The eight-year conflict between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the newborn Islamic Republic of Iran witnessed widespread calls for mobilization on both sides. In light of the disapproval-respect model of tolerance, this paper evaluates the Iranian regime's call to minorities for a national yet "Holy Defense" and the responses of Jewish, Christian (both Armenians and Assyrian Chaldeans), and Zoroastrian communities. By drawing on diverse sources, from individual memoirs to official statements from the Islamic Republic, this paper shows that the regime employed a rhetoric of national unity while occasionally advocating for the mobilization of minorities on religious grounds, such as a shared theology of martyrdom between Christians and Shia. In return, leaders of religious minorities used both secular (nationalistic) and religious arguments to justify or deny their participation in the war. Beyond the arguments of the ingroup and outgroups, the model will also inform our identification of concrete instances of tolerance between the Shia majority and religious minorities on the warfront.