Iran, coronavirus, and faith

Following on my earlier theme about Biblical plagues and Iran’s coronavirus problems, God does seem intent on smiting Iran.

The other day, I noted that, in 701 B.C., God routed the Assyrian army as it laid siege to Jerusalem. Based upon comments by Herodotus some 150 years later, many believe that a plague struck the Assyrian army. (Whether God sent the plague is a question I would not presume to address.)

The point of my post is that, with coronavirus sweeping through Iran, I couldn’t help being struck by a little parallelism. After all, just as Assyrian was the Jewish nation’s greatest enemy in 701 B.C., today Iran is the Jewish nation’s greatest enemy within the Middle East.

I’m repeating this because news broke today that one of the Ayatollah’s advisers died from coronavirus:

An adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died from the new coronavirus, as other top officials in the country are confirmed to be infected, according to multiple reports on Monday.

The Iranian Health Ministry recorded 523 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s known total to 1,501. They mark a 53 percent increase since the day before.

Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, was an Expediency Council member who advised Khamenei and settled disputes between him and parliament. COVID-19 has already infected Iran’s vice president and deputy health minister.

His death comes after the government on Monday rejected help from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who announced last week the U.S. was concerned Iran may have covered up details on the spread of the virus.

I said in my previous Iran post that I do not wish harm to the Iranian people. They suffer enough under the current leadership. However, I do not wish the leadership well and must admit to a certain satisfaction that they are, in fact, not well. And of course, I do understand that part of their problem is that they’re old men (and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many are heavy smokers).

Meanwhile, regarding disease and faith, here’s a reason that the Iranian people, regardless of my wishes for them, are going to suffer badly this flu season:

Iranians have posted several videos on social media, featuring devout Shi’ites licking holy shrines in defiance of the coronavirus. In some of the videos, worshippers say they are licking the shrines in order to infect themselves, thus protecting future pilgrims to the shrines from contracting the virus. On March 1, 2020, a pilgrim posted a video of himself licking the steel bars protecting the window of a Shi’ite shrine. He said that many people have “spread lies” that this window “contracted” corona, AIDS, hepatitis, and “such nonsense.” He said that he is licking the bars so the disease enters his body and future pilgrims will be safe.

You can watch the insanity in this video:

American leftists have their knickers in a twist that Pence and his team prayed for wisdom and guidance as they use scientific knowledge to combat coronavirus’s spread in America while turning a blind eye to what’s going on in their “peace partner” Iran. Every day, Leftists reveal that they are angry, unhappy people lacking in wisdom.