More than a third of American Muslims deny the rapes and murders committed by the Hamas terrorist organization in Israel occurred, according to a poll first reported by The Daily Signal earlier this month.
Just over a year after the Oct. 7 attacks and a week before the Nov. 5 presidential election, Muslim-American voters who oppose Israel “may determine the Electoral College votes of critical swing-state Michigan,” historian Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote in his weekly commentary published by The Daily Signal.
Since Iran assists and funds Hamas, Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson has expressed concern that the Islamist regime continues to influence the thinking of some Americans.
Now, Peterson is promoting “Ask an Iranian,” a 15-minute minidocumentary about Iran, as part of US: The Story, a nonprofit organization set up to produce content across social media platforms. To date, content produced by US: The Story has racked up 80 million impressions and 5 million views, he said in an Oct. 9 press release.
The short documentary from writer Gregg Hurwitz, an admirer of Peterson’s, focuses on post-1979 revolutionary Iran and the ideology that sparked the current regime.
“Of all the subversive players on the international stage, the Islamic Republic [of Iran] is arguably the most hell-bent on the subversion and even eventual destruction of both the U.S. and Israel,” Peterson said in an email promoting the minidocumentary.
Israel retaliated Saturday for Iran’s Oct. 1 launch of 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli cities with its own airstrikes against key Iranian military facilities. Afterward, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called Sunday for a global military coalition to attack Israel.
“Ask an Iranian” draws on what Peterson calls the “experience of a selection of Iranian nationals.”
“Their blunt testimony paints the appropriately dire picture of [Iran] and the trouble that state is successfully fomenting in the West,” Peterson said in the press release.
This diverse group of Iranian Americans includes men and women of varying ages.
“One of the biggest strategies that the Islamic regime uses, and that all of the jihadists use, is propaganda,” a young woman named Gazelle Sharmahd says in the minidocumentary. “They try to look like the victims.”
Elham Yaghoubian, another featured voice, was born and raised in Iran and notes that “about $70-100 million annually was sent to Hamas” by Iran.
After the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel that left over 1,200 dead and another 250 taken hostage, and despite the U.S. State Department’s classifying Iran as “a dangerous regime,” protests in America in support of Hamas and against Israel spread, especially on college campuses.
“What we’re seeing right now on our campuses [is] not a grassroots movement … coming out because they genuinely care about a humanitarian cause. They’re orchestrated from a certain place,” Sharmahd says in “Ask an Iranian.”
She adds: “The supreme leader of the Islamic regime has supported these encampments, has said they’re heroes. And … when the leader of the Islamic regime says they’re supporting you, you’re probably on the wrong side of history.”
With Hurwitz as his guest, Peterson recorded a related episode of his popular podcast titled “US the Story: Dismantling Partisan Propaganda.” (The podcast may be seen on The Daily Wire and YouTube.)
“Ask an Iranian” is available across multiple platforms, including X, YouTube, and Instagram.