ISIS soldiers in convoy in confiscated trucks in Iraq. Photo: Twitter / nayelshafei.

During a speech on Monday at Tehran’s Imam Ali Military Academy, Iran’s Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei charged that the enemies of Islam created the Islamic State to spread “Islamophobia.”

The West sets up armed extremist groups such as the Islamic State and trains them to commit mass murder to discredit Islam, Khamanei said.

The “arrogant powers of the world” feel threatened by the message of what he called “authentic Islam” and want to frighten people about the religion’s message.

“By creating armed groups in the name of Islam and [the] Islamic State, and massacr[ing] innocent people, the enemies of Islam plan to create Islamophobia, but the message of authentic Islam for humanity is peace, dignity, security, and safe life, and that is why the enemies do not want the world to hear this message,” Khamenei said.

Khamenei also claimed that “global tyrants” fear Islam’s power and are doing everything they can to spread “Islamophobia.”

Last month, the Ayatollah blamed United States, the “wicked government of Britain,” and Zionism for creating the Islamic State. This was done to stir divisions between Sunnis and Shias.

“A careful and analytic look at the developments reveals that the U.S. and its allies, in efforts that are falsely termed countering Daesh [the Islamic State], seek to create division and enmity among the Muslims rather to destroy the root causes of that (terrorist) current,” Khamenei said in an October 13 speech marking the Shiite holy day of Eid al-Ghadeer.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps has been actively involved in fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.