Museum of the Islamic Republic Occupying Iran’s Crimes Against Humanity
On August 19, 1978, hundreds of Iranians were locked inside Cinema Rex in Abadan and burned alive—a massacre that foreshadowed the rise of the Islamic Republic occupying Iran, a terror-driven state forged in fire and maintained through brutality. Today, that regime’s bloody legacy continues.
In January 2026, nationwide protests erupted across Iran. Tens of thousands were murdered, abducted, disappeared, or executed, while countless others were detained, tortured, or silenced under communications blackouts.
After the fall of the terrorist Islamic Republic occupying Iran, the mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini must be transformed into a Museum of the Islamic Republic Occupying Iran’s Crimes Against Humanity and Global Terrorism—a place that confronts the regime’s full record of atrocity head-on.
Since 1979, the Islamic Republic has carried out mass executions of political prisoners inside Iran. Abroad, it orchestrated assassinations and terror attacks targeting cultural figures, former officials, and dissidents, including Freydoun Farrokhzad, General Gholamali Oveisi, Shahriar Shafigh, Shahpour Bakhtiar,blinding Rafii Khachatourian, to name a few. Families were deliberately targeted to send messages of fear and submission.
The regime has repeatedly targeted Jewish and Israeli communities, carrying out bombings, kidnappings, and plots in Europe and beyond. It has been directly involved in terror attacks in Lebanon, including bombings and coordinated strikes with Hezbollah that killed civilians and destabilized the region. Its Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force trained, funded, and coordinated with Hamas for the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed and abducted civilians. The regime’s support for Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad has fueled repeated attacks against Israel, terrorizing Jewish communities worldwide.
Beyond terror abroad, the Islamic Republic has played a decisive role in wars that destroyed nations. In Syria, Tehran provided arms, advisers, and tens of thousands of fighters to prop up Assad against his own people, contributing to hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions displaced. In Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Gaza, Iran’s proxy wars have left similar devastation. On the global stage, Tehran has supplied Russia with drones and missiles for the war in Ukraine, directly aiding an aggressor whose invasion has killed tens of thousands and uprooted millions.
Inside Iran, millions have been forced into exile, fleeing political repression, economic collapse, and persecution. The museum must vividly portray these forced migrations, showing homes abandoned, communities scattered, and lives fractured.
The mausoleum itself must be stripped of its grotesque grandeur. Its gold minarets should be dismantled and melted down, returning stolen wealth to the Iranian people. Khomeini’s body must be removed, and all symbols of veneration discarded. No tyrant deserves a shrine.
The museum should provide historical context, tracing the ideological roots of conquest and subjugation to the early Islamic invasions of Iran and the Battle of Qādisiyyah. The Islamic Republic has executed a centuries-old blueprint of conquest and forced submission, using executions, terror, and oppression to enforce its rule.
Visitors should vividly confront the full horror of the Islamic Republic’s tyranny: mass executions, extraterritorial assassinations, proxy wars, terror attacks on Jews and Israelis, Lebanon bombings, forced exile, and state terror at home and abroad. This is not abstract history—it is vivid, human, and undeniable. Tyranny must be remembered honestly, not revered.
Transforming Khomeini’s mausoleum into a museum would do more than preserve memory—it would honor victims, educate future generations, and confront a regime that terrorized its own people while exporting violence abroad. From Cinema Rex to the 2026 massacres, from assassinations like Alberto Nisman, Freydoun Farrokhzad, General Gholamali Oveisi, Shahriar Shafigh, Shapour Bakhtiar, Mykonos in Germany, to proxy terror against Israel and Lebanon, from wars in Syria and Ukraine, the Islamic Republic’s crimes must be laid bare for all time. There are no excuses, no apologies, and no room for glorification. When tyranny falls, its mausoleum must teach, not venerate.
