A lesser-known pillar of Judaism?

In the book “Journey From the Land of No” there’s a scene where a contingent of Jewish men in Tehran go to meet with the newly-arrived Ayatollah. One of the men, a rabbi, tells the Ayatollah “One of the lesser-known pillars of Judaism” is that “true Jews are ones who share in the wishes of the society in which they live. And now that Iranian Society wants to establish an Islamic Republic, so does every good Jew.”

I’ve never heard this and it doesn’t make sense to me. Though it’s not spelled out in the book, my guess was that it was a made-up attempt to preserve the Jewish community’s position of relative safety in Iran. Thoughts?