Iranian state media promoted a letter written by “a group of 100 Muslim scholars and intellectuals” condemning President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “enemies against God” and warning Muslim leaders that “compromise, normalization of relations, or collaboration” with the U.S. or Israel is haram.
The report followed an ongoing normalization process between America and Syria under jihadist President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who President Trump met in person in May and complimented as a “young, attractive guy” with a sizable chance of rebuilding the country into a functional society. Subsequent reports this week suggested that Sharaa may also be considering normalizing relations with Israel as part of Trump’s Abraham Accords, a previously impossible development under Bashar Assad, the Iran-backed dictator whom Sharaa overthrew.
Some reports this week also suggested the African nation of Mauritania may be considering establishing ties with Israel, years after the first Trump administration had reportedly attempted to improve ties between Jerusalem and Riyadh. Iran, increasingly isolated from its Arab neighbors and humbled by decisively losing a war to Israel in June, has increased its belligerent rhetoric against both America and Israel in response, rejecting calls to seek dialogue and peace.
The Iranian state media site PressTV celebrated the alleged “100 Muslim scholars” who reportedly cursed Trump and Netanyahu as anti-jihadist leaders while offering “full and unwavering support” for Iranian “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Referencing the verses of the Holy Qur’an, the scholars declared Trump, Netanyahu, and other leaders of the Israeli regime as ‘enemies waging war against God and His Messenger’ and ‘corrupters on earth,’” PressTV relayed, “for their acts of spreading corruption, bloodshed, occupation of Islamic lands, massacres of oppressed Palestinians, and crimes against humanity.”
The letter reportedly declared that, according to sharia, “any form of compromise, normalization of relations, or collaboration with the illegitimate Zionist occupation regime and the oppressive policies of the United States is religiously forbidden.”
That message appeared to be targeting the Islamic world, not the West. Notably, the alleged scholars hailed from, in addition to Mideast nations, Western countries such as America and Australia.
The letter also, PressTV claimed, described the crushing lost Iran experienced during the 12-Day War as a “decisive and comprehensive victory.”
The war began on June 13 when Netanyahu announced the beginning of “Operation Rising Lion” hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution condemning Iran’s illicit uranium enrichment as a violation of its responsibilities under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The Israeli operation resulted in the elimination of several of Iran’s most prominent military strategists, including the chief of staff of the armed forces and the commander of the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Israeli strikes also eliminated several Iranian nuclear scientists.
On June 21, President Trump entered the fray, ordering the bombing of three critical Iranian nuclear development sites: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Trump declared the sites “completely and totally obliterated” and brokered a ceasefire that ended hostilities the following week.
The Iranian Islamist regime has claimed the war a victory, citing its indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilian centers, and has refused to stop its illicit nuclear development. Several high-profile regime personalities have turned their ire towards Trump, who the regime has already condemned in its kangaroo courts over the airstrike that eliminated the former head of the IRGC Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, in 2020. Last week, cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami led Friday prayers to chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel,” calling for the execution of both Trump and Netanyahu.
“You are murderers, you need to be punished,” Khatami told the crowd. “The ruling regarding Trump and Netanyahu, according to sharia, is that the pair of them should be executed.”
Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi also issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, following the end of the 12-Day War condemning Trump and Netanyahu, similarly declaring them warriors against Allah. The fatwa declared, “It is necessary for all Muslims across the world to recognize these enemies and avenge them with strength and fury. If they are not punished severely, the reward for jihadi retaliation is with Allah.”
Iranian clerics have been calling for Trump’s death for years, incensed at U.S. military action against Soleimani. Trump explained at the time his decision to eliminate Soleimani, and the head of Iranian proxy group Kata’ib Hezbollah Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was a necessary response to Soleimani’s role in killing and injuring hundreds of Americans.
“General Qassem Soleimani has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill many more but got caught!” Trump wrote in a social media message at the time.
During Soleimani’s funeral, an Iranian cleric demanded that the Muslim world crowdsource $80 million as a bounty for someone to kill Trump in revenge, asking 80 million Muslims to pitch in a dollar each. An Iranian court also found Trump, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and several other American officials and entities liable in 2023 for Soleimani’s death, demanding nearly $50 billion as redress.
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