The bomb and the ayatollah: Islamic just war and the nuclear question in post-Khamenei Iran

The bomb and the ayatollah: Islamic just war and the nuclear question in post-Khamenei Iran

What gives Khamenei’s death a particular doctrinal significance is that he had, over more than two decades, publicly framed weapons of mass destruction—including nuclear and chemical weapons—as contrary to Islam. Khamenei extended this logic to the nuclear realm. He first issued an oral fatwa in October 2003 declaring nuclear weapons as forbidden (haram) in Islam, and repeated this position in an official statement at the emergency meeting of th…