The international Catholic charity organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) issued a statement on March 2 warning that the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran have triggered a volatile environment posing a severe threat to Iran’s already vulnerable Christian community.
Reports indicate that the U.S. and Israel attacked multiple military and government targets in Tehran and other regions of Iran. To date, these attacks have resulted in the deaths of 86-year-old Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior officials, as well as a number of civilians. Iran has fired multiple missiles at Israel and U.S. military targets in the region in retaliation.
The ACN organization expressed concern over the situation of Christian communities in the Middle East region, particularly Christians in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.
The organization’s international executive chair, Regina Lynch, stated: “This new wave of destruction is almost more than these communities can bear… Many Christians have moved abroad, and if war breaks out again, they are unlikely to return. Those who remain are mostly elderly and poor, full of anxiety about the future.” Her team has observed that anxiety among local people is intensifying.
Iranian Christians Become "Scapegoats"
Nonprofit organizations Article 18, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), and Middle East Concern released the report Scapegoats: Rights Violations Against Christians in Iran on February 19, documenting that 254 Christians were arrested in Iran last year for their faith, and as political tensions rise, Christians have become “scapegoats” who are blamed and targeted.
The report mentions that after Iran and Israel’s 12-day war last June, arrests of Christians sharply increased. Five Christians were charged with espionage, with a combined sentence totaling 40 years. State media also released a video showing the confiscated New Testaments of Christians who were arrested after gathering in Turkey for religious instruction.
Under the clause in the Iranian penal code prohibiting “propaganda contrary to the holy religion of Islam,” most Christians were prosecuted. By the end of 2025, 43 were still serving sentences, and 16 were in pre-trial detention. The number of Christians Sentences involving imprisonment, exile, or forced labor more than doubled, rising from 25 in 2024 to 57 in 2025, more than doubling. The report points out that although the number sentenced slightly decreased (from 96 to 73), the total sentence length (280 years) was higher than 2024’s 263 years, with sentencing trending harsher.
Systematic Oppression and Middle East Crisis
According to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, Iran ranks tenth among countries where Christian persecution is most severe globally. Iran’s population exceeds 92 million, but Christians number only about 800,000. They are “heavily and systemically repressed, as the authorities seek to root out what they see as a threat from the West to undermine their Islamic rule.”
Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the regime has continuously violated human rights and suppressed dissent. Late last year, due to economic hardship and public dissatisfaction with the regime, Iran erupted in large-scale anti-government protests. Reports indicate that the subsequent crackdown resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of demonstrators.
Lynch called on global churches to pray for Iranian Christians and unite in supporting them. She emphasized: “No matter how the political situation develops, Christians in the Middle East region need to survive, and the mission of the church must continue.”
(Source: Christian Post)
