With some estimates claiming 50,000 people have been murdered by the regime's IRGC soldiers, Dr. Hormoz Shariat told “Washington Watch” many Christians in Iran’s underground churches have lost their lives, too.
“Some of our members have been killed and arrested,” he reported. “The people of Iran are suffering, but the Christians are showing their light, their love, their presence, in the midst of suffering with the people of Iran.”
Christians who know their Bible history know that sounds familiar, such as the first-century Church as described in the Book of Acts. Also, the famous church letters in the Book of Revelation, written by John to a circle of seven churches in modern-day Turkey, acknowledged Christians in those first-century congregations were suffering for their faith.
Shariat, whose family fled Iran in 1979 when the Shah was deposed, later planted a church in California with other Muslim converts. His current ministry called Iran Alive uses satellite TV to reach Iran, home to an estimated two million Christians, with biblical programming.
The street protests, which began in late December, were bolstered by anger over skyrocketing costs and the plummeting value of Iran’s currency. The protests had grown massive by mid-January, hinting at an end to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but Iranians might have underestimated his bloodthirsty determination to remain in power.
As the so-called Supreme Leader, Khamenei oversees a Guardian Council of 12 ayatollahs who keep an iron grip on power with a violent version of Islam. Iran has lived under that Islamic tyranny since 1979, when Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s autocratic monarchy was deposed and replaced with an Islamic theocracy.
Iran's brave citizens, who were marching to demand the end of Khamenei's reign, were bolstered by President Donald Trump's social media post on January 13. The U.S. president urged them to fight, and promised "help is on its way," but that help never came in the days and weeks that followed.
Iranians instead watched Trump publicly praise the regime for not executing arrested protesters, and then the White House announced meetings with Iran's diplomats over its nuclear program.
Now, with a U.S. military strike appearing more likely, social media posts from Iran show thousands of protesters in the streets, emboldened again after earlier fleeing when confronted by IRGC soldiers.
The bravery behind the new street protests, Iranians say, is the belief U.S. bombs will be falling soon and will weaken the regime for good.
Shariat: Khamenei must be deposed
Shariat told “Washington Watch” the main goal of the Supreme Leader is simple: to remain in power even if it costs a million lives to do so.
“They may negotiate,” he reasoned. “They may even allow Trump to attack them, and destroy some of the missile sites, as long as they're in power.”
In a rather blunt comment, the Iranian-born minister said only the death of Ayatollah Khamenei will free the Iranian people from his tyranny.
“Either he dies, or he's assassinated by his close friends, or by America, or maybe by [Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Shariat said. “So the main event will be his death.”
Meanwhile, as the body count rises, Shariat said the murderous crackdown is growing the Church in Iran.
“In the past, we have seen the pattern: People come on the streets, the government shuts off the internet, kills them, arrests tens of thousands of them, and starts executing them,” he said. “Every time we see a revival. We see a new wave of salvations.”
Christians who know their Bible know that pattern is a part of Church history, too.
