‘There Is No Fun In Islam’ — I Beg To Differ

The late Ayatollah Khomeini famously declared that “there is no fun in Islam.” No fun, no humor, no laughing — although he apparently laughed in amazement at her unintimidated brashness when Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, who was interviewing him, ripped off the hijab that had been placed on her head. But now there is hilarity in Iran, especially among those who hate the regime, and elsewhere too, all over the world, at the spectacle the Iranian regime has just made of itself. In the first three days of Israeli attacks on Iran, the Iranians composing the war bulletins declared, falsely, that the Iranians had shot down two — some reports said four — Israeli fighter jets. A later report added the piquant detail that an Israeli female pilot had been captured. Then came a third claim, about another Israeli pilot shot down. All three of these claims were false.

The fun in Islam — pace Khomeini — derives from the video the Iranians provided to the world as “proof” that they had indeed shot down at least one Israeli fighter jet. It turned out to be something quite different. More on the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” in Tehran’s propaganda department, and the video it provided to the Tasnim News Agency for distribution to the world, including on social media, can be found here: “Iranian media claims to hit Israeli planes, but footage was actually a video game,” Jerusalem Post, June 15, 2025:

“We shot down an Israeli jet”. Iran claims partial success against Israel in the war that has been going on for three days. Tehran, since the early hours of June 13, has been hit by the Israeli offensive that uses its planes to hit military targets, nuclear sites and oil facilities.

Iran initially claimed to have shot down a jet and captured a pilot. The news was denied by Israel, which spoke bluntly of fake news. A few hours later, a new announcement from Iranian sources: an Israeli plane was shot down and there is also a video. The clip bounces on social media, showing a jet being hit by anti-aircraft fire.

There is something wrong, however. The doubts are more than well-founded. The clip is nothing more than an excerpt from a video game, Arma 3. The realistic images, among other things, are cyclically re-proposed to document alleged jet shootdowns. Further detail: the plane inserted in the video game is not even Israeli but, apparently, it would be a Russian model…

So there for all the world to see, was Iran’s proof that it had shot down an Israeli plane: a video containing simulation of a plane being hit and brought down by a missile. It’s the very same video that appeared in a December 2022 “mission mod” that appeared in the video game Arma 3. Those familiar with the Arma 3 video game for that month soon spotted the fakery put out by the Iranians as evidence.

Two questions remain.

Question one:

Did the Iranians who put out this video game clip, with a shot of the “Israeli plane” going down after being hit by Iranian fire, know the source of the clip, and were just trying to pull a fast one on the world, and didn’t think they would be caught out, especially since so many people are eager to believe, because of their anti-Israel animus, whatever victory the Iranians claim to have achieved?

Question two:

Were the Iranians provided with the video game clip by someone opposed to the regime, who described it as the video of an Israeli plane being downed, hoping that the regime’s propagandists would post it as real, and then be revealed as the credulous buffoons they turn out to be?

Either possibility is most amusing.

Take that, ghost of the humorless Ayatollah Khomeini. Of course there is “fun in Islam.” Your successors have just provided an example.