Western civilization is facing decline and fall as it struggles with the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Thursday.
Khamenei made a point of reminding Iranians that the U.S. is the main enemy and mocked Americans who fought over toilet paper at stores and purchased firearms as a sign of Western weakness.
“The problem of corona should not make us ignorant about the plots by our enemies and arrogant powers,” he said.
He lamented that “confiscating other nations’ masks and buying guns” as well as fights over toilet paper are the “logical and natural outcome of the philosophy that governs western civilization,” the offical IRNA news agency reports.
“Confiscating other nations’ masks, emptying shops, fighting over toilet paper and long lines for buying guns during the coronavirus outbreak are the logical and natural outcome of the philosophy that governs western civilization,” Khamenei said in a live televised address which he also relayed on Twitter:
While lamenting the perceived failure of the west to cope in the pandemic, Khamenei congratulated Muslims for their resolve, saying that in the history of humanity, people may rarely witness a situation like today “in which all in human society need a savior.”
He said Islam has the answer to mankind’s search for that savior.
“Today, after experiencing various ideologies from communism to pretentious, western, liberal democracy, mankind does not feel at peace. Mankind is not happy. Few eras in the history of mankind have witnessed such a strong desire for the sublime truth, for a Savior,” he added.
He explained “human wisdom is a great blessing, which can solve many problems but not all of them,” before again pointing to Islamic notions of divinity for inspiration against what is offered by the U.S. and other countries.
The supreme leader went on to allege in some western countries, “the elderly, the disabled and people with major problems are not a priority to receive medical care.”
Khamenei said all of this “is a result and product of the dominance of western culture, which is based on materialism and atheism.”
Although he was fulsome in praise for Iran’s response, Khamenei did not venture an opinion on the specific numbers of dead and dying in his own country.
Iran has reported over 67,000 confirmed cases of the new virus, with nearly 4,000 deaths.
However, experts have repeatedly questioned those numbers, especially as Iran initially downplayed the outbreak in February amid the 41st anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution and a crucial parliamentary vote.