Iranian Cleric Issues Fatwa Against Trump, Netanyahu; Calls Them ‘Enemies of God’
GG News Bureau
Tehran, 30th June: Iran’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, has issued a fatwa – a religious decree – declaring former U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “enemies of God,” calling for a global Islamic campaign to confront them. The ruling comes in the wake of an escalating 12-day military confrontation involving Israel, Iran, and the United States.
The cleric’s decree, reported by Mehr News Agency, declared, “Any person or regime that threatens the Leader or Marja (May God forbid) is considered a warlord or a mohareb.” The term mohareb, in Iranian law, applies to those seen as waging war against God – a charge that can carry severe punishments including execution, crucifixion, limb amputation, or exile.
Makarem warned that any support for Trump or Netanyahu by Muslims or Islamic governments is “haram” (religiously forbidden), and urged all Muslims worldwide to ensure the two leaders “regret their words and mistakes.”
The fatwa follows the outbreak of a 12-day conflict that began on June 13, when Israel launched airstrikes on Iranian military sites, targeting senior commanders and scientists allegedly involved in its nuclear programme. Iran retaliated with missile attacks on Israeli cities. The situation escalated further when U.S. forces reportedly joined Israeli strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities. In response, Tehran launched a ballistic missile barrage on an American military base in Qatar.
Ayatollah Makarem’s fatwa also promised spiritual rewards for those who suffer loss in acting on this religious decree, likening their efforts to “fighting in the way of God.”
This is not the first time Iranian clerics have issued violent religious rulings. In 1989, a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini called for the assassination of author Salman Rushdie over his book “The Satanic Verses,” leading to decades of threats, the murder of a Japanese translator, and Rushdie surviving multiple assassination attempts — including a 2023 knife attack that left him permanently blinded in one eye.
The latest fatwa is expected to further strain relations between Tehran and the West, especially as global powers assess the fallout from the recent military exchanges and the rising religious rhetoric from Iran’s clerical establishment.
