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Fatwa Issued: Iran’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against President Donald Trump on June 29, calling on “Muslims of the world” to assassinate the U.S. leader. The fatwa was released by Shirazi’s office and published by several Iranian state and IRGC-linked media outlets, including ISNA, Fars News, and Tasnim News. The family of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, indirectly endorsed the Fatwa, with its news outlet Jamaran publishing the text.
Text of the Query and Edict: The text of both the estefta (query) and fatwa (edict) accused Trump and “leaders of the Zionist regime [Israel]” of threatening to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and “other religious leaders,” calling them “infidels and enemies of Allah’s faith.” The religious proclamation declared Trump a Mohareb [enemy of Allah], called for Muslims to “make these enemies regret their words and their wrongdoing,” and declared that anyone who harms Trump will be “rewarded as Mojaeh [warriors] in the path of Allah.”
Previous Fatwa Against Salman Rushdie Acted Upon: In 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa against the famed British-Indian author Salman Rushdie for his novel The Satanic Verses, which the Islamic Republic deemed blasphemous. In 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times at the Chautauqua Institution in New York by an assailant, Hadi Matar, who said he was acting on the fatwa. Matar was sentenced in 2025 to 25 years in prison for second-degree attempted murder.
FDD Expert Response
“The Islamic Republic’s clerical class is raising the stakes for opposing Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, both at home and abroad. With this fatwa, which contains some blatant invitations to violence as a religious commandment, Tehran aims to inspire everyone from its transnational terror cadres to lone-wolf radicals to attack Trump. It is also signaling to countless dissidents within Iran that violence will be employed more often against protestors who chant against the supreme leader.” — Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran Program Senior Director and Senior Fellow
“Iranian clerics issuing fatwas against President Trump and other American officials underscores the threat this regime continues to pose to the United States. Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Its threats are not merely rhetorical but reflect the regime’s relentless mission of exporting its violent Islamist revolution abroad. Congress and the Trump administration must maintain the policy of ‘maximum pressure’ to deprive the ayatollahs of the resources they need to spread terror.” — Alexandria Paolozzi, Director of Government Relations at FDD Action
“Though Khamenei made similar threats in 2020, this new fatwa is more pointed: it makes the now common slogan “Death to Khamenei” — echoed since the 2018 protests — a capital offense. The regime’s familiar pattern of threatening while posturing for talks remains, but this ruling carries deeper consequences for dissent.” — Janatan Sayeh, Research Analyst
