Over 2,000 Iranian clerics including several senior officials called the shedding of Donald Trump’s blood religiously permissible, essentially endorsing his assassination, in a sharp escalation of official rhetoric in the theocracy against the US president.
“The era of revolutionary restraint and patience has ended and henceforth, Trump's blood and wealth are halal and avenging Soleimani's blood is obligatory for every Muslim and freedom-loving man and woman,” according to a statement released Friday by the Qom seminary’s press office.
Trump authorized the 2020 killing of senior Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in a Baghdad drone strike.
Signatories ranged from junior seminarians to among the most prominent clerics in the country.
“The blood and property of this savage criminal are halal,” the statement said. “The nations will not remain silent. Retaliation is coming.”
The signatories include Tehran’s Friday prayer leader Ahmad Khatami, Expediency Council member Mohsen Araki, and Guardian Council member Mehdi Shabzendedar — all appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — as well as Alireza Arafi, the vice-president of Iran's Assembly of Experts and also a member of the Guardian Council.
During a 12-day war with Israel in June, several senior clerics in Iran called for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing their threats to assassinate Khamenei during the conflict.
“Any regime or individual threatening the leaders of the Islamic Ummah (nation) and acting on those threats qualifies as a mohareb (warrior against God)," Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi said.
Under Shi'ite jurisprudence, the declaration of mohareb and the issuance of a fatwa make it religiously obligatory for devout Shiite Muslims to act.
