Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Suggest Burning US & Israeli Flags at Home To Help Prevent Spread of Covid-19

This really sounds like something out of the Onion

Given the coronavirus pandemic, the traditional Student Day march marking the anniversary of the Tehran United States embassy seizure will not be held for the first time in four decades. But an official of the student section of the Basij militia has said students should instead set fire to the US flag at home and circulate video clips to commemorate the occasion.

Speaking on a television news program on Sunday [November 1], Mojtaba Bastan, Acting Head of the Student Basij Organization, announced a campaign called ‘Everyone Together [Says] Down with the USA.’ Bastan said that at nine o’clock on Tuesday students and their parents should “trample on and set fire” to the flags of the US, Israel and France on their rooftops or courtyards while shouting ‘Down with America.’

Bastan asked students to make one-minute video clips and post them to a specially-created website, while adding their names to a statement ‘US Must Exit [Middle East] Region.’ The website features the competitions ‘Why Down with the USA?’ and ‘Message to American Soldiers,’ for which students can enter drawings, essays, voice recordings and video clips.

The paramilitary Basij Mostazafan (Mobilization of the Oppressed) — one of the five forces of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) — has branches in secondary schools, universities, factories and government offices. Members receive some basic military training in addition to extensive and regular ideological courses.

I encourage those who want to burn the US and Israeli flags at home to do so indoors. Preferably around flammable items.

The Darwin Awards are always looking for new, worthy winners.