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A Call to People of Faith in the Middle East and at Home
By Maha Elgenaidi, Executive Director (Bio)
March 23, 2026
A War Without End
On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and setting off a wave of retaliatory missiles and drones that has engulfed the wider region.
In Iran itself, the U.S. and Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,255 people, wounded more than 12,000, and damaged over 42,000 civilian sites, including homes, schools, and hospitals.[1a][1]
Lebanon has borne devastating losses from Israeli attacks: more than 1,000 people killed, among them at least 118 children and 40 healthcare workers, with more than 2,500 wounded.[2] More than one million Lebanese have been driven from their homes.
Iran has struck targets across Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, pulling the Gulf states into a war not of their making.[3] In Israel, Iranian strikes have killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 3,700. And at least 13 American soldiers and other military personnel have lost their lives with some 200 more wounded from Iranian attacks.
In Gaza, Palestinians who survived nearly two years of Israeli bombardment now face a ceasefire that paused the bombs but did not end the siege. They are still being blockaded, still being starved, still denied a dignified life, while the world’s attention has moved on to a larger fire.[4]
The human cost is staggering, and it is rising every day.
The World Cannot Afford This War
The economic consequences are no less alarming.
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly one in five barrels of the world’s oil passes, has triggered what the International Energy Agency is calling “the greatest global energy and food security challenge in history.”[5] Global oil prices surged past $100 per barrel for the first time in four years, peaking at $126.[6]
This is not just a Middle Eastern crisis. It is sending shockwaves through the world’s food supply, energy systems, and financial markets, and the damage could last for years.[7]
Gulf states, which rely on the Strait for over 80 percent of their food imports, face a growing emergency.[8] No corner of the world is immune, from Asia and Europe to the Americas.[9] If this war continues, what we are seeing now is only the beginning.
When Faith Becomes a Weapon
The missiles and drones are not the whole story. Three religious-nationalist ideologies are fueling this conflict and must be named openly.
The first is Apocalyptic Greater Israel, a fringe but influential agenda under Netanyahu seeking Israeli expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates, rooted in a reading of biblical prophecy that treats conquest as a divine mandate. In practice, it shows up in the West Bank every day, where Jewish settler extremists are seizing Palestinian land, destroying homes and olive groves, and shooting civilians, acts that have accelerated since the war began. Meanwhile in Gaza, while the world looks elsewhere, Israel has blocked all humanitarian aid since March 2nd, banned 37 international aid organizations from operating, and left 470,000 people facing catastrophic hunger, with the entire population of 2.1 million experiencing acute food insecurity.[10],[10a]
The second is Christian Nationalist-Zionism, a movement with deep influence in American politics that treats this conflict as literal Armageddon, a theology that has helped give Washington the religious cover to launch this war. Many Christian Zionists believe it is their religious duty to support Israel in rebuilding the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, a step they regard as essential for ushering in the Second Coming of Jesus. This is not a fringe belief held quietly in small congregations. It has shaped foreign policy, moved billions of dollars in political support, and given moral sanction to a war that is killing thousands of people.
The third is the militant politicization of Shi‘i Messianism. This is not the founding doctrine of the Islamic Republic, which is built on the guardianship of the Islamic jurist. But a powerful current within the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah has long framed confrontation with Israel and the West as a sacred duty that hastens the Hidden Imam’s return. Iran was the nation attacked in this war, and its response is driven by nationalism and strategic calculation as much as religion. But this militant messianic ideology has shaped the IRGC and Hezbollah for decades, and mainstream Shi‘i scholars have a responsibility to publicly reject it.[11]
All three ideologies share one danger: they make conflict sacred and put it beyond negotiation. Their followers are a minority, but they have been given far too much power, in Tehran, Jerusalem, and Washington.
The Silence of Religious Leaders Is a Moral Failure
So, I ask directly, to every pastor who stands at a pulpit, every rabbi who opens the Torah and imam who leads Friday prayers: Where are you?
Children are dying under bombs justified in the name of your faith. Settlers are spreading across the West Bank claiming the sanction of scripture. Missiles are being launched in the name of a Hidden Imam whose message is one of mercy. And the United States is waging this war with the blessing of Christian leaders who have forgotten that Jesus, whose name they invoke, stood on a hillside and called us all to be peacemakers. Where is the religious leadership that is supposed to guard the conscience of its people?
Silence is not neutrality. Silence is complicity. When people in the churches, synagogues and mosques hear week after week that their tradition demands peace and then watch their co-religionists or governments wage war with the apparent blessing of religion and no spiritual dissent, they draw one conclusion: that the faith leaders do not mean it. That peace is something you say, not something you do.
The traditions are clear.
In Islam, the sanctity of one life is the sanctity of all. “Whoever kills a soul… it is as if he had slain mankind entirely” (Qur’an 5:32). The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said on his final pilgrimage: “Your blood and your property are sacred.” In Christianity, Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” In Judaism, pikuach nefesh, the preservation of life, overrides nearly every other commandment. And the Talmud says: “Seek peace and pursue it.” Not wait for it. Pursue it.
These are not suggestions. They are commands. And they are being violated openly, in God’s name, while too many leaders stay quiet. This moment demands imams who name the politicization of Shi‘i Messianism as a betrayal of Islamic teachings. It demands Christian leaders who repudiate the theology giving Washington religious cover for this war. It demands rabbis who tell their communities plainly: settler violence in the West Bank and collective punishment in Gaza is not Judaism. It is a desecration. And it demands that pastors, rabbis and imams do this together, in public, in one voice, because this is one crisis.
I know how hard this is. I know the fear of losing congregants, of alienating donors, of being accused of being political. I have spent decades in this work. But history does not remember the cautious. It remembers Desmond Tutu, who looked at apartheid and called it sin. It remembers the imams, priests, and rabbis who marched together with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma. This is that moment.
The question is whether this generation of religious leaders will rise to it or be remembered for their silence.
A Path Forward: What Abrahamic Peoples in the Middle East Can Do
What can Muslims, Christians, and Jews, ordinary believers and their leaders, do together right now? In a piece I published on Medium, I proposed a five-part peace framework.[12] Here are the five steps:
- Stop the escalation. People of faith, alongside the broader international community, must push the United States and Israel to define and limit their military objectives, stop further strikes, and commit to a diplomatic path out. Humanitarian corridors must be opened, and independent war crimes monitoring must be established now.
- Support a democratic transition in Iran. Iranians deserve the right to determine their own future. The US, EU, and regional partners should offer reconstruction and sanctions relief, conditioned on real democratic progress, and actively welcome Iranian diaspora expertise and civil society back into the process.
- Build a new Middle Eastern Alliance. The region’s younger generation of leaders has a historic opportunity to end their dependence on outside powers. An expanded regional framework, modeled loosely on the EU but rooted in Middle Eastern realities, with a common market, a genuine collective security arrangement, and a council with real enforcement capacity, is within reach.
- Pursue an independent foreign policy. The new Alliance should build relationships with the United States, Europe, China, Asia, and Africa on equal terms, as partners, not clients. The Middle East belongs to the people who live there.
- Resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict. All normalization must be tied to a just and lasting solution: a sovereign, contiguous Palestinian state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, full regional recognition of Israel, and a “Marshall Plan” for reconstruction that gives every party, Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab, a real stake in peace. Extremist movements on all sides must be politically isolated and defunded.
The window for this may be narrow. The obligation to reach for it is not.
What People of Faith in America Can Do Right Now
Peace in the Middle East will not be built only in the Middle East. American planes dropped the bombs on February 28th. American tax dollars fund the weapons. American politicians in both parties have enabled the ideologies driving this war. That means people of faith in this country carry a real responsibility. Here are four things you can do:
- Show up for one another. When a mosque is vandalized, the churches and synagogues in that community should be there the next morning. When a Jewish community center receives a threat, the imams and pastors should be at the door. When Palestinian American families are grieving, their Christian and Jewish neighbors should sit with them. This is not symbolic. It is the most powerful message possible to those who want our communities divided.
- Organize across traditions and contact your elected officials. Interfaith coalitions have real political power when they use it. Call your representatives, not once but repeatedly, and do it together. An imam, a pastor, and a rabbi walking into a congressional office together sends a message that no single group can. Demand an immediate halt to the bombing, open humanitarian corridors, a return to diplomacy, and a commitment to a two-state solution. Tell them people of faith are watching, and that we vote.
- Give. The humanitarian crisis across Lebanon, Gaza, and Iran is severe and getting worse. Families have no shelter. Children have no food. Medical workers are being killed. Organizations on the ground right now include Islamic Relief, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Your congregation can take a collection. Your interfaith council can organize a joint campaign. Giving across religious lines says plainly: we do not believe some lives matter more than others.
- Build real relationships across difference. This is the slower work, and it is the most important. Not only panel discussions or social media posts but sitting across a table from someone whose tradition is not yours and choosing to understand rather than to win. That is what makes solidarity possible in a crisis. It is what allows an imam to call a rabbi at midnight. It is what allows a church to open its doors to a Muslim community that has nowhere to pray.
We do not have to wait for governments, generals or diplomats. If you are not already doing this work, begin today. If you are, accelerate.
Notes:
[1] Britannica, “2026 Iran War,” https://www.britannica.com/event/2026-Iran-Conflict
[1a] Al Jazeera, “Iran Says 1,255 People Killed in US-Israeli Attacks, Mostly Civilians,” March 9, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/9/iran-says-1255-killed-in-us-israeli-attacks-mostly-civilians (citing Iran’s Deputy Health Minister; also reporting 12,000+ wounded, 29 clinical facilities damaged, 10 forced to shut down); Al Jazeera, “Iranian Govt Reveals Scale of Civilian Casualties from US-Israeli Strikes,” March 15, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/3/15/iranian-govt-reveals-scale-of-civilian-casualties-from-us-israeli-strikes (42,000+ civilian sites damaged including homes, schools, and hospitals).
[2] Al Jazeera, “Death Toll Surpasses 1,000 in Lebanon as Israeli Bombardment Continues,” March 19, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/19/death-toll-surpasses-1000-in-lebanon-as-israeli-bombardment-continues ; Lebanese Ministry of Public Health figures cited therein (1,001 killed including 118 children and 40 healthcare workers, 2,584 wounded).
[3] Wikipedia, “2026 Lebanon War,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Lebanon_war; CNN, “It’s Been 18 Months Since the Last War in Lebanon. This Time It’s Different,” March 21, 2026, https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/21/middleeast/lebanon-this-war-is-different-intl (more than one million displaced).
[4] Britannica, “2026 Iran War,” https://www.britannica.com/event/2026-Iran-Conflict
[5] Wikipedia, “Economic Impact of the 2026 Iran War,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_the_2026_Iran_war
[6] Wikipedia, “2026 Strait of Hormuz Crisis,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Strait_of_Hormuz_crisis
[7] World Economic Forum, “The Global Price Tag of War in the Middle East,” https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/03/the-global-price-tag-of-war-in-the-middle-east/
[8] Wikipedia, “Economic Impact of the 2026 Iran War,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_the_2026_Iran_war
[9] Chatham House, “How Will the Iran War Affect the Global Economy?” https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/03/how-will-iran-war-affect-global-economy
[10] Human Rights Watch, “In the Shadow of War, Settler Violence Against Palestinians Intensifies,” March 13, 2026, https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/13/in-the-shadow-of-war-settler-violence-against-palestinians-intensifies (five Palestinians shot and killed by settlers in the first eleven days of the Iran war); Yesh Din, cited in Palestine Information Network, March 21, 2026 (109 separate incidents of settler violence in 62 Palestinian communities in the first ten days); Times of Israel, “IDF Chief: Settler Violence ‘Unacceptable,’ Results in ‘Extraordinary Strategic Damage,'” March 18, 2026, https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-settler-violence-unacceptable-results-in-extraordinary-strategic-damage/
[10a] Human Rights Watch, “Israel: Aid Groups Barred from Gaza, West Bank,” February 24, 2026, https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/24/israel-aid-groups-barred-from-gaza-west-bank (Israel moving to bar 37 international aid organizations as of March 1, 2026; continued blockade causing shortages of medicine, food, and water despite ceasefire); World Food Programme, “Risk of Famine Across All of Gaza,” https://www.wfp.org/news/risk-famine-across-all-gaza-new-report-says (470,000 people in catastrophic hunger, IPC Phase 5; entire 2.1 million population in acute food insecurity; all aid blocked since March 2, 2026).
[11] Middle East Institute, “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the Rising Cult of Mahdism,” 2022 (a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank; this report documents how Mahdist ideology has become increasingly central to the IRGC’s worldview and its framing of the destruction of Israel as a religious obligation tied to eschatological expectation). On the broader embedding of messianic ideology in Iranian foreign policy: Messianic Multipolarity and the Islamic Regime: A Strategic and Theological Doctrine of Resistance, JURIST Commentary, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, August 29, 2025, https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2025/08/messianic-multipolarity-and-the-islamic-regime-a-strategic-and-theological-doctrine-of-resistance/ (noting that Iran’s foreign policy is animated by a sacred narrative in which confrontation with Israel is framed as a divinely ordained step toward the Mahdi’s return, while also recognizing that nationalism and security concerns remain primary drivers of Iranian behavior).
[12] Maha Elgenaidi, “An Optimistic Peace Plan for the Middle East Crisis: A Five-Part Framework,” Medium, March 2026, https://medium.com/@mahaelgenaidi/an-optimistic-peace-plan-for-the-middle-east-crisis-a-five-part-framework- -d14d3dd4f261