Iran speaker slams West double standards on Muslims

Iranian parliament (Majlis) speaker, Ali Larijani, has criticized the West’s double-standard vis-à-vis the killing of Muslims, saying Western governments are fueling security crises in the world.

“What is regrettable is the double standard [pursued] by Western officials and media with regard to the killing of Muslims and non-Muslims,” Larijani on Sunday, alluding to the recent death of three American Muslims in a shooting incident in the US state of North Carolina.

He highlighted the firmness of reactions by Western governments to the killing of non-Muslims, saying, “This is while they (Western officials) either remain silent on the murder of Muslims or they show a very weak reaction.”
Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were killed after a gunman shot them in the head in an apartment near the University of North Carolina on Tuesday.

The shooter, identified as Craig Stephen Hicks, has been arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

The brutal shooting to deaths of the young Americans sparked outrage among Muslims in the United States.

A large number of people held a protest rally on Friday outside the White House in Washington to condemn the recent killings, demanding that the deadly incident be treated as a hate crime.

Since the triple murder, mainstream American media outlets as well as law enforcement authorities have been heavily criticized for not treating the shootings as a hate crime. A hate crime indictment would carry a more severe penalty for the killings.

Moreover, many in the US believe that the murder incident would have gained a lot more attention if the attacker had been a Muslim and the victims were non-Muslim.

More than 100 religious and community groups, including predominantly Muslim groups, have also called on the administration of US President Barack Obama to open a hate crime inquiry into the incident and publicly denounce the shootings.