Death to America

"Death to America" is an anti-American political slogan widely used in Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Pakistan. Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran, popularized the term. The literal meaning of the Persian phrase Marg 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". The chant "Death to America" has come to be employed by various anti-American groups and protesters worldwide.

The slogan has historically been contextualized as a reaction to the U.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. In a speech to university students, Iran's former supreme leader Ali Khamenei interpreted the slogan as "death to the U.S.'s policies, death to arrogance".


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