It may not be total paranoia. A few years ago we knew a fellow who may or may not still have been a student at the time but who was apparently caught passing on information (I'm sure it was rather low-level) to the US.
Fortunately he was able to escape and was accepted by a Western country as a refugee, though for a time it was dicey. (We were lobbying our congressfolks on his behalf.) We've since lost touch with him.
And I'm not so sure "Iran is a nest of religious fanaticism" -- that's certainly not what I hear from my Iranian friends, whether Muslim or Christian (the Bahais have a slightly different view but I don't think it accords with my interpretation of what you wrote, and I don't know any Jewish Iranians).
Though the Iranian government does use Islam as one of its means to keep a rein on a restive public, one of the results I hear is to make some portion of that public disgusted with Islam.
(Perhaps others with closer ties to Iran can amplify/correct this?)
I think NRT was referring to the gov’t mostly.
I think