by A. Abdul Aziz.

In any war, the first casualty is the truth. If we view the current Middle East conflict through the fog of war, it’s impossible to determine the realities and motives on the ground. 

Warmongering propaganda has been the wont of Western nations interfering in the Middle East for decades. Muslim nations are painted as backward” and barbaric” in need of democracy” and being saved from their ruthless leaders. This was just some of the rhetoric being used in the build-up to the illegal Iraq War in 2003. That, and the false claim of weapons of mass destruction. Similar arguments are now being used against Iran. 

Every effective propaganda must indeed have an element of truth. Many Muslim leaders have been dictators and have oppressed their own people and their Muslim neighbours, abandoning Islamic principles. Such propaganda also serves to further dangerous colonial narratives by Western nations seeking to subjugate Muslim states. 

Iran, a nation of 90 million people and a civilisation going back 2500 years, cannot be reduced to simple good or evil narratives. Every nation has its flaws and weaknesses, as well as its positive and praiseworthy qualities. No government on earth is perfect or free from some sort of criticism. 

If one views the current conflict through the eyes of Islamic morality, as opposed to the fog of war and theological differences, we can make better-informed and just conclusions. This would help us to understand the Islamic solutions to the tribulations facing the Muslim world. 

Deceitful negotiations

The current war in the Middle East began when America and Israel attacked Iran without cause in the middle of negotiations over its nuclear programme. Oman’s Foreign Minister was mediating between Iran and America and stated  on 27 February 2026 that a deal was within reach.” Literally a few hours later, America and Israel bombed Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and members of his family in a strike on his residence.

America and Israel did the same in June 2025, leading to the 12-day war. They held peace talks just days before, while planning to attack Iran at the same time. 

We have a very bitter experience of talking with Americans … We negotiated with them last year in June, and they attacked us in the middle of negotiations,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi once told PBS News.

They promised us [this time] that they don’t have any intention to attack us and wanted to resolve Iran’s nuclear question peacefully … After three rounds of negotiation, and after the American team said we made big progress, they still decided to attack us,” he said.

 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also had told,   negotiating with the United States is off the table right now.

These were duplicitous and bad-faith negotiations on the part of the United States. Behind this was Israel, which has long been pushing the US for a war with Iran. Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel also pressured President Obama to attack Iran during his presidency, but he resisted and instead negotiated a settlement with Iran. That deal was ripped  up by President Trump in 2018 for no apparent reason.  

There was no imminent threat to either Israel or America from Iran according to their own intelligence assessments.  A war of aggression is as un-Islamic as it gets. The Holy Quran states that the only just wars are those of self-defence, to save people from tyranny and persecution or to protect religious freedoms. In Islam, you must treat peace talks seriously and seek every avenue for it. Iran has not attacked another country in 200 years. The United States has attacked multiple countries in the last 50 years. 

Nuclear morality

America and Israel have long had concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, but there is no evidence that it is seeking to develop one. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, plainly said there is no evidence that Iran was building a nuclear bomb. 

A nuclear power itself, the US tells Iran it must not develop nuclear weapons, even though Iran has never desired to produce them. The Holy Quran says Why do you say that which you do not do?” This hypocrisy reveals that the motives of this war had nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear programme. The motive was always to subjugate the entire Middle East. 

Further, if the United States and Israel were so adamant that Iran should not develop a nuclear bomb, why did they kill the man who was preventing Iran from developing one? Former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons since the 1990s because they are indiscriminate bombs and therefore immoral and un-Islamic. Iran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear programme was for peaceful energy purposes only. 

This is perhaps the most moral stance on nuclear weapons of any country on earth. No other nation that comes to mind has such a clear opposition to nuclear weapons that it deems them religiously impermissible. Those accusing Iran of being a nuclear threat are themselves the biggest nuclear threats. The United States is the only nation on earth to have ever used them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. An extremely cruel and indiscriminate weapon which leaves land full of radiation, destroys crops for decades and makes generations of people at risk of radiation poisoning.

The position adopted by Iran on nuclear weapons was wholly Islamic, moral and commendable. If every other nation adopted such a stance, we would have eradicated the risk of nuclear war forever. Iran is also a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), while Israel, Pakistan and India are not. 

Relying on Western powers for defence

America sent massive amounts of military hardware, warships and defence systems to the Middle East to intimidate Iran during negotiations and threaten it. 

At this juncture, Iran clearly and repeatedly warned that if attacked, all US bases in the Middle East would be legitimate targets. The greatest folly of Arab states was to allow US bases in their region. There are at least 19 military bases with 40,000 American personnel in the Middle East – if you look at a map, they surround Iran. Many Gulf states are also friendly  with Israel, despite it carrying out massacres in Gaza and killing Muslims en masse. 

Did Arab states not witness the behaviour of these countries towards Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine? A believer is not bitten twice from the same hole, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) said. Yet Muslims today are bitten time and again from the exact same threat.

Commenting on this, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Fifth Khalifa and worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (May Allah be his Helper) delivered the analysis of a seasoned geopolitical expert during one of his his Friday Sermon. 

The United States has established military bases in many Muslim countries. But for what purpose? From whom, after all, were these nations facing a threat? In reality, it was these very powers that themselves created the threats. Thereafter, the narrative was advanced that these [Muslim] countries were in danger, and therefore it was necessary to establish military bases to safeguard them.”

Global Muslim leader (Ahmadiyya  Khalifa) denounces Western interference in Muslim nations, urges Islamic countries to unite peacefully and rely on God for protection, not Western powers. https://t.co/OM15sDMyob

— Press Ahmadiyya (@pressahmadiyya) March 6, 2026

The Holy Quran states: O ye who believe, take not the Jews and the Christians as your helpers, for they are helpers of one another. Whoso from among you takes them as helpers will indeed be one of them. Verily, Allah guides not the unjust people.” (Surah al-Ma‘idah, Ch.5: V.52)

These Muslim countries seek help and defence from Western Christian nations and cooperate with them against their own Muslim brethren. Iran is one of the few, if not only, Muslim countries that have stood up against the imperial and colonial motives of the United States and Israel, hence it has been targeted by them.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said: They [Muslim countries] must not regard the great powers of the world as their gods, for the only power that endures forever is the power of God Almighty. If these great powers are regarded as the ultimate authority, they will gradually seize control of the entire Muslim world, one country after another. Even the present outward governments will eventually disappear.”

Inviolability of civilians

The Holy Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) teaching s on warfare are clear and were far ahead of his time. They predated the Geneva Conventions and were actually implemented. These included, but were not limited to:

Do not break your pledge

Do not mutilate (the dead) bodies

Do not kill the elderly, women, children or noncombatants

Do not destroy property or uproot crops or fruit-bearing trees

Leaving the monks and those in places of worship alone

Even in the midst of warfare against enemies who sought to eradicate them, early Muslims steadfastly stuck by these moral principles.

As far as current reports go, Iran has not targeted or killed many civilians. Instead, the United States bombed a school and killed around 150 schoolgirls. US-Israeli strikes killed the spiritual leader of millions of Shia Muslims and members of his family. Number of  Iranians have been killed. Schools, hospitals, cultural sites and civilian areas have been deliberately targeted. Yet Iran has shown considerable restraint and been measured and proportional. Whether that is because of their limited capability or their moral stance is uncertain. In any case, we have seen extreme aggression and cruelty on one side and restraint on the other. 

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad^aa said in his Friday Sermon:

When the war began, Iran was subjected to bombardment; its cities were devastated, and innocent people and children were killed. The residence of its leader was attacked, and many members of his family lost their lives. These powers believed – and openly proclaimed – that by overthrowing this regime, the Iranian people would attain freedom. However, what was the actual outcome of these actions?”  

What’s clear in this conflict is that Iran was attacked unprovoked and has taken a wholly moral stance in this war, only responding when attacked first and targeting mainly military sites.

Today, World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad is perhaps the only global Muslim leader who has consistently urged Muslims to peacefully unite, adopt Islamic principles and rely on Allah for their prosperity, not Western nations. 

Ahmadiyya Khalifa Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

The Muslim world must strive to become peaceful and to live as brothers among one another. This is the true teaching of Islam, not that they should become people who cut one another’s throats… Only then will we be able to safeguard ourselves from the attacks of the world, maintain our dignity and honour, and prevent the forces opposed to Islam from tearing us apart from within.”

If Arab states and the Iranian government peacefully united now and looked at common Islamic interests, rather than looking outside for help, they could much more effectively forge a path to peace and a prosperous future for the entire Islamic world. 

Source: Al Hakam – London.