Johns Hopkins Spreads Misinformation On Iran

Johns Hopkins is one of the premier academic institutions in the United States, especially when it comes to medicine. During the pandemic, they lead the crusade against “misinformation and disinformation”, which is ironic since their SAIS program which focuses on foreign policy is one of the worst purveyors of misinformation and disinformation when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Until their July 11th Twitter thread no one would imagine that anyone outside of a Hezbollah terror cell would describe the Islamic Republic as a ‘benevolent” democracy. Yet Hopkins “rethinking Iran” program did just that.

In November 2019, known as Bloody November, the regime shot and killed at least 3000 peaceful protestors on the streets of Iran. When asked why they are shooting people in the head, one IRGC commander replied that they were also shooting people in the legs. Is this what Johns Hopkins considers a “benevolent approach”?

Since the revolution restarted in September 2022 the regime has continued to execute dissidents. Sometimes they are official executions like Majidreza Ranavard, but now they seem to prefer to kidnap and torture people to death to avoid international attention. A very strange manifestation of benevolence. 

Hopkins’ SAIS program seems to be replete with far-Left Intersectional theory to justify its wild assertions, like their essay on why Palestine is a feminist issue. The essential argument is that since Palestinian women supported the Intifada, Palestine is therefore a feminist issue. This of course omits the reverse logic that some women are Zionist their Zionism is feminism. The article also whitewashes and ignores the terrorism inflicted on civilians as a result of the Intifadas.

Considering the Islamic Republic is the primary financier of Palestinian terrorism, it is hard to see where Johns Hopkins differs from the regime in terms of foreign policy.

Another area where Johns Hopkins and the regime in Tehran are in lockstep together is sanctions relief. Johns Hopkins has an entire page on its website dedicated to pushing for billions of dollars of sanction relief to the regime. 

They even included an outright lie about medical sanctions. One of the main propaganda talking points of the Regime and its international apologists is that the West is so cruel that they deny medicine to sick children. The truth is that medicine was never under sanction. Personally, I know people who sent medicine back to Iran at the height of the Trump sanctions. Why would Johns Hopkins lie? Is it the classic naivety and intellectual laziness of the progressive academic elite that they are simply taking the mass-murdering regime at its word or is there something more sinister going on?

One of the key figures of the Johns Hopkins SAIS program is Vali Nasr, a former Obama staffer and a leading figure pushing for a revival of the disastrous JCPOA. Vali Nasr is a very controversial figure in the Iranian community as he has been a long-time proponent of the “reformist” lie of Iranian politics.

The entire reformist lie was created by the regime to fool gullible Westerners into appeasement politics. It goes as follows: There are two factions of government in Iran: the Reformists and Hardliners. Often the grift is that by appeasing the regime it will lead to reformist presidents like Rhouhani over hardliners like Raisi. In reality, there are no real elections as the entire thing is controlled by the Guardian Council who prescreens people before they can get their name on the ballot.

This is why even though Iran has had “reformist” presidents it never has real reforms. Any foreign policy expert with a moderate amount of knowledge of Iran should know this.

Perhaps there is more going on here as last year Vali Nasr was spotted outside the hotel of Iran’s President and mass murderer, Ebrahim Raisi, for an alleged clandestine meeting between the two.

Whether it is misinformation stemming from ideological blindness or incompetence or a sinister attempt to undermine the Iranian people with a disinformation campaign, the end result is the same. Johns Hopkins SAIS program is lying about Iran and needs to seriously reform there SAIS program before more damage is done.

The National Telegraph reached out to Johns Hopkins for comment, but they have not responded yet.