Iranian-American activist: We saw people became radicalized after Oct 7

Days after Irans attack on Israel, protesters swarmed streets around the country denouncing not Iran but Israel for the attack. But one Iranian American influencer is calling out the so-called activist for trying to paint the Islamic regime as the victim. That attorney, Elika Labon, joins us now. Thank you for being with us. I had the opportunity to watch that video, as so many others have, extremely powerful. But you raise a very provocative question to the folks who are sympathizing with the Islamic Republic. You ask them, where were you? Tell us more about that important question for the past two years since the Massagina Amini revolution kicked off in September of 2022. You know, we were doing our best to raise awareness for everything that was going on in Iran. And I think what was really a staggering, staggering turning point for us was when we witnessed post October 7th, you know, people kind of becoming radicalized to support these proxies of the Islamic Republic and our our first. But at least I can only speak for myself. My first thought was where were you when when we were trying to explain to you what this regime is about, what this regime does? And all of a sudden it’s like, did that just did that fall on death ears? Did that fall on death ears that all of a sudden in the midst of this, this, this chaos where you’re a dog whistling for the Islamic Republic to strike Israel and celebrating the Islamic Republic as some type of hero, slash victim in in this story? Did you. Were you not listening to the past two years when we were trying to explain to you exactly how they’re not the victims in in the Middle East? How exactly how they have been the instigators, the aggressors for so much domestic and regional instability for the past two years? Were you not listening? And I note that there were video, there videos of the way the Islamic regime treats women and that women being picked up off the street, people who are protesting the regime and, you know, are disappeared or are beaten. And the same goes for men. And so your reaction to people here who are exercising their freedom of speech and freedom to assemble, who are chanting death to Israel, death to America and turning a blind eye to the suffering of men, women and children who are in Iran. Yeah. And you know, it’s, it’s something that I have said similar recently, which was that what? What is it exactly that you’re looking for when you chant death to America? What is it exactly that you’re looking for? Are you looking to implement these autocratic regimes in Iran over here? Because I can assure you, no matter how much dissatisfaction that you have with with these systems, that’s a a huge step backwards if that’s what you’re looking for. You know, this system isn’t necessarily perfect by all means, but we do have these freedoms and liberty to express our wishes through the 1st Amendment, through our right to protest. And through doing so, we are able to achieve the progress that people are looking for. When you are talking about the situation in Iran where women and men alike are are killed or lynched from cranes for exercising their free speech. So you want to say death to America, to this country that allows the type of of gathering, the type of protest, the type of speech to achieve the desires that they have themselves. And you want to celebrate a regime that is suffocating the voices of the people so that they don’t have any right to protest, they don’t have any right to express themselves. So my question to them is, what exactly is it that you want and what exactly is it that you’re inviting here? Because it seems like what you want is what we have. It may not be perfect, but it’s a system of of of self representation, you know, that’s designed to achieve the end that we’re all looking for. That is a system that lynches you for, for saying the wrong thing. So. So where are we going with this Really powerful questions, really powerful video. I love one of your lines. Folks who go to the Instagram School of Law probably need to think a little bit harder about what’s going on in the world. Ellika Lebon, thank you for that. We appreciate it.