The ‘return of religion’ was long neglected by scholars of International Relations. The emerging research in this context has long been dominated by primordial understandings of religion as the bottom line for identity formation and political and violent conflict. In contrast, this paper deals with religion more differentiated: first, acknowledging the role religions or religious differences play in (violent) political conflict as catalysts, rather than being the cause for conflict, and second, conceiving religion as one possible frame for identity construction. Thus, religious identity is conceptualized as the socially constructed frame of political or religious elites for a given state or group. Depending on how moderate/inclusive or extreme/exclusive religious identity is constructed, this has serious impact on national security. The paper argues that there is a deep nexus between religious identity and state security. The paper explores this nexus through the analytical lens of norm research, more precisely by converting the ‘spiral model’ of human rights change into an ‘identity spiral’, consequently focusing on state behavior towards religious minorities. The question why religious minorities are being oppressed and persecuted by certain states or governments is of paramount importance. Most of the research on religious freedom and religious minorities only provide correlations. There has been virtually no qualitative research on religious minorities, yet. By analyzing how the Islamic Republic of Iran treats its non-Muslim minorities, the paper sheds some light on the question how religious identity matters for state security. The empirical results presented, show significant evidence that (religious/secular) socially constructed identity of state elites determine the way they treat their religious minorities: the more those minorities are perceived as challenging the constructed state identity, thus threatening state security, the more they suffer through violent ‘integration’ policies. Moreover, external threats to a state amplify this impact.
