coronavirus to Wuhan. The Chinese misinformation campaign might work with a few million of their own citizens and others who hate America but there will be a day after this disaster when such behavior may very well put the nail in the coffin of the booming China-USA economic pipeline. After all, multiple United States senators have already drawn a legislative line in the sand demanding that we disentangle America’s economy from China.
And before we laud China for sending desperately needed medical help to Italy, let’s not forget that the Chinese actually sold that aid to Italy. It wasn’t a donation. All of this while, the Chinese government threatened to withhold its medical supply line from the United States.
Equally complicit is the inhumane regime in Iran whose total disregard for human life was specially reserved for its own citizens in this health crisis.
Here is another fact: The Iranians allowed faithful pilgrims to continue to travel to the Holy City of Qom despite the fact that the virus was already raging there. Now, all the Gulf nations, and many beyond, struggle to contain this pandemic.
Why?
Because Khamenei suffers from a more powerful virus than the coronavirus. He is consumed by hate: hate of America, hate of Israel, hate of Baha’is, hate of Hindus, hate of gays, and hate of atheists. What makes his behavior especially evil is that he appropriates the name of Allah when committing it. He is a clergyman who has sunk billions of dollars into the nuclearization of his hate in order to prop up terrorist operations in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and beyond. Just this week, the Houthis in Yemen, which Khamenei controls, upheld a death sentence against an innocent member of the Bahai community.
In this case, Khamenei’s hate runs so deep that he claims he would reject any thought of humanitarian help from the US to fight the pandemic.
What the extremist dictator of Iran didn’t tell his citizens is that he had already rejected help from the United States, which was offered in February and was conveyed through the government of Switzerland. And just this week, Khamenei’s regime ordered Doctors Without Borders to immediately leave the country, ceasing their efforts to establish an intensive care hospital in Isfahan. As the secretary of state has noted, Khamenei has also stolen “1 billion euros intended for medical supplies [while hoarding] desperately needed masks, gloves and equipment.” This week, the Europeans pledged to provide another 20 million euros they probably need to fight their own pandemic.
Let’s be clear: The Iranian leader doesn’t care about his people. He cares about exploiting this crisis in order to loosen the sanctions of the United States. Otherwise, he would utilize his own personal fortune – in excess of $200 billion – to help his people.
If Khamenei cared, Iranian officials wouldn’t have continued to allow flights on their Mahan Airline between Tehran and China while the virus was spreading. In fact, he probably celebrated when he learned that the first reported case of COVID-19 in New York City – now the global epicenter of the pandemic – came from someone who had traveled from Iran.
Should it surprise us that two of the world’s great human rights violators have so little regard for human life?
No, but it should anger us that World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom and UN Secretary-General António Guterres are being allowed silence. Moreover, Guterres has in effect joined Iran’s lobbying efforts to lift sanctions on humanitarian grounds.
And, to be clear, these truths should not be used by racists, xenophobes, and conspiracy addicts to demonize Muslims, the Iranian people, Asian Americans, Jews, or others. We can fight against that bigotry by defining exactly whom we are talking about and standing arm-in-arm with our neighbors when they are subject to vitriol, whether online or in our neighborhoods.
We appreciate President Donald Trump addressing this concern when he tweeted, “It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world. They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. We will prevail together.”
He is right.
He is also right to hold accountable, with specificity, those foreign actors whose decisions have unnecessarily imperiled millions around the world. He’ll find some of the worst of them in the halls of power in Beijing and Tehran.
So, this isn’t a time to blame God, our compassionate Father in Heaven, who is protecting and guiding our medical heroes and comforting those who suffer.
May He also give us the strength to show compassion to strangers and to nurture those in need.
He, like his children, sees the truth.