Ayatollah Khamenei didn’t pull any punches in his speech on the Hajj this week. The Iranian leader took the opportunity to go all in on Saudi Arabia, calling his country’s longstanding enemy “disgraced and misguided” and accusing its leaders of being “sacrilegious, unfaithful” and “materialistic”.
Khamenei was probably expecting a comeback, and he got one: Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority Abdulaziz Al Al-Sheikh responded in Saudi newspaper Makkah by saying Iranians weren’t Muslims. “Their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah," he said in comments reprinted by Arab News, which were accompanied by a cartoon showing the Ayatollah loading a gun with a Islamic pilgrim-shaped bullet. The implied suggestion that Iran was politicizing the Hajj was clear.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, however, didn’t take the attack lying down and hit back by tweeting against the Wahhabi theology that’s the root of much criticism of Saudi Arabia.
Some Saudis made their own impeccably designed graphics to illustrate the strength of their convictions.
اكبر حملة سبام للواطي الخاميني قاتل السنه في العراق واليمن وسوريا عليه لعنة الله ليوم الدين #حمله_سبام_للخاميني pic.twitter.com/Tq4YUEeHMr
— محيميـدَ (@mjn_o7) 7 September 2016
A spam campaign on the account of Khamenei, the killer of Sunnis in Iraq and Syria, may God’s curse be on him until judgment day.
https://t.co/ipsE4rOLfO#حمله_سبام_للخاميني
— بنت الوطن (@eoa7777) 7 September 2016
شاركوا فهذا من ضمن الجهاد في سبيل الله ومنع انتشار الشرك والكذب .
Please all participate in this campaign, this is Jihad for Allah in Islam.
Others made the fight much more than personal, abusing Shia, Christians and Jews. A not insignificant preoccupation with Iran and its leaders was notable among some of the more vociferous accounts.
الشيعة حمير ومطايا اليهود والنصارى وهم ملة كفر واحدة قلوبهم متفرقة ولكنها مجتمعة على حرب الإسلام#حملة_سبام_للخامئني pic.twitter.com/YGMnlxrQuV
— مكافحة المد الصفوي (@iran_control) 7 September 2016
The Shiites are the allies of Christians and Jews, despite having many divisions but they are all infidels and all have agreed to fight Islam.
The intention of the tweetstorm varied from more straightforward online hopes to more ambitious historical goals.
#حملة_سبام_للخامئني لو نستمر ع الحملة يومين وبيتقفل حسابه الملعون
— ساهر الليل (@yyii2030) 7 September 2016
If we intensify the campaign for two days we will shut down his account
#حملة_سبام_للخامئني
— بيض مسلوق (@saudali19841) 7 September 2016
سبااام pic.twitter.com/1ew2LwKBnK
Please Spam! [Image] “Where are you taking me?” “To garbage can of history!”
The tweetstorm is yet to have an effect on Khamenei’s Twitter itself. As Muslims from all over the world begin making their way to Saudi for Hajj – including Iranian pilgrims travelling from other countries – the effect it might have on equanimity in the religion’s holy city remains to be seen.
BS
