War in Iran: Covering the conflict’s religious contours

By EditorUpdated on . Posted on
Photo by Moslem Daneshzadeh via Unsplash.

[Editor’s note: Since April 8, Iran, Israel and the US have agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire. The guide below was published prior to the current cessation of hostilities.]

Reporting on the war in Iran requires not only bringing a keen eye to its geopolitical realities and ramifications but also a nuanced understanding of how religion shapes, and is shaped by, the conflict.

This reporting requires paying attention to both internal dynamics (e.g., how the state uses religion to justify policy and suppress diversity) and external narratives, including how religious rhetoric is mobilized abroad to offer support for, and protest, the war. 

In this guide, we offer background, resources, relevant stories and expert sources to help you better cover the religion angle on the current conflict and what it might mean in the wake of the latest war in the Middle East. 

Background

Iran’s religious contours are shaped by centuries of history but more recently the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when clerical leadership fused religion with state authority. The Islamic Republic of Iran it founded is a theocratic state that constitutionally embeds its interpretation of Twelver Shiʿa Islam into the country’s legal and political systems, shaping governance, laws and public life. This gives the clerical establishment broad influence over the state and country as a whole — including the laws and how they are implemented across the judiciary, educational sector and to govern public morality.

This framework influences everything from public morality codes to social services, and it is integral to understanding how the state responds to dissent and dissenters. At the same time, this official religious order exists alongside a rich tapestry of religious communities — including Sunnis, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and others — whose rights and freedoms are unevenly protected and often actively suppressed. Most notably, Baha’is, who are not legally recognized, face harsh persecution, including arrests and property seizures, while Christians — especially converts — are frequently prosecuted under charges that frame peaceful worship as “propaganda against the state.” 

According to the latest monitoring by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), approximately 90–95 % of the country’s nearly 90 million people are identified as Shiʿa Muslims, with Sunni Muslims making up most of the remainder; recognized non‑Muslim minorities such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians make up a small fraction of the population and have limited, conditional protections under law. Non‑recognized communities — most prominently Baha’is — are denied legal safeguards and are subject to systematic discrimination and violence. 

Over the past year, and prior to the 2026 U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, reports of crackdowns on religious minorities have increased. State security forces have carried out raids on homes, arrested Baha’is on broad charges as threats to national security, and aggressively prosecuted Christian converts for basic acts of worship. Authorities often frame these actions in national security language, but independent monitoring sees this as part of a broader effort to reinforce ideological conformity and suppress alternatives to the state’s religious monopoly. 

This religious framework also conditions Iranian society’s response to the war. Inside Iran, state media and officials frequently invoke themes of sacrifice, resistance and divine duty drawn from their interpretation of Shiʿa tradition to buttress public support and frame the conflict within a larger moral narrative. Martyrdom — a central concept in Shiʿa thought given the killing of Imam Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala in 680 — resonates deeply when leaders or soldiers fall, bridging state objectives with religious sentiment.

The status of religious minorities, along with other minoritized populations, has deteriorated even further since the start of the 2026 war. The Iranian government has been treating its minority populations as potential internal threats, with arrests and escalating state-sponsored violence. For instance, the government has used the conflict to justify a surge in arrests among members of the Baha’i, Jewish and Christian communities.

Specifically, it has intensified property confiscations and arbitrary detentions against Baha’is; increased the number of arrests of Christian converts for “promoting Zionist Christianity;” demolished Sunni mosque foundations and arrested clerics who challenge official narratives and pressured Jewish Iranians to publicly denounce Israel, with some facing heightened risk of being charged with espionage. Furthermore, reports suggest the conditions of religious prisoners of conscience have deteriorated given abandoned prison management, severe deprivation and a surge in executions.

Externally, the war has also become entangled with religious narratives in the U.S. and Israel. In both, elements of religious framing have emerged that cast the conflict in civilizational or prophetic terms, complicating perceptions and policy debates, as well as an end to the war.

Some U.S. military personnel have reported that commanders used biblical end‑times rhetoric — drawn from parts of Christian evangelical tradition — to frame the conflict as divinely sanctioned, prompting concerns about the mixing of religious ideology with military policy. Likewise, commentators note that political leaders in both Washington and Jerusalem sometimes employ civilizational language — framing the confrontation as a clash between religious identities — to mobilize support, simplify complex geopolitical causes and appeal to domestic constituencies such as Christian Zionists, who believe “the strengthening of the state of Israel will ultimately lead to the erection of the Temple in Jerusalem and hasten the arrival of the day of judgement.”

All this shapes how the war’s religious dimensions are reported: the theocratic nature of the Iranian state, the vulnerability of minority faith communities and dissenting members of the majority as well as the global politics of faith and war are intertwined in ways that extend far beyond the battlefield.

Tips and Suggestions

A nuanced, critical approach helps readers understand Iran’s religious diversity, the instrumental use of religion by states or movements in pursuit of political goals and the real constraints on freedom of belief faced by minority communities.

Here are some tips and suggestions to help you cover the contours with balance, accuracy and insight:

  • Distinguish lived faith from strategic narrative. Differentiate how religion is practiced by communities from how it is weaponized in political rhetoric by states or leaders.
  • Contextualize the relationship between religion and state. Explain how Iran’s legal system privileges it’s interpretation of Shiʿism and what that means for  freedom of religion or belief in Iran, and especially for its religious minorities Citing documents like the USCIRF Iran country update can help ground claims in factual reporting.
  • Avoid simplistic “clash of civilizations” framing. Complex geopolitics, economics and national interests underpin the war. Reducing it to religious conflict alone can mislead readers.
  • Highlight minority experiences. Center the voices and lived experiences of Christians, Baha’i, Sunnis, Jews and other communities whose stories are often eclipsed in major coverage.
  • Be cautious with external religious rhetoric. When reporting on U.S. or Israeli statements, distinguish between official policy language and theological framing that may appeal to particular domestic audiences but lacks diplomatic or legal basis.
  • Prioritize safety and ethics. Above all, when reporting from or about Iran, do not endanger sources. Protect identities and understand the risks posed by both local authorities and broader political narratives.

Relevant Stories

Experts and Sources

  • Geneive Abdo

    Geneive Abdo is author of several books on the Middle East and the Islamic world. She was previously a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a nonresident fellow in the Brookings Institution at Brookings Institution and a fellow in the Middle East program at the Stimson Center think tank. She researches contemporary Iran and political Islam and has written about extremism in the Middle East.

  • Khalil Andani

    Khalil Andani is a religion professor at Augustana College in Illinois. His research focuses on Quranic studies, Islamic intellectual history, Shiite Islam and Sufism. In particular, he is an expert on Shiite Ismaili perspectives, Islamic history and thought, Islamic ethics and Christian-Muslim interactions.

  • Zahra Babar

    Zahra Babar is executive director at the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar. Previously, she has served with the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Development Program. Her current research interests include rural development, migration and labor policies, and citizenship in the Persian Gulf states.

  • Brookings Institute

    The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC.

    Contact: 202-536-3611.

  • Jocelyne Cesari

    Jocelyne Cesari is a professor of Religion and Politics, working primarily in the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Birmingham.

  • Council on Foreign Relations

    The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank and publisher dedicated to helping its members better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.

  • Aykan Erdemir

    Aykan Erdemir is director of global research and diplomatic affairs at the Anti-Defamation League and is a former MP in the Turkish Parliament. He is on the advisory council for FoRB  Women’s Alliance and is one of the founders of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief, a global network of parliamentarians committed to advancing the right to freedom of religion or belief for everyone, everywhere.

  • Nazila Ghanea

    Nazila Ghanea is the United Nations’ special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. She is professor of international human rights law and director of the Master of Science in international human rights law at the University of Oxford.

  • Maziyar Ghiabi

    Maziyar Ghiabi is a professor and Director for the Centre of Persian And Iranian Studies (CPIS) at the University of Exeter. He studies politics, social history and the history of drug laws, and he is one of the co-authors of a 2018 study on Islam and cannabis.

  • Zackery Mirza Heern

    Zackery Mirza Heern is a history professor at Idaho State University with a focus on the Middle East and Islamic studies. His research and teaching interests include the Bahá’í, Shi‘ism, Iraq, Iran, Islamic movements and global history.

  • International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB)

    The International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB) is a network of parliamentarians and legislators from around the world committed to combatting religious persecution and advancing freedom of religion or belief.

  • Faiyez Jaffer

    Faiyez Jaffer is an affiliate chaplain at the Center of Global Spiritual Life at New York University in New York City. He is an American-born Muslim and wrote about the travel ban’s consequences for Shiite Muslims.

  • Mehdi Khalaji

    Mehdi Khalaji is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy specializing in Shiʿa politics and Iran’s religious establishment. 

  • Mirjam Künkler

    Mirjam Künkler is an assistant professor in Near Eastern studies at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. She is also the former deputy director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion at Columbia University in New York, where her dissertation was on Islam and democracy. She is an expert on Islamic politics in Indonesia and Iran.

  • Daniel Philpott

    Daniel Philpott is an associate professor in the political science department and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is involved in a major Harvard University-based study on religion and global politics and wrote a forthcoming book on reconciliation in global politics, Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation.

  • Religious Freedom Institute

    The Religious Freedom Institute advocates for religious freedom in the United States and abroad. RFI produces research and educational programs and maintains five regional action teams that lobby governments and civil leaders to protect religious freedom globally.

  • Benedikt Roemer

    Benedikt Roemer is a Walter Benjamin Fellow at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Oxford. His research interests include religious diversity in the Middle East, religion and nationalism, diaspora studies, the history and contemporary story of the Iranian Christian community and ethnographic research on religion in Arabic, Persian and Turkish-speaking environments.

  • Ray Takeyh

    Ray Takeyh is Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His areas of specialization are Iran, U.S. foreign policy and the modern Middle East. Prior to joining CFR, he served as senior advisor on Iran at the State Department and was a fellow at Yale University, the Washington Institute of Near East Policy and the Middle East Center at University of California, Berkeley.

  • Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

    Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is a professor of political science at Northwestern University. She is the author of The Politics of Secularism in International Relations and Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion.

  • Mai Soto

    Mai Soto is Director of the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at the University of London. Soto’s research focuses on the integrity of global justice systems, with particular emphasis on the death penalty and the legitimacy of courts and police. In July 2024, the UN Human Rights Council appointed Mai as the fourth Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

  • U.S. Baha’i Office of Public Affairs

    Founded in 1985, the U.S. Baha’i Office of Public Affairs represents the American Baha’i community in its collaborations with individuals, organizations and institutions, as well as its relationships with media, government and the broader public. The office operates under the auspices of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, the elected governing body of the American Baha’i community. The Baha’i national headquarters for the United States is in Evanston, Illinois; the public affairs office is in Washington, D.C. Media contact is Rachel Wolfe.

  • U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

    The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) that monitors religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the U.S. federal government.

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