"Death to America"[a] is ananti-Americanpolitical slogan widely used inIran,[1]Afghanistan,[2]Lebanon,[3]Yemen,[4]Iraq,[5][6] andPakistan.[7][8]Ruhollah Khomeini, the firstsupreme leader of Iran, popularized the term.[9] He opposed the chant for radio and television but not for protests and other occasions.[1] The literal meaning of thePersian phraseMarg bar Âmrikâ (مرگ بر آمریکا) is "Death to America". In most official Iranian translations, the phrase is translated into English as the less crude "Down with America".[10][11] The chant "Death to America" has come to be employed by various anti-American groups and protesters worldwide.[12]
The slogan has historically been contextualized as a reaction to theU.S. government's policies towards Islamic countries and merely an expression of outrage at those policies, not a wish for literal death for American people themselves.[13] In a speech to university students, Iran's supreme leaderAli Khamenei interpreted the slogan as "death to the U.S.'s policies, death toarrogance".[14]
Following the fall of the pro-AmericanPahlavi dynasty in early 1979, Iranian protesters regularly shouted "Death to America" and "Death tothe Shah" outside theU.S. embassy in Tehran, including the day the embassy was seized on 4 November 1979, which commenced theIran hostage crisis.[16] Throughout the crisis, Iranians surrounding the embassy chanted "Death to America" and "Death toCarter".[17] When Iran released the remaining 52 American hostages on 20 January 1981, they were led through a gauntlet of students forming parallel lines that shouted "Death to America" as they boarded the airplane that would fly them out of Tehran.[18] A similar slogan "Death to Israel" (Persian:مرگ بر اسرائیل) is also used, and regularly chanted in Iranian and Pakistani political rallies.[7] It is the best-known variation.[19] Travel writerRick Steves wrote of an encounter with a driver in Iran who said that it is common for Iranians to say "death to" things that annoy them and they cannot control, i.e.traffic; Steves compared it to the use of the word "damn" in phrases like "damn those teenagers".[20]
Throughout the existence of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the slogan has formed a pillar of its revolutionary values.[10] It is regularly chanted at Friday prayers (jumu'ah) and other public events, which is often accompanied by aburning of theflag of the United States.[11] These events include the 4 November anniversary of the U.S. embassy seizure, which Iranian leaders declared in 1987 as a national holiday, called "Death to America Day."[21] State-sponsoredmurals that feature the slogan "Death to America" are common in Iranian cities, particularly Tehran.[22] According toHashemi Rafsanjani, Khomeini agreed in principle to drop the usage of the slogan in 1984. Rafsanjani's statement was rejected by his hard line opponents who said that "The Imam throughout his life called America 'the Great Satan'. He believed that all the Muslims' problems were caused by America."[23] According toPolitico magazine, following theSeptember 11 attacks, the Supreme Leader of IranAli Khamenei "suspended the usual 'Death to America' chants atFriday prayers" temporarily.[24]
On 29 March 2013, during a public gathering inKim Il Sung Square, Pyongyang, North Korea to supportKim Jong Un's call to arms, attendees had chanted "Death to the U.S. imperialists".[25]
On 21 March 2015, Khamenei backed and shouted the phrase 'Death to America' while addressing a public gathering in Iran, during the holiday ofNowruz, the Persian New Year.[26][27][28] In a statement published on his website on November 3, 2015, Khamenei said: "It goes without saying that the slogan does not mean death to the American nation; this slogan means death to the U.S.'s policies, death to arrogance."[29][30]
On 23 June 2017, duringQuds Day, protesters chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".[31] On 25 April 2018, Iran announced that a "Death to America" emoji would be included in a domestically produced messaging app.[32] On 9 May 2018, an American flag was burned in theIranian Parliament amidst chants of "Death to America" after theUnited States withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the nuclear deal with Iran) under PresidentDonald Trump.[33] On 4 November 2018,Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the religious groupNation of Islam, led a "Death to America" chant during a solidarity trip to Iran, ahead ofsanctions expected to be imposed by theTrump administration.[34][35]
Many anti-Iranian government protesters, both within Iran and abroad, used similar phrases to demonstrate against the theocratic government. Slogans such as "Death to Khamenei", "Death to the Dictator" and "Death toIslamic Republic" have been chanted in those occasions, the latest being theMahsa Amini protests, which began in September 2022.[36][37] Protesters also refused to trample over giant U.S. and Israeli flags that had been painted on the ground of the universities,[38] which was praised by then-President Trump in 2020.[39] At thefuneral of Qasem Soleimani, the chant "Death to America" could be heard from many mourners acrossBaghdad,Islamabad,Karachi and many other cities.[6][7][8]
At the 2024Quds Day rally inDearborn, Michigan, some members of the crowd chanted "death to America" in response to anti-America rhetoric by one of the speakers.[40] The rally organizers later said the chants were "wrongful" and "a mistake", and Dearborn mayorAbdullah Hammoud said the chants were "unacceptable and contrary to the heart of this city."[41]
Supporters ofHezbollah, theShia Islamic militant group based inLebanon that isclosely aligned to Iran, regularly chant "Death to America" in street demonstrations.[42] A week before theU.S. invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003, Hezbollah Secretary GeneralHassan Nasrallah declared: "In the past, when theMarines were in Beirut, we screamed, 'Death to America!' Today, when the region is being filled with hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, 'Death to America!' was, is and will stay our slogan."[3] Theslogan of the Houthis, a Shia rebel group inYemen also supported by Iran,[43] is "God is Great, Death to America,Death to Israel, A curse upon the Jews, Victory to Islam".[4]
Mohammad Nahavandian, chief of staff for Iranian former presidentHassan Rouhani, said:
If you go and ask anyone who uses that slogan ... what he is against, it is interference in Iran's policies by overthrowing a nationally elected prime minister at the time of[Mohammad] Mossadegh. For them, what they are against is the kind of government whoshoots an airplane full of innocent passengers. For them, it's not the people of America, per se. For them, they are opposed to that sort of policy, that sort of attitude, that sort of arrogance. It's not a nation. It's a system of behavior."[13]
Hussein al Hamran, head of Foreign Relations for Ansar Allah (Houthis), said: "Regarding the words 'Death to America', we mean American politics, not the American people."[44] Ali al-Bukhayti, a former spokesperson and official media face of the Houthis, said: "We do not really want death to anyone. The slogan is simply against the interference of those governments [i.e. US, and Israel]."[45] Rouhani also dismissed the literal interpretation of the slogan, stating that the slogan is to express opposition to US intrusive policies rather than hatred against American people.[46]
On 8 February 2019,Ali Khamenei stated "Death to America means death to[Donald] Trump,[John] Bolton and[Mike] Pompeo. We criticize American politicians who are managing that country. Iranian nation are not against American people."[47] Travel writerRick Steves recorded a taxi driver in Tehran exclaiming "Death to traffic!" in English, explaining that "when something frustrates us and we have no control over it, this is what we say". Steves compares the phrase to non-literal use of the worddamn in American English.[48]
death to america.
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