According to a Monday 7 of July, 2025, report by Iran International English, a controversial fatwa issued by two senior Iranian clerics calling for the assassination of the United States (U.S.) President, Donald Trump, and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has gained backing from several state-appointed religious figures, and has allegedly prompted a fundraising campaign.
The decree, which classifies Trump and Netanyahu as “infidel combatants”, a term used in Islamic jurisprudence to describe non-believers at war with Muslims who may be lawfully killed, has been endorsed by at least 10 additional clerics. These figures released an open letter on Monday aligning themselves with the fatwa.
In a provocative address delivered in Azeri, Mansour Emami, head of the Islamic Propagation Organization in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province, announced a bounty on Trump’s life. “We will give 100 billion tomans to anyone who brings the head of Trump,” Emami declared. The sum is equivalent to roughly $1.14 million.
Further amplifying the controversy, an Iranian website, thaar.ir, has reportedly launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the fatwa. The site claims to have raised more than $20 million. However, there has been no independent verification of this figure.
Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, attempted to distance the government from the incendiary religious rulings. In an interview aired Monday with U.S. media personality Tucker Carlson, Pezeshkian denied state involvement.
“To the best of my knowledge, they have not issued decrees or fatwas against any individual or against Donald Trump. It has nothing to do with the Iranian government or the Supreme Leader of Iran,” Pezeshkian said.
Despite this, hardline clerics appear undeterred. Last month, prominent preacher Alireza Panahian, an influential figure close to Iran’s Supreme Leader, urged Muslims to assassinate Trump and Netanyahu in retaliation for their alleged threats against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during recent regional hostilities. Panahian invoked Islamic rulings labeling such threats as acts of a mohareb, or “enemy of God.”
Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi and Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani, both senior religious authorities, issued separate fatwas targeting Trump and Netanyahu. Shirazi stated: “Any regime or individual threatening the leaders of the Islamic Ummah (nation) and acting on those threats qualifies as a mohareb.”
Backing their position, Ahmad Alamolhoda, Khamenei’s representative in Razavi Khorasan Province, praised the clerics’ fatwa. “Labeling those who insult or violate the sanctity of the Supreme Leader as apostates and enemies of God will strengthen the foundations of the Islamic Republic and the Revolution,” he said.
The incident echoes Iran’s 1989 fatwa against author Salman Rushdie which culminated in a 2022 stabbing attack in New York that left Rushdie blind in one eye.
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