Dozens of mosques on fire in Iran after regimes shoots dozens of protesters

January 10, 2026 – IRAN – The government of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been rocked by increasingly violent protests. What started as peaceful protests by people concerned with economic conditions has grown into nationwide protests demanding that the Islamic revolutionary government go away.

Khamenei responded to the peaceful protestors by dismissing them as "vandals," "rioters," and "terrorists." In a televised address, Khamenei said protesters were "vandals" trying to please the United States. State media has echoed his language, repeatedly calling the demonstrators "terrorists" to justify a crackdown.

Khamenei claimed the protesters were acting "to please the president of America".

He said Donald Trump's hands were "stained with the blood of Iranians" and mocked Trump's pledge to support demonstrators. Khamenei declared that the Islamic Republic would "not back down in the face of vandals".

Iran's judiciary chief has vowed "decisive, maximum" punishment with no leniency for protesters."

The regime has faced mass protests before and every time it was able to crush the people who were protesting. They were successful with crackdowns in 2009, 2019, and 2022. This has become unprecedented in its size and scope.

Dozens of protestors have been gunned down in the streets by police and the Revolutionary Guards. In the face of violence, the originally peaceful protestors, have responded with violence in kind. Going directly at the clerics who run the radical Islamic regime - on January 9, 2026 the All‑Rasool Mosque in Tehran was set on fire by protestors. That has been confirmed by Iranian state media. A source claiming to represent the protestors claims that 30 mosques across Iran have been set ablaze as the protesters turn increasingly angry. State media confirms that mosques across Iran have been set ablaze, but have not confirmed that number. Women have been filmed setting their regime required burka costumes on fire. This is the fifteenth day of the protests which appear to be growing, but there has been a growing cost. Protesters in Tehran report seeing piles of bodies at a Tehran hospital where the regime has had to resort to brute force to try to quell the demonstrations. There are some unconfirmed media reports that Ayatollah Khamenei and his family may be planning to leave the country for Russia.

In London, protestors scaled the walls of the Iranian embassy, tore down the flag of the Islamic republic and raised the monarchial flag of pre-revolutionary Iran.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has encouraged the protests.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly discussing U.S. military intervention in Iran with world leaders.

President Donald J. Trump (R) said on Truth Social, "Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!"

Since February 11, 1979, the once prosperous oil rich nation of Iran has been misgoverned by Shiite clerics with no regard for the rights of women, religious or political dissidents, free speech, a free press, the rights of the accused, or even the basic human rights or life, liberty, and private property. Almost everyone in Iran has had a family member who has suffered harsh imprisonment, torture, or execution by the regime and their Revolutionary Guards. Christians, the remaining Zoroastrianists (for centuries the dominant religion in the country), Democracy activists, and women who wanted even basic rights have all suffered at the hands of the despotic regime.

In 2024 that persecution spread to pet owners. In June 2024 the regime launched a coordinated, multi‑city effort to restrict dog walking and pet ownership, turning a normal daily activity into what authorities framed as a threat to "Iranian‑Islamic values". By 2025, prosecutors, police, and municipalities in cities like Isfahan, Shiraz, Kerman, and others were enforcing bans on dog walking in public spaces. By June 2025, over 25 cities had implemented bans on dog walking, using public‑health and morality laws to justify enforcement. Iranian authorities framed pet ownership - especially dogs - as: a sign of "Western cultural infiltration", a threat to public health, a violation of "public rights," and as a challenge to Islamic norms.

It is part of a broader effort to control private life and suppress cultural shifts inside Iran by Khamenei and his circle of hardline Shia clerics.

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