A religious cleric with an official government position, not a rogue agent, is offering a million-dollar bounty to behead the U.S. president.By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, Gatestone InstituteIran’s regime has crossed a line that no sovereign state has ever crossed before: it openly called for the assassination of a sitting president of the United States.Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, one of the most powerful clerics in Iran’s theocratic system, has issued an official fatwa — a religious decree — calling for the murder of President Donald J. Trump.It did not come from some fringe radical hiding in a cave. It came directly from the top of Iran’s religious and political hierarchy. This is equivalent to a declaration of war.What makes the fatwa even more outrageous is that the regime is not just issuing threats—it has been raising money, publicly — to pay for Trump’s murder. It is not a joke. It is a direct, state-sanctioned call to eliminate America’s leader.Shortly after the fatwa was announced, Mansour Emami, the state-appointed head of Iran’s official Islamic Propagation Organization in West Azerbaijan Province, announced that a reward of 100 billion tomans (approximately $1.14 million) would be paid to anyone who “brings the head of Trump.”A religious cleric with an official government position, not a rogue agent, was offering a million-dollar bounty to behead the U.S. president.On top of that, reports from inside Iran reveal that the regime and its supporters have reportedly raised more than $40 million in a crowdfunding campaign to murder Trump.This is the kind of behavior you would expect from ISIS or al-Qaeda, not from a government that has embassies, diplomats, and sits at the negotiating table with the United Nations and other world powers.What has the response been from the international community? Silence. Where are the liberal voices, the pro-Iran “diplomacy-first” crowd, the think tank elites who have spent years telling us that we should appease Tehran and give them billions of dollars for “peace”?Where are the so-called champions of human rights in the West, who constantly criticize Israel and the U.S. but cannot seem to say a word about an Islamic regime putting a bounty on the head of an American president?If any Western nation, let alone the United States, had done something even remotely similar, the global media and the complicit United Nations would have gone into meltdown.Because the call comes from Iran — the pet regime of the academic left, the darling of anti-American ideologues — it gets a pass?A fatwa is not just a statement or opinion. A fatwa is a religious edict issued by an Islamic authority that carries “spiritual” and legal obligation within Islamic law.In the minds of Iran’s clerics, a fatwa is binding, a direct command from a “representative of God” on earth. When a fatwa calls for killing a person, it is a divine order for murder, complete with the promise of heavenly reward for the murderer.That is exactly what happened in 1989, when Iran’s then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa for the murder of author Salman Rushdie, for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses — a work of fiction.Western commentators at the time scoffed at the order, called it “symbolic.” Then what happened? After decades, the fatwa was acted upon.In 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times on a stage in New York by a young Muslim man who was radicalized online and motivated by the decree to kill.The same dynamic is now unfolding against Trump. When Shirazi issued his fatwa, he did not just target Trump. He declared Trump a mohareb — an enemy of God.In the ideology of Iran’s theocratic regime, this label also carries the death penalty. The person who kills Trump, in their eyes, is not just a hitman; he is a holy warrior. A martyr. A man destined for paradise, where virgins and heavenly blessings await him.It is this worldview that is now driving Iran’s strategy; the danger is not just to Trump, but to every nation in the free world and to everyone who practices any religion other than Shia Islam.What makes this situation even more grotesque is that Trump actually spared the life of Iran’s top leader. Just before Shirazi’s fatwa, Trump publicly revealed that, during Israeli and American airstrikes in Iran, he had precise intelligence on the exact location of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.Trump could have authorized a strike that would have killed Iran’s ruler and decapitated the regime. But he did not. He later said, “I saved him [Khamenei] from a very ugly and ignominious death.”That was not the action of a warmonger, but of a strong, careful leader who knows the power of mercy. How did Iran respond? By offering $40 million for Trump’s head.This should alarm every American. Make no mistake—this fatwa extends beyond Trump himself. The same regime has plotted to assassinate former Trump officials has been killing Americans for decades, including the 1983 bombings in Beirut and the attacks on 9/11.The Department of Justice and U.S. intelligence agencies have already foiled Iranian plots on U.S. soil. Nevertheless, we are dealing with a regime that has the will, the money, and the operational capability to carry out these threats.It is time for Americans to stop pretending that diplomacy will solve everything. It will not. We are not dealing with a “normal” government here.This is a theocratic death cult with oil money and ballistic missiles. Yet, some in Washington still want to negotiate with this regime, sign new nuclear deals, release frozen Iranian funds, and ease sanctions. Are we insane?How do you negotiate with a regime that since its inception has vowed “Death to America” – as an outspoken official “policy” — and that is openly raising money to kill your president?The time for adolescent wishes for a one-sided “peace” is over. If Iran’s regime has declared war on the United States, then we had better treat it as such.Every American should support policies that will eventually lead to the fall of Iran’s murderous government: it does not hesitate to kill its neighbors or even its own people.Such policies might include maintaining and expanding primary and especially secondary sanctions; isolating Iran diplomatically, building a coalition with allies such as Israel and Gulf states – and continuing to use military force when necessary to protect American lives and interests.We must also support the Iranian people who risk everything to rise up against this tyranny. The young men and women who chant “Death to the dictator!” in the streets of Tehran are our natural allies. We should be funding them, broadcasting their voices, and helping them organize against the regime.Under no circumstances should the US reward Iran with concessions. In Iran, that is seen only as weakness. It sends a message to every terrorist and tyrant in the world that the United States can be pushed to offer bribes, which are then used to build their war machines.Iran’s regime is not a victim of Western aggression. It is not “misunderstood.” It is a violent, expansionist, apocalyptic regime that openly wants to destroy America and dominate the Middle East, then the rest of the world:“We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle,” Khomeini, the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, declared.The regime funds terrorists, murders dissidents, persecutes religious minorities, and now, is calling for the murder of the American president. It is important to respond with strength.This confrontation is not just about Trump. It is about the future of America’s security and the survival of Western civilization. The Iranian regime has made its intentions clear: it wants to eliminate the symbol of American strength, leadership and freedom – on its way to eliminating America.Why else has it infiltrated South America and Cuba? If we allow such aggression go unanswered—if we allow a sitting president to be hunted with no consequences — we are only begging for more attacks.The post ‘Bring the head of Trump’: Iran offers million dollar reward to behead US president appeared first on World Israel News.