Thread by @DrJavadTHashmi

I see some Muslims celebrating Iran's rocket support to Palestine: "Iran proved that Muslim umah [sic] is one nation and Iran stand with Palestine." However, I bet you didn't know about the BILLIONS of dollars in secret weapons sales between Iran & Israel. A thread 🧵. 1/

https://twitter.com/Shaguftaa92/status/1392364608472633344

Maybe you also didn't know that the CIA supported & funded the mullahs & ayatollahs (religious clerics) in 1953 during the coup to remove the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh. Mossadegh wanted to nationalize the country's oil resources... 2/

...which had been firmly in the control of British hands (what would become BP). Angered, the British MI6 helped the American CIA secretly overthrow Mosaddegh: Operation AJAX. As journalist Robert Dreyfuss notes in his book "Devil's Game"... 3/

"The very same cleric-led, right wing Islamists that toppled the shah in 1979 were paid by the CIA in 1953 to support him" (109). The CIA & MI6 "worked closely with Iran's clergy, the ulema to weaken & ultimately to overthrow Mossadegh" (110). 4/

They gave briefcases full of cash to the mullahs in order to stoke up religious dissent. One of the mullahs on their payroll was Ayatollah Kashani, the intellectual godfather of none other than Khomeini. "Kashani & his ilk fomented terrorist violence against the shah" (111). 5/

A CIA report ominously read: "A contest in the streets between the forces supporting Mossadeq & Kashani would be bitter & destructive" (113). The coup was successful & the autocratic shah was fully ensconced in power. 6/

Iran's path towards constitutional monarchy was thus thwarted by none other than the US & UK. Mossadegh was not only popular but he also furthered leftist reforms, including granting the right to vote for women. The Western-supported shah, meanwhile, was a brutal dictator... 7/

...who used his vicious secret police, the SAVAK, to brutalize his people & consolidate his hold on the country. He tried "to put the Islamist genie [the mullahs] back in the bottle" (117), but the mullahs bided their time, including Kashani's protege, Ayatollah Khomeini. 8/

You all know about the 1979 "Islamic" revolution that would bring a triumphant Khomeini to power. He quickly moved to violently suppress the secular & leftist elements in the revolution, seeking to (& succeeding in) turning Iran into a backward theocracy. 9/

What you might not know, however, is that the US had, prior to this, considered *another* coup against the shah: "[they] toyed with the idea of unseating the shah & replacing him..." (224). The US administration started courting the shah's opposition, including the mullahs. 10/

Dreyfuss quotes our own Prof. @jricole, "The shah was very angry in the late 1970s over the fact that opposition figures & members of the clergy were going in & out of the US embassy" (227). The despotic shah should have known not to trust the two-timing Great Satan. 11/

Not only did the US try to court the mullahs before the revolution but they continued this effort *after* the revolution, even with all that "death to America" stuff. After all, the mullahs hated the Soviets, communists, & secular nationalists just as much as the West did. 12/

Even though the two sides would not see eye to eye, the US tried to earn its title of "Great Satan" again when it supported both sides during the brutal Iran-Iraq War, which lasted almost a decade & killed millions of people. Let's turn to Iraq for a second... 13/

Here as well, the evidence suggests that the CIA orchestrated a coup to put the Ba'ath party in power, which led to the rise of none other than Saddam Hussein... the same guy the US would eventually overthrow. 14/

"The CIA also played a central role in preparing the death lists of those who were to be eliminated after the coup by squads from the Ba'ath party." 15/
independent.co.uk/news/world/rev…

In the 80s, Saddam was our guy, & the US gave him the green light to invade Iran. Remember that talk about chemical weapons? Well, "CIA files prove that America helped Saddam as he gassed Iran." 16/
foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/26/exc…

Trying to earn its title of "the Great Satan," the US simultaneously supported both sides of the conflict: openly it sided with Iraq but secretly it funded Iran as well. There must be a special place in hell for a country that does that in order to prolong a bloodfest. 17/

Here's where Israel comes in. While saber-rattling against Iran as "the Little Satan," Iran bought weapons from Israel. "In 1981, the Reagan administration secretly and abruptly changed U.S. policy & allowed Israel to sell several billion dollars' worth of U.S.-made arms... 18/

"..., spare parts and ammunition to the Iranian government..." even as the US publically called to militarily boycott Iran. So, our great supporter of Palestine, Iran, bought BILLIONS of dollars of weapons from "the Zionist pigs." 19/
baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-19…

But, let's forget this fact now that Iran sends firecrackers to Hamas! In any case, the Great Satan also sold weapons to Khomeini's regime, in what came to be known as the Iran-contra scandal. Israel, meanwhile, "provided Iran with intelligence through its war with Iraq." 20/

Israel even launched an attack on Iraq on behalf of Iran. Not trying to be outdone by the US, "Israel was interested in keeping the war between Iran and Iraq going to ensure that these two potential enemies remained preoccupied with each other" (same article). 21/

So, you have America & Israel orchestrating a prolonged bloody conflict between Iran & Iraq -- I wonder why there is such a bad Sunnī-Shīʿa sectarian conflict in the region! Once Iraq was knocked off, the next country to knock off for America & Israel was, of course, Iran... 22/

...which is why Iran is now enemy numero uno. Of course, America worked with & empowered the same Iran & Iranian-backed forces once Saddam was overthrown & Iraq left in shambles. Iranian-backed Shīʿa death squads went around liquidating Iraqi Sunnīs... 23/

...eventually leading to the rise of Sunnī extremist groups, including ISIS & the current cluster f*** we find ourselves in.
This is not meant to be sectarian as I will soon put out another thread on ISIS & Saudi Arabia. Suffice to say, however, Iran is no good guy. 24/

But, of course, most of the credit for this cluster f*** belongs to the United States.

BUT WHY IS ISLAM SO VIOLENT?

25/