This is not a column that discusses international affairs. In it, you will have mostly read commentary about domestic issues. If this week I am going to make an exception and talk about an international event, it is because I have rarely seen an international event in which so many Indians have shown so much interest as the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel. The consequences of this war and its real objectives remain murky. What is clear is that the Ayatollah, who ruled Iran with diabolical despotism for nearly four decades, is dead.

When news came of the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, my first reaction was to celebrate. The death of all tyrants should be celebrated. If only because for a few blissful moments a heaviness seems to lift from the world. So, in cities across the world, Iranians celebrated the death of a man who destroyed the political and economic foundation of their country. Many of those who celebrated have been forced to leave their homeland as political refugees. Many have seen friends and family members tortured to death or executed by the Ayatollah’s revolutionary guards. Women’s voices were heard loudest in support of sisters and friends blinded or killed for the ‘sin’ of showing a few strands of hair. So why is it that Indian Muslims reacted so differently?

In Lucknow and Srinagar, Shia Muslims came out in the streets to beat their breasts, shout anti-American........

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