Resurfaced Video: Muslim Children in Houston Pledge to Be Martyrs

After a New Orleans terrorist attack by an ISIS supporter from Houston, Texas, and amid intensifying warnings of Islamic terrorist threats within the U.S., a resurfaced clip showing hundreds of American children in Houston wearing traditional Islamic dress, chanting references to Iran’s supreme leader, pledging allegiance to him, and praising martyrdom has reignited concerns over growing homegrown Islamic extremism.

The chilling video, aired by Iranian state media in 2022, raises concerns about the spread of various forms of Islamic extremism within the U.S., highlighting ideological influences that extend beyond specific groups like ISIS or Iran’s regime.

In the two-minute clip that was first posted on the Islamic Education Center of Houston’s Facebook page but subsequently removed from YouTube, the Houston-area children — donning headbands and waving flags — are seen singing a trending Iranian religious song, some parts in English, as they swear allegiance to the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to the center’s flier promoting the event for “boys and girls ages 4-14,” the song is described as “an expression of one’s love for the Imam of our age.”

Lyrics of the chant, titled “Salam Farmandeh” or “Salutations, commander,” include expressions of desires to become child soldiers for Khamenei as well as the taking of an oath to become a martyr.

The original Persian song also references slain Iranian General Qassim Soleimani with one line stating, “I promise to be your Haj Qasem.”

Houston Imam Faheem Kazimi, chairman of the Islamic Education Center’s board of directors, compared the song to a “catchy” Beatles track.

“A lot of people translated it in their language and adapted it,” he said. “And when you have religious activity, that people are asking that if they can (perform it), we do have that religious freedom and expression of speech so we said, ‘Sure, why not?’”

According to the Tehran Times, the song which expresses support for the Islamic Revolution “has revealed the vivid hopes Iranian families and their children pin on the Islamic Republic in their quest for achieving the goals of the Revolution.”

Al Arabiya reported the video showed the Texas children singing “an Iranian-sponsored religious anthem that includes references to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and slain military commander Qassem Soleimani,” and was shared by Iranian state media.

The Houston Chronicle featured a frontpage piece expressing concerns over the matter, claiming that Houston-area school children had become “the face of Iranian propaganda.”

Houston-based Iranian entrepreneur Karim Zangeneh, who is affiliated with the Organization of Iranian American Communities, warned of the clip’s agenda.

The Houston center had previously sparked controversy when, in 2019, it held a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, wherein children sang, “Khamenei is our leader, we are his soldiers.”

At the time, Iranian state media published a video clip boasting of the regime’s nuclear capabilities, claiming it can — in a moment’s notice — “transform” its nuclear program into an “atomic military” one, creating a “nightmare” for Israel and the West, while warning of its “ability to turn New York into a heap of rubble from Hell.”

In 2023, Gabriel Noronha, who served as Special Advisor for Iran in the U.S. State Department from 2019-2020 during the Trump administration, highlighted the Islamic Education Center of Houston’s radical ties, noting the center has been hosting these types of events since 2013.

The matter comes after more than a dozen were killed and dozens more wounded in a terror attack in the early hours of New Year’s Day in New Orleans, in which Texas-native terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar drove a truck with an ISIS flag into a crowd of revelers.

The incident has sparked renewed concerns over the rise of homegrown Islamic extremism within the U.S.

Notably, the Houston-area mosque reportedly attended by Jabbar urged members to refer inquiries from the FBI to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of Greater Houston.