The Ayatollahs are falling, but they still threaten the West

Telegraph

12-07-2025

Iran's Islamic regime is weaker than it's ever been. Reeling from Israel and the US's historic attacks and the devastation of its terror proxies across the region, the Supreme Leader's ruthless 35-year grip on power is wobbling.
Desperately trying to cling to power, the regime's clerics have resorted to issuing a fatwa against President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This religiously decreed death warrant is an appeal to Muslims world-wide and Iran's latest attempt to radicalise Western societies. As we mark the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 terror atrocities in London, it is especially disturbing that the fatwa even gives licence to suicide attacks.
This isn't, however, merely a case of statecraft by death threat. The fatwa is just as much a warning to ordinary Iranians bravely campaigning for their freedom, as the fatwa broadly includes the punishment of death for anyone challenging the Supreme Leader.
The alarming return of the fatwa has been accompanied by mass detentions across Iran with over 700 arrested in recent weeks. Having casted any opposition to the regime as a crime against God, Iran's theocratic authorities have been carrying out a horrifying wave of executions.
I myself have lived with the threat to my life from the regime. I've already endured threats of beheading while standing outside the Foreign Office in London and I'm endlessly grateful to the British security services for their exceptional work in protecting me and my fellow peace-loving travellers. Since founding the Iranian Front for the Revival of Law and National Sovereignty to provide a voice to the people of Iran, the danger has only increased.
Fatwas aren't something to be taken lightly. Tehran's long arm extends all the way around the world courtesy of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps terror army, proxies and lone wolf extremists. They all stand ready to enforce the hardline religious will of the regime. It is high time that the international community recognised that fatwas are as much of a threat as Iran's nuclear ambitions and ballistic missile programme, for which we owe Israel and the US much gratitude for degrading.
Nearly four decades ago, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie, accusing him of blasphemy for the simple act of writing a book. This seemingly historical relic returned abruptly to global prominence when, in 2022, a murderous Islamist, inspired by this dormant fatwa, brutally assaulted Rushdie and nearly killed him. This chilling incident reminded the world that fatwas retain their lethality long after issuance.
Fatwas constitute an international license for assassination and terror, activating sleeper cells composed of indoctrinated youth worldwide. Western leaders must urgently recognise that these fatwas are not meaningless religious proclamations; they are strategic tools of international terrorism.
Through vast financial resources plundered from Iran's population, Tehran meticulously finances global information networks dedicated to brainwashing vulnerable young individuals who seem utterly impervious to the brutal nature of the regime, including here in the UK. Indoctrinated and radicalised, these youths become human weapons, primed to act upon the mere whisper of a cleric's command. This may start with harmless, if misguided, slogans and protests but it can quickly accelerate into criminality and acts of violence.
Like a scorpion whose nature is to sting, the Iranian regime's defining immutable characteristic is violence, and its growing number of fatwas suggests that it is seeking to export incitement and terrorism while it desperately attempts to reassert control over the long-suffering Iranian public.
The international community must respond decisively to neutralise this threat. Much of the hard work has been achieved through the military strikes on Iran's nuclear programme and military assets but its international terror franchises, radicalised useful idiots and fatwas remain strategic weapons. Only by dismantling this regime can the world effectively eliminate an existential threat and provide the Iranian people with the opportunity for a better future.