Virginia Mosque Hosts Memorial for Iranian Ayatollah, Extends ‘Glad Tidings’ on His ‘Martyrdom’

A Shia mosque in Northern Virginia is honoring the legacy of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Manassas Mosque hosted a remembrance service on Sunday for the Iranian supreme leader was killed in joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran.

Located about 30 miles outside Washington, D.C., the mosque held a Ramadan iftar that sent “condolences and glad tidings on the martyrdom of His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.”

An Instagram post invited followers to attend as the community considered its “responsibilities” in the wake of his death.

BREAKING: Manassas Mosque in Virginia is honoring Ayatollah Khamenei, calling him “Our Leader.”

Ayatollah Khamenei has the blood of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans on his hands. As Americans, Khamenei isn’t “Our Leader,” he’s our enemy. pic.twitter.com/EAqNy6Cvku

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) March 2, 2026

The founder and imam of Manassas Mosque, Abolfazl Bahram Nahidian, has been identified as Ayatollah Khomenei’s “point man” in DC since the 1970s.

He allegedly received $5 million from Iran in the 1980s to support Iranian regime propaganda efforts in the US.

In 1980, Nahidian’s… pic.twitter.com/8KXNrl91mb

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) March 2, 2026

The mosque describes itself as “a community of pious, educated, socially conscious, and active Muslims” living in the local area and is known to have close ties to Tehran.

In 2023, House Republicans identified the Manassas Mosque in a letter to federal authorities as one of several U.S.-based Islamic institutions suspected of connections to Iran’s regime.

“A recent video of inside the Mosque showed that it is adorned with pictures of ‘martyrs’ of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S. designated terrorist group, that were killed in Syria, a life-sized cutout of Khomeini, as well as Iranian flags and slogans,” they wrote the time.

According to The Washington Examiner, tax filings show the mosque received roughly $193,000 between 2004 and 2005 from the Alavi Foundation, an Iranian-linked organization later targeted by the Justice Department.

Federal prosecutors alleged the foundation funneled funds through U.S. holdings to Bank Melli, an Iranian state-owned bank previously sanctioned for supporting terrorism and nuclear activities.

However, the mosque is not required to publicly disclose detailed financial records because it is a registered house of worship.

After the October 2023 terrorist attack by the Palestinian terror group Hamas, mosque leadership expressed support for what it described as the “Palestinian Resistance.”

A since-removed blog post also praised Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed in a 2020 U.S. drone strike, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American service members.