Don’t Fall for the Islamic Republic’s Attempt at “Christian-Washing”

On a recent trip to Israel, Mark Walker, President Trump’s nominee to be Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, did not mince words about the administration’s priorities. “We want to ensure that Christian communities, like all faith communities, are protected and can thrive despite conflict and oppression,” he said. Underwriting the nominee’s statement is the bitter reality that the Near East, the cradle of Christianity, is now filled with governments and non-state actors overtly hostile to Christians. Key amongst these states is the Islamic Republic of Iran and its network of terror militias in neighboring Iraq.

To the unseasoned Iran Watcher, focusing on Shiite-Persian Iran, itself a double minority in a wider Sunni-Arab whirlpool might appear odd, especially given the recent scourge of Sunni Jihadism against religious minorities in the region. Iran has active churches, for example, while many churches in neighboring pro-Western states remain in disrepair. Similarly, Iran has reserved seats in its parliament for Assyrian and Armenian Christians, both of whom are ancient communities in Iran pre-dating the arrival of Islam. The country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even reportedly spends Christmas with the families of Christian martyrs from the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

In mid-October, images flooded the internet of a newly opened ‘Holy Virgin Mary’ metro station in Tehran. The station walls were covered with Christian art and depictions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. Iranian officials and pro-regime voices took to social media proclaiming this as a demonstration of coexistence in the Islamic Republic, and accusing the West of distorting the narrative concerning religious minorities in Iran.

However, all of this is, at best, ornamental.

While Jesus is a prophet and revered figure in Islam, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no interest in extolling the virtues of Christianity, the accomplishments of Christendom, nor in the practice of genuine religious freedom. It is an Islamist regime founded on a radical Khomeinist interpretation of Twelver Shi’ite Islam keen to repress at home and to aggress abroad. Rather, the regime seeks to exploit Christianity and sentimentality surrounding the plight of Christians in the region to avoid political pressure so that it can pursue its ideological agenda with as few impediments as possible. 

In so doing, Christians under the yoke of Tehran’s theocrats serve the same role as other “recognized” religious minorities in the country like Sunni Muslims, Jews, and Zoroastrians (not to mention unrecognized religious minorities like Baháʼís who have it worse due to their faith being treated as a heresy). The parliamentary representation of recognized communities in Iran’s authoritarian system renders them nothing more than Potemkin villages to point to every time attention is paid to religious persecution in the Middle East. And when global attention waxes and wanes—as has been the case after the 12-Day War—to crack down harder.

For starters, the regime prohibits printing or the distribution of the Bible in Persian. According to the latest State Department report on international religious freedom, the Islamic Republic has even termed at-home and private Christian churches as “illegal networks” or “Zionist propaganda institutions” to be combatted.

In Iran, Muslims are forbidden from converting and any minority faiths that proselytize or convert face extensive criminal penalties. Despite this, large numbers of Iranians convert to Christianity every year, though they must do so in secret and under threat of persecution. Despite this, Christianity is becoming one of the fastest growing faiths in an increasingly secularized populace in the Islamic Republic.

Less than a month before opening the Holy Virgin Mary subway station, an Iranian court upheld the sentencing of five converts for the peaceful practice and study of their faith. Each one will serve over eight years.

Article 18’s 2025 annual report on abuses of Christians in Iran analyzed 327 Christians prosecuted for their faith in Tehran alone using leaked case files. Of them, 90% were converts who faced a range of charges from “propaganda against the state” for practicing their faith or insulting Islam. It documented a sixfold increase in prison terms for Christians from 2023 to 2024.

Open Doors ranked Iran ninth on the list of the worst abusers of Christians in 2025, higher than Afghanistan.

Along with its attempts to control Christians in-country, the Islamic Republic also seeks to co-opt Christianity and use it as a prop against Western adversaries. 

Iranian leaders have regularly referenced Christianity in diplomatic engagements with the West. Perhaps most famously, in a 2006 letter to then-President George W. Bush, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned how a range of American foreign policy positions could be in line with Christian values and teachings. This was not the last time he invoked Jesus to chastise the West. Ahmadinejad’s frequent references to the Christian savior were widely considered a political stunt to divide and distract the West.

This approach is not limited to the home front.

Next door in Iraq, where the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism has a robust proxy network, pro-Iran forces have similarly instrumentalized Christianity while auditioning to be seen as palatable by the West. In a 2015 video on social media, for example, a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which is an umbrella of largely-Iran backed militias in Iraq, were shown to be restoring churches overrun by the Islamic State (ISIS), ending with the message, “Your bells O Mosul… will ring again.”

But Iran has gone deeper, propping up puppets and loyalists to co-opt constitutionally mandated Christian representation. Iran’s vehicle of choice for manipulating the Christian population is the Babylon Brigades, formally part of the PMF as its 50^th Brigade and run by Rayan al-Kildani, an Iraqi Christian who was sanctioned by the Trump administration in its first term for human rights abuses. Kildani’s militia has expanded Iran’s influence and control in Christian areas of Iraq through his nominally Christian armed group. 

This takeover has been carried out in close coordination with Tehran. Kildani has routinely asserted that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) commander Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi operative Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, two masterminds behind Iran’s military influence in Iraq especially through the PMF, were crucial in founding the Babylon Brigades and supported his militia with arms and training. Iranian officials have lauded the ties between Soleimani and Iraq’s Christian community in meetings with Kildani.

Within Iraq, Kildani and the Babylon Brigades are closely connected to some of the most notorious Iran-backed terrorists and militia leaders. One of whom is Qais Khazali, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) and leader of the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), which has its own record of intimidating Christians. Another is the Badr Organization, sometimes called Iran’s oldest proxy in Iraq. Kildani has worked in coordination with these actors to further the interests of the Islamic Republic in Iraq.

Another vector for Kildani and his Iranian backers to expand their influence is Christian political representation in Iraq. In 2014, Kildani founded the Babylon Movement as the political arm of the Babylon Brigades. It currently controls four of the five seats reserved for Christians in Iraq’s parliament. The Iran-backed group accomplished this coup by pressuring Iraq’s Christians and exploiting Iraq’s system for minority representation. Under Iraqi law, select seats are reserved for minorities, but voting is open to anyone. This enables Shiite voters to elect the Babylon Movement and Tehran’s preferred Christian representatives. Unfortunately for Iraqi Christians, the militia and its political affiliate are reportedly preparing to repeat the tactics that brought them to power in the upcoming November election.

Now is no time to abandon Iraq’s Christians to Iranian exploitation. The Iraqi Christian population has dropped precipitously in the 21^st century from around 1.5 million in 2000 to under 150,000 in 2025. While the ancient community has weathered the threat of ISIS, it continues to face economic, social, and political challenges exacerbated by a lack of support from elites in Baghdad. This should come as no surprise, since the Christian community’s own representatives aren’t in Baghdad to prioritize their own community.

Cardinal Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church – reportedly the largest Christian community in Iraq – has repeatedly lamented the hijacking of the Christian vote to “armed groups” in reference to Iran’s proxy militia in Christian areas. The Chaldean Patriarch has also called for reform to Iraq’s voting system to protect Christian representation. Christian politicians in Iraqi Kurdistan have echoed similar concerns.

The Trump administration and the West need to be clear-eyed in assessing the Islamic Republic’s use of Christians and abuse of Christianity when recalibrating and redefining interests in the Middle East. If Middle Eastern Christians are going to enjoy a reprieve, it will only come from getting tough with those who pose an existential threat to these ancient communities.

Behnam Ben Taleblu is the Senior Director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington DC and a member of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Task Force on Middle East Minorities. The views expressed are his own. Bridget Toomey is a Research Analyst at FDD where she focuses on Iran-backed proxy groups. The views expressed are her own.