Death to America

Death to America (Persian: مرگ بر آمریکا Marg bar Amrika) is an anti-American political slogan and chant which has been in use in Iran since the inception of the Islamic Revolution in 1978. Ayatollah Khomeini, the first leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, popularized the term. In most official Iranian translations, the phrase is translated into English as the less offensive "Down with America." The chant "Death to America" has come to be employed by Islamists, anti-imperialists, and decolonisation movements worldwide. Great Satan is another closely linked propaganda phrase.

While its dictator has attempted to brainwash Iran’s youth with daily calls of “Death to America!” my compatriots take to the street and say “Death to the Islamic Republic!” and “Our enemy is right here, you lie when you say it’s America!”. When the regime puts American flags on the ground, my compatriots refuse to step on it and walk around or jump over it. And this is not a new phenomena. [1]

Quotes

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah

• "In the past, when the Marines 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."
  • A speech a week before the U.S. invasion of Iraq (March 20, 2003)

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

• Our people say "Death to America," and this is like saying "I seek God's refuge from the accursed Satan," which is recited before any chapter of the Koran, even before "In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful." Why is this? So the believer will never forget, even for a moment, the presence of Satan. So he will never forget, even for a moment, that Satan is ready to attack him and to destroy his spiritual shield and is faith... The saying "Death to America" is for this purpose.
  • speech (March 14, 2005)

• Today, you are hated throughout the world. If you don't know this, you should. The peoples burn your flag. The Islamic peoples all over the world chant: "Death to America!"
  • speech responding to American President Barack Obama's diplomatic outreach to Iran (March 21, 2009)

• Today, America poses a threat to peace and security in the world. Therefore, the slogan "Death to America" is no longer used only by our people. Today, you see throughout the world people setting fire to the effigy of the American president and chanting the slogan "Death to America." This is because of the American regime's exaggerated demands, its arrogance, its vanity, and its desire to control, and because it is a pawn in the hands of the Zionists.
  • speech (March 21, 2006)

• It goes without saying that the slogan does not mean death to the American nation; this slogan means death to the US’s policies, death to arrogance.
  • Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Explains 'Death to America' Slogan (November 3, 2015)

Quotes about

• Khomeini had not expressed openly anti-American sentiments while in exile and had barely done so since his return. He bemoaned the United States’ backing of the shah and ranted against Israel, but he did not seem to be gearing up for a confrontation with America. Khomeini, the provisional government, and even Beheshti had maintained ties with the United States. They had negotiated the release of US diplomats when a Marxist-Leninist group had briefly seized the American embassy earlier in the year. But leftist groups were now brandishing the anti-imperialist banner higher and higher, demanding that Khomeini break ties with the American government and cancel contracts with American companies. Toward the end of October, the shah arrived in the United States for medical treatment. Few outside the shah’s close circle knew of his illness and, in Iran, many imagined this visit was the prelude to another CIA coup. The left jumped on the occasion, mobilizing on university campuses that had just reopened for the start of the academic year, and launched the slogan “Death to America,” Marg bar Amreeka.
  • Kim Ghattas Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East (2020)