History shows when leaders claim conflicts are divinely ordained struggles between good and evil, the political space for negotiation and peace is sharply constrained.
One of the more alarming aspects of the war in West Asia is as to how it is often being framed in religious terms. Of course, this hides the geopolitical drivers of the conflict including competition for power, resources and regional hegemony.
The US and Israel are formally secular, Iran is a theocracy. Yet religious symbolism and discourse is common among their leaders. Recently we were treated to a picture of US President Donald Trump praying with a group of visiting pastors in his Oval Office. They prayed for divine guidance and wisdom for the President in these “challenging times” as well as the protection of the US armed forces.
Leaders have invoked religious themes and urged their followers to seek inspiration in historical and cultural tropes. Many on both sides of the conflict believe that God is on their side and supports their acts of violence against their adversary. But it also has a historical reference to the Crusades that were fought between the Christians and Muslims for the control of Palestine. In West Asia, the memory of the Crusades is still quite potent and resounds as a critique of western interventionism. Osama bin Laden used the imagery in his attack on the west.
Religious symbolism and imagery is par for the course for the Israelis. Netanyahu has made references to the Amaleks, a biblical enemy of the past that he conflates with the residents of Gaza. The Jewish holy book Torah calls for Israelites to wage eternal war against them and wipe them out totally. Earlier this month, Netanyahu, speaking at the site of an Iranian missile strike, linked this to Amalekites with its genocidal implications to the war with Iran.
Israel is formally a secular, democratic state, in fact created by Resolution 181 of the UN General Assembly. But in recent years, right-wing political parties almost make you believe that it was created by God. There are extremist politicians who claim that Greater Israel extends from the “The River of Egypt (Nile)… to River Euphrates” as written in the Bible. But it is not just the fringe element. In an August 2025 interview Netanyahu said he was very attached to a vision of Greater Israel which included Palestinian areas, and possibly places that are part of Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.
Members of his cabinet like finance minister Bezalel Smotrich have suggested that Israel is destined to expand to include Jordan and beyond to Joran, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Adding fuel to this fire has been the American right with US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee telling Tucker Carlson in an interview that it would be “fine” if Israel took over the entire Middle East. Christian Zionism is an often underestimated driver of Republican foreign policy, advocating total support for Israel to fulfill biblical prophecy regarding the Second Coming of Christ. The belief is that for Jesus to return, the Jews must be “regathered” in their ancestral homeland. Christians United For Israel, a prominent Christian Zionist lobbying group has 10 million members.
Christian Zionism is no longer a fringe belief, it is now a cornerstone of the Republican platform mainly because evangelicals form nearly 38% of the Republican voter base. Paula White-Cain, the head of a new Faith Office in the White House is a prominent Christian Zionist, as is Pete Hegseth the Secretary of Defence and the former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Associated with this is the process of demonising Islam and its adherents. American leaders like Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth have claimed that they are fighting mad men. In a Pentagon news briefing, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said: “Crazy regimes like Iran, hell-bent on prophetic Islamic delusions, cannot have nuclear weapons.” Speaking to the media earlier in March, Rubio said: “Iran is run by lunatics – religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons.”
There have been complaints that some US commanders have been framing the war in Biblical terms. A US watchdog, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has said that it has received complaints that US military personnel have been told by some officers that the war with Iran will lead to “Armageddon” or the “end times”. Armageddon is the biblical site of the final, decisive battle between the forces of God and those of evil which will lead to the end of the world. The end times which will come through global conflict and natural disasters that will lead to the rise of Antichrist and will precede the return of Jesus Christ who will defeat evil.
Hegseth’s reference to “prophetic Islamic delusions” refers to the Iranian beliefs on the end times. It is associated with the martyrdom of the third Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), on the battlefield of Karbala in modern Iraq when the forces of the Caliph Yazid ambushed his caravan and killed him after denying him food and water for days. According to the Shia belief 11 o the 12 Imams of their faith have been either assassinated or poisoned by contemporary rulers. Martyrdom is hard-baked into the Islamist theology of Iran.
The 12th Imam Mahdi is in occultation – hidden from common view – and will emerge at the end times to fight against the forces of evil led by Antichrist Dajjal and rid the world of tyranny and injustice establish peace and justice and redeem Islam.
Ever since the killing of Hussain, the first month of the Islamic calendar Muharram is one of deep mourning for his martyrdom. Shia Muslims wear black, hold processions and martyrdom rituals and vow revenge. The circumstances of the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei make him out to be a martyr in the tradition of the Imams. The Islamic government has used the theology of martyrdom and resistance to mobilise support and to demonise internal and external enemies. Domestic dissidents have been accused of apostasy, while foreign leaders like Trump, Netanyahu and others have been termed Mohareb or Enemies of God and war against foreign enemies is often termed as a Jihad or holy war.
Islam, Christianity and Judaism all contain strong apocalyptic traditions known as eschatology or the study of end times. These Abrahamic faiths predict a final judgement, a cataclysmic end to the current world and the eventual triumph of God (good) over evil.
The current war may be about political primacy and resources (oil) but it is not easy to forget that this contest is framed by the adherents of these faiths in a manner that tends to foreclose compromise and dehumanise the enemy. History shows when leaders claim conflicts are divinely ordained struggles between good and evil, the political space for negotiation and peace is sharply constrained.
The writer is a Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.
This article went live on March twenty-sixth, two thousand twenty six, at thirty-four minutes past eleven in the morning.
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