The connection between authoritarianism and religion is pretty weak. Most XX century authoritarian countries which terrorized their citizens where anti-religious. Take a look at the history of the Soviet Union where hundred of thousands of people were prosecuted and killed for being religious. Extremes are dangerous in general.
I don't think that's accurate. Lenin and Stalin were pretty anti-religious. So was Mussolini. But I can't think of any other authoritarian regimes that were specifically anti-religious.
Franco wasn't anti-religious. Neither was Hitler. Nor Castro. Nor any of the dictators in the African countries. We've had lots and lots of dictators and totalitarian regimes, few of which were anti-religious.
My understanding is that Castro is quite anti-religious just like any other communist leader (confirmed by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Cuba). Hitler was in conflict with Christian churches as well since he was essentially building his own religion and did not want competition.
I was born in a country where religion was systematically mocked and religious people had to hide their beliefs. Yet somehow getting rid of the religion did not make people any nicer. I am glad that it is not the case in ex-SU anymore. Tolerance and letting people be whatever they want to be is the way to build a stable society. In the US it may seem like many fanatics are religious, but having seen many examples of the opposite I do not think fanaticism and religion are strongly correlated.
I'd suggest generalizing a bit. Fanaticism causes severe problems, whether that fanaticism comes from religion or from any other belief system that people hold so strongly that they can't tolerate any questioning of it.
He didn't make the connection, and you'd have to be specifically looking for it to read that into his statement, I think. I read it as just a list of some of the qualities of the Iranian state.
And gizmo is right, there have been brutal dictators who use religion as a cudgel, and there have been those who haven't.
