Last week, in President Obama’s Nowruz statement, where the Iranian people learned they will probably be subjugated by the Ayatollahs forever, Obama mentioned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa, an official religious ruling, against the development of nuclear weapons. Obama added that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon.
One teensy, beensy eensy little problem – apparently no such Iranian fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons actually exists.
There’s an Iranian press release written in 2005 that says, “The Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has issued the fatwa that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islam and that Iran shall never acquire these weapons.”
But that’s not a fatwa. That’s a propaganda statement released by the Iranian government for international consumption.
In Iran, a fatwa has legal standing — and no one has ever seen this mysterious Iranian anti-nuke fatwa.
It’s never been released, because it doesn’t exist.
In 2013, the Washington Post questioned if the fatwa exists.
The Washington Post showed a similar example of another non-existent Iranian fatwa against chemical weapons.
If a chemical weapons fatwa ever existed, it was clearly ignored when Iran was forced to eventually admit that it had produced chemical weapons.
In 2013, when President Obama endorsed the fatwa, MEMRI – the Middle East Research Institute, with their trove of translators went looking for the fatwa.
They found lots of other fatwas, but no fatwa against Iran having nuclear weapons.
In short, there is zero evidence that any actual Iranian fatwa exists against the Islamic Republic’s acquisition or use of nuclear weapons.
If President Obama is going to rely in any way on this apparently imaginary fatwa, then for the sake of the American people, and the world, he had better demand the Iranians show it to all of us, in writing.
Mr. President, show me the fatwa.