The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday termed as “unacceptable” the statement of Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Muslims are enduring suffering in India.

In a post on X earlier in the day, Khamenei said that “the enemies of Islam have always tried to make us indifferent with regard to our shared identity as an Islamic Ummah”. The term Ummah refers to the global community of Muslims.

“We cannot consider ourselves to be Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring in Myanmar, Gaza, India, or any other place,” he added.

In response, foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the supreme leader’s statement was “misinformed and unacceptable”.

“We strongly deplore the comments made regarding minorities in India by the supreme leader of Iran,” the statement read. “Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others.”

Nearly two months before the Iranian supreme leader’s statement, the United Nations Human Rights Committee had also expressed concern about the violence and discrimination faced by minority groups in India, including Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, and called for comprehensive legislation to prohibit such discrimination.

“While appreciating the measures adopted by the state party [India] to address discrimination, the committee was concerned about discrimination and violence against minority groups, including religious minorities, such as Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and LGBTI people,” the committee said on July 25.

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