RELATED RESOURCES:
New York, NY, July 1, 2026 — The Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Task Force on Middle East Minorities issued the following statement condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran's escalating campaign against Iran's Protestant Christian communities:
The threatened seizure of Tehran’s St. Peter Evangelical Church and the June 4 demolition of the Evangelical Church of Mashhad are the latest examples of religious persecution by a regime whose record, as ADL documented in its March 2026 backgrounder on the Islamic Republic’s history of repressing minorities, has been one of egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.
Since its establishment in 1998, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has consistently recommended the Islamic Republic of Iran’s designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for “engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.” The recent incidents targeting Protestant Christians underscore the findings in USCIRF’s most recent annual report that the Islamic Republic is among the “perennial religious freedom violators” whose crackdown on religious minorities includes Baha'is, Christians, Jews, and Sunni Muslims.
Task Force Co-Chair Nadine Maenza, a former USCIRF Chair and Commissioner, said in response to the Islamic Republic’s actions:
“As Iran threatens to confiscate St. Peter's Evangelical Church in Tehran — one of the last remaining historic Protestant churches in the country — and reportedly warns worshippers and church leaders with imprisonment if they refuse to leave, the entire international community must respond with clarity and resolve. The seizure and demolition of churches are part of a broader pattern of systematic repression against religious minorities, including Christians, Baha'is, Jews and Sunni Muslims.”
Task Force member Reverend Dr. Johnnie Moore, a former USCIRF Vice Chair and Commissioner, added:
“A regime that must bulldoze churches and seize the sanctuaries of peaceful congregations is not displaying its strength but confessing its fear — fear of a faith it cannot license, a conscience it cannot conscript, and a people it cannot control. The Protestant Christians who now gather in living rooms and basements under threat of years in prison are among the most courageous people anywhere on earth, their quiet endurance a standing rebuke to every claim the Islamic Republic makes for its own legitimacy.”