The Rising Danger of Iranian Soft Power in the United States

The Dispatch

UANI Policy Director Jason Brodsky writes: "An unusual news story emanated from Houston, Texas, late last month. The Islamic Education Center of Houston (IEC) posted a video on YouTube of children singing a Shiite religious song, with pledges of allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A comparison of the background in the video to publicly available images of the IEC show a striking resemblance, leading to the conclusion that the video was likely filmed on-site.  Following the backlash to the video, the IEC made it private on YouTube. Some saw this as an innocent song with a religious message, while others saw it as a political song in support of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the supreme leader, which signifies Iranian soft-power influences in the United States."