The War in Iran is holy, and God is on our side

The defense of the Fatherland is a sacred duty, and “is part of God’s divine plan”, which will help the martyrs to “break their teeth” and kill “wicked enemies”: men, women and children, cattle and sheep, camels and even donkeys. This is how the political leaders of Iran, Israel… and the USA justify the War.

The controversial US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegsethhas a set of tattoos with Christian messagesincluding one that says “God wants” (God wants it), an expression historically associated with the notion of divine providence and the medieval crusades.

Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that, when presiding over a Christian religious celebration at the Pentagon last Wednesday, Hegseth resorted to biblical language to describe the war against Iran.

He called on God to “break teeth“ and kill “wicked” enemies“who deserve no mercy” and who must be “delivered to the eternal damnation reserved for them”. For Hegseth, this is a holy warin which he appeals to God to “grant this mission clear and fair targets for violence”.

this war does not have religion as its main cause. However, leaders on all sides turned to religion to justify their actionsand for decades the leaders of three great Abrahamic traditions — Christianity, Islam and Judaism — did not invoke their respective creeds to legitimize war in this way.

Or way like faith, scriptures and religious doctrine have been used by the US and Israel to justify the launch of their war in Iran is a worrying development, which highlights the growing relationship between religion and nationalism authoritarian, says Toby Matthiessenprofessor of Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, in an article in .

This instrumentation also worsened animosity with Iranwhere politicians and religious leaders invoked, in turn, religious and messianic narratives. But Iran It’s an Islamic Republicin which religion also plays a significant constitutional role.

Netanyahu’s religious imagery

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuresorted to religious imagery on February 28, when announcing the start of war.

At the time, he invoked the Jewish festival of Purimwhich this year was celebrated between March 2 and 3, and which marks the salvation of the Jews of Haman’s conspiracyan evil Persian official, to annihilate the Jews in the ancient Persian Empire.

“My brothers and sisters, in two days we will celebrate the festival of Purim. 2,500 years ago, in ancient Persia, an enemy has risen up against uss with the same objective as completely destroy our people“, declared Netanyahu.

“But Mordecai the Jew and Queen Ester, with their courage and ingenuity, saved our people. In those days of Purim, the die was cast and the wicked Haman fell with it. Also today, at the festival of Purim, lots were cast, and the the end of the evil regime will come“, he added.

Netanyahu He also compared Iran to the biblical Amalekites, theme that he had already used to refer to Hamas in Gaza, drawing criticism from the United Nations.

The Amalekites were enemies of the Jewish peoplethat the God of the Old Testament ordered them to be completely destroyed — “men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys”.

Netanyahu’s government is based on a alliance with religious Zionistswho frequently invoke religious references to justify Israel’s policies.

North American evangelism

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteesreligious freedom and prevents, in practice, one confession from being favored over others.

Still, about 70% of Americans identify with a faith religious, the overwhelming majority being Christians, and there are signs of the growing influence of Evangelical Christianity in the MAGA movement and the Trump administration.

On March 5, the American president joined a group of evangelical pastors to pray in the Oval Office of the White House. Laying hands on him, they prayed “by Your grace and protection over him… and over our troops“.

The video of the American president participating in a collective prayer in the middle of a major war went viral.

Early in the war, hundreds of U.S. military personnel reported that their commanders told them that war was “part of God’s divine plan” and that “President Trump was anointed by Jesus to light the beacon in Iran, bring about Armageddon and signal His return to Earth.”

The movements evangelicals greatly increased their political influence in the US and around the world. They often support right-wing politicians on the domestic plane and Israel on the international plane, believing in Christian Zionism — that is, that the strengthening of the State of Israel will lead to the building of the Temple in Jerusalem and will hasten the arrival of Judgment Day.

Faced with the challenge of evangelical movements, the Catholic Churchon the other hand, condemned the war as “immoral” and “unjust” and denounced Israeli attacks against Christians in Lebanon. Pope Leo, himself an American, classified the war as “a scandal for the entire human family“.

Iranian martyrdom

Israel violated a norm of international relations in more than one sense.

And the first murder of a head of state for a foreign country in many decades. And it is the first time in centuries, perhaps ever, that one of the tallest Grand Ayatollahs of Shiism are killed by a foreign power.

Many other high-ranking Shia clerics, some of whom had maintained a difficult and sometimes even antagonistic relationship with Khamenei and the system he represented, declared him a martyr.

Assuming his father’s role as supreme leader, he made statements that strongly emphasized martyrdom and messianism, including a initial reference to the “Hidden Magnet”the twelfth, who, according to Shiite doctrine, should return on the Day of Judgment.

In Iran, the Duodeciman Shia messianism and Iranian nationalism have been intertwined for a long time, especially since the 1979 revolution. Now, Iranian Shiite clerics declared the defense of the homeland as a sacred duty.

The position of other currents of Islam in relation to war is more complex. Some prominent non-Shia clerics, including the mufti of Mana prominent scholar of the Ibadite branch of Islam, declared Khamenei a martyr.

The Sunni mufti of Iraq even defended that all Muslims should support Iran against infidels.

However, other Sunni clerical movements were not so vehement in condemning Khamenei’s death nor in defending support for Iran.

This contrast, the result of the sometimes bitter antagonism between Sunnism and Shiismis also related to the fact that the They will have quickly started attacking important Sunni-majority countries that host US military bases.

Dangerous precedent

The most varied messianic and apocalyptic elements of the three great Abrahamic traditions have been instrumentalized by religious leaders and increasingly authoritarian politicians in a global confrontation.

Although there are voices in all three traditions that criticize this use of religion, a dangerous precedent is being set. And if the war has been criticized for violating international law, the irresponsible use of religion to sustain it it hasn’t been.

This should changeconcluded Toby Matthiesen.