In the wake of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death as the result of joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Tehran on February 28, 2026, various Shia Islamist institutions and figures in Western countries have issued statements of mourning that frame his death as an act of “martyrdom” and express solidarity with the Islamic Republic—even after U.S. troops were attacked, and in some instances, killed by Iranian ordnance. Such responses, often from registered charities, student groups, and community centers, portray Khamenei—who led a brutal regime that has murdered tens of thousands of its own citizens—as a victim and the United States as under the control of the Jews.
Ayatollah Khamenei is the only leader on earth in our time who did not bow to the Pharaoh of the era.
Below is a country-by-country list documenting how various Islamist leaders and institutions in the West sided with Iran since Khamenei’s death.
Austria
On March 4, 2026, the Islamic Center in Vienna posted a graphic eulogizing Imam Khamenei and issued condolences: “Condolences on the oppressed martyrdom of the eminent religious authority and great leader, Imam Khamenei…”
On March 2, 2026, the Ahl-ul-Bayt Community, a Shia outpost in Austria, posted similar condolences on Khamenei’s “martyrdom.” In a message posted on Telegram, the organization stated that it “condemns in the strongest terms this terrorist crime, which has transgressed all moral, legal, and human boundaries, and demands the prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators and those behind this human and religious tragedy.”
On April 13th, the Imam Ali Center in Vienna organized an event in support of the Islamic republic. Iran’s national news agency PressTV reported that Mahmoud Moghaddam, the Director of the institution called the U.S.-led operation “a war of aggression.”
Canada
Leviathan, a counter-Islamist account on X, reports that on March 1, 2026, the Thaqalayn Muslim Association at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus mourned the loss of Ayatollah Khamenei.
On March 1, 2026, Ahlul-Bayt Student Associations at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa released a statement: “To the Imam of our time (AJTF) and to the whole Shia community worldwide, we offer our sincere condolences on the passing of our esteemed Marja Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Khamenei (may Allah have mercy on him).”
That same day, the account Persian Studies on the social-media platform X accused the Islamic Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamaat (ISIJ) of Toronto, which operates the Jaffari Community Center in Thornhill, Ontario, of organizing or promoting a vigil mourning Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran. The post circulated an image allegedly announcing a memorial event and suggested that the Toronto-area Shiite organization had publicly lamented Khamenei’s death.
In response, the ISIJ of Toronto issued a formal statement on March 2, 2026, denying the claim. The statement asserted that the social-media post referencing a vigil for Khamenei had been circulated “without authorization or approval” and that “this event as described in the post did not take place.” The organization explained that its centers were instead hosting regular Ramadan programming and said that appropriate measures had been taken regarding the unauthorized post, while reiterating that the ISIJ is a faith-based organization committed to community service and inclusivity.
France
On March 1, 2026, Ahlul Bayt Kulturverein, a Shia institution in Munich, announced: “With great sorrow we must announce the martyrdom of … Khamenei … who for 37 years held the political leadership of the Shiites and steadfastly opposed the interests of the world powers and oligarchs. A student of the legendary Imam Khomeini, who once came to prominence with the words, ‘No one and no government has the right to determine the destiny of peoples except the people concerned themselves.’ He too held this view and believed that the Iranian people must determine their own course, not the world powers and their henchmen. He was one of the most widely read figures in the Islamic world and, despite much resistance, represented Islam in its entirety.
That same day, Sheikh Zakaria Mashkoor Kaboli, the imam of the Mahdi Mosque in Frankfurt, stated: “Ayatollah Khamenei is the only leader on earth in our time who did not bow to the Pharaoh of the era.”
Also on March 1, 2026, Atlas Press, an Afghanistan news outlet, reported that Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi, the imam at the Payam Noor Mosque in Hanover, praised Khamenei alongside other Iran-aligned figures: “We are proud to have lived in an era that saw figures such as Imam Khomeini, the martyred Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, the martyred Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the martyred Haj Qasem Soleimani.”
Ahlulbayt Germany, a Shia institution, posted a statement on its official Instagram account, stating that “We ask Allah to receive the martyr of our Ummah into His all-encompassing mercy and to grant the believers comfort, patience and steadfastness.” Ahlulbayt, a transnational Shia religious community, ideologically aligns itself with the Iranian regime and the axis of resistance.
On March 2, 2026, multiple German outlets including the TAZ and Bild, reported that the Islamic Center Imam Riza in Berlin issued invitations for an event commemorating Khamenei’s death.
On March 3, 2026, the Facebook account operated by followers of Seyyed Gouasmi, a prominent Moroccan Shia Islamist and founder of the radical Zahra Center in France, criticized the dispersal by police of a pro-Iranian regime demonstration in Morocco.
Germany
United States
The Manassas Mosque in Virginia extended condolences and “glad tidings on the martyrdom” of Khamenei on March 1, 2026. Last summer (2025), it co-organized a White House protest with far-left groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition, and CodePink in support of the Iranian regime; these groups have protested Trump’s military actions against Iran.
That same day, the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, organized an event honoring Khamenei and other “martyrs.” Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, during the Imams Council of Michigan’s press conference, called for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the “unjust war” against Iran and Lebanon. In another sermon, he addressed the “Current genocide in Lebanon and Iran, crimes against humanity!”
Two days later, Elahi eulogized: “He would have welcomed ending his life this way, to be killed by the most wretched hands on earth is an honor; nothing surpasses martyrdom after 86 years of service.”
On March 3, 2026, the cleric and poet Hassan Salamey stated that “This Country Was Built by Devil-Worshipers; Statue of Liberty Is Lucifer; Khamenei Was the Great Leader of Our Time, Received Martyrdom After 86 Years of Jihad—We Want Our Children to Grow Up with This Culture.” According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, he made these comments at a Shia mosque in Dearborn.
On March 7, 2026, Dearborn Heights Henry Ford Community College professor Ali Akbar Shdid said: “Trump Made a Huge Mistake by Killing Our Leader Ali Khamenei, We Are Going to Continue on His Path, We Are Going to Hold His Blood and Ideology and Teach It to Our Children.”
That same day, Dearborn-based journalist Zainab Right, in an interview with TMJ News Network, called Khamenei “one of the most honorable Muslim leaders of our time, a spiritual guide for millions” who “achieved martyrdom in Ramadan at the hands of the most wicked executioners of our time.”
While leading the prayers at the Light of Guidance in Dearborn sometime in early March, Shia cleric Usama Abdulghani delivered a sermon praising Khamenei’s leadership and compassion. He applauded him for refusing to hide inside a bunker when he was asked to do so, justifying that decision by saying, “there are 90 million Iranians, do they have bunkers? Can they leave? If you can (build), you build it for all, I will go after everyone.”
During a March 8 sermon captured by MEMRI, Islamic scholar Hassanain Rajabali asked attendees of a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan: “Why Do We Keep Hearing Our Leaders Are Being Killed and the Other Side Does Not? It Will Come, Don’t Worry; Islam Will Overtake the World; Mahdi Will Cut Tentacles of Rothschilds.”
In a March 1 message given in Houston, Texas, officials from the Islamic Education Center issued: “With profound grief and sorrow, we extend our heartfelt condolences to the Imam of our time, … to our community and to all believers worldwide on the martyrdom of Ayatollah al-Uzma Seyyed Ali Khamenei…” Moreover, the statement blamed his death on a broader Zionist conspiracy that “seek greater dominance and control, pursuing strategic and worldly interests at the expense of justice, stability, and the dignity of oppressed peoples.”
The Universal Muslim Association of America (UMAA) in Washington, D.C., expressed concern over the “assassination,” noting Khamenei as both a political and faith leader with global ramifications in a message posted on social media on March 1, 2026.
On March 1, the Shia Muslim Council of Southern California condemned Khamenei’s killing assassination calling it a violation of the UN Charter. Furthermore, it called Khamenei’s killing a “profound moral failure that will echo through history and inflame the conscience of Muslims and people of goodwill everywhere.”
On March 7, California-based Shia scholar Dr. Sayed Moustafa Qazwini, when speaking at the Islamic Education Center of Orange County, stated: “I Pray to Exit Life as a Martyr – Like Khamenei, May Allah Be Pleased with Him - Not in Bed, Home, or Hospital.”
Conclusion
The death of Khamenei and the Shia responses to the war have exposed a troubling reality: A significant portion of Shia leaders in Europe and North America have sided with the enemies of Western democracies, offering rhetorical cover and moral equivalence to a country whose leaders are openly committed to destroying Israel and destabilizing the Middle East.