January 11, 2007

IRAN:

SEDUCTION AND PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH

According to the Shia Islam of Iran, in the end times the Muslim prophet Jesus will return with the Imam Mahdi, the hidden 12th Imam - the Shiite Messiah. The Shiite Jesus will worship the Imam Mahdi and lead the final jihad.

As it says in the Quran, '. . . and on the Day of Resurrection he [Jesus] will bear witness against [those who utter the "monstrous falsehood" that Jesus was crucified].' (Sura 4:155-160)

Even though the Muslim Jesus and the biblical Jesus have little in common and actually oppose each other, President Ahmadinejad went out of his way to publicly wish Iran's Christians a happy Christmas and New Year. (See link *) However his message sounded very like an attempt to seduce them into believing that Shiite Iran is more Christ-honouring than the 'oppressive powers' in 'Christian states' which have created havoc in Iraq and ruined Iran's Christmas by levelling sanctions against it.

Then when he met with Armenian 'families of martyrs' on 6 January, Ahmadinejad equated Iran's Armenians who died in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) with Islamic martyrs and told the (Christian) Armenians, 'We are all like members of a single family heading for common goals.'

It is reasonable to infer that Ahmadinejad means to seduce the official church of ethnic Armenian and Assyrian Christians into becoming compliant - even grateful - collaborators in exchange for limited 'privileges'.

Ahmadinejad could then appear supportive of the church and religious liberty in general. And Ahmadinejad needs friends. Iranian women, students, intelligentsia and trade unionists are all becoming increasingly courageous in their willingness to risk their life and liberty to protest the regime's repression and belligerence.

Ahmadinejad's seductive efforts will present the official church with a painful, watershed choice: collaborate or share the persecution. But there is another well-established reality in Iran: Persian Christianity is unacceptable as it involves conversion from Islam, which is anathema and impermissible.

Christian fellowships that evangelise Muslims reap the wrath of the Islamic regime.

Persecution escalated dramatically through 2006 under Ahmadinejad's direction.

On 10 December 2006 Iranian secret police raided Christian fellowships in Karaj, Tehran, Rasht and Bandar-i Anzali, confiscating computers, literature and materials and arresting 15 believers they accused of evangelism and actions against the national security of Iran.

All but one have since been released after forfeiting money, job permits and even house deeds as bail.

Reportedly, new government directives will soon place the church even more under the thumb of the intelligence ministry and security forces.

We can expect further escalation in both seduction and persecution through 2007 as Ahmadinejad attempts the standard, age- old Islamic strategy of using the church to persecute the church.