For decades, Iran’s Shiite government leaders have been obsessed with death. Since the Iranian Revolution in 1978, children have been raised on stories of martyrdom. Young men were taught that dying for Allah was the highest honor they could attain. But now, as thousands of mosques close and the Islamic regime loses its grip on the hearts of its people, something extraordinary is happening.
Islam is dying in Iran, but the underground church is alive!
Mohamad Faridi knows this reality firsthand.
WATCH Josh Doyle’s full interview with Mohamad on the “No Longer Nomads” podcast :
As a young boy growing up in the early days of the Revolution in Iran, Mohamad’s world was saturated with fear. The echoes of Quranic recitations filled his home. Images of martyrdom covered the walls of mosques. Mohamad’s family was honored because their relatives had died as “Shahids” — martyrs for Islam. Streets in Tehran bear their family name in tribute to their sacrifice. From childhood, Mohamad was taught that the ultimate purpose of life was to die for Allah.
But underneath the devotion was terror.
One night during his training with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Basij, Mohamad was forced into an Islamic grave alongside other young soldiers. The regime wanted them to experience death before ever stepping onto a battlefield. Deep in the dirt, unable to see his own hands in front of his face, Mohamad could feel panic rising in his chest with every breath. Dirt pressed against his face. The air was foul with the smell of dirt and decay. Islamic chants about death and martyrdom echoed above him as he lay trapped in darkness.
Muslims are taught to fear the grave. Many Islamic teachings describe torment after death — questioning, punishment, and torture awaiting the soul. Mohamad had wrestled with fear of the afterlife since he was a child, but every time he asked questions, he was silenced. He was told that questions lead to doubt, doubt leads to sin, and sin leads to hell.
The only guaranteed way to paradise, he was taught, was martyrdom.
So, Mohamad longed to die for Allah.
After completing his military service with the IRGC, however, an emptiness lingered. At 21 years old, he began searching for meaning beyond rituals, fear, and striving. Then one conversation changed everything.
A close friend named Rasul told him about Jesus.
Rasul explained that Jesus willingly suffered, bled, and died so humanity could have eternal life. Mohamad sat stunned. All his life, he had been told that peace with God could only come through punishing himself — beating his chest, cutting his skin, shedding his own blood in acts of religious devotion. Yet here was a message unlike anything he had ever heard:
Jesus had already suffered a cruel death for him!
Mohamad later described the moment as if lightning struck his heart.
For the first time, he encountered a God motivated not by fear, but by love.
That day, Mohamad surrendered his life to Jesus!
His whole world changed in an instant.
He immediately joined Iran’s underground church, secretly meeting with believers, studying Scripture, and sharing the Gospel with fellow Iranians hungry for hope. But in Iran, converting from Islam is dangerous. As Mohamad became more vocal about his faith, the threats intensified. Eventually, it became clear he could no longer remain safely in his country.
Through a series of miraculous events, he fled Iran and was granted asylum in the United States as a religious refugee.
Today, Mohamad serves as president of Iranian Christians International, a ministry focused on evangelism, discipleship, Bible distribution, and strengthening the underground church in Iran and throughout the Muslim world.
According to Mohamad, the spiritual landscape inside Iran is shifting dramatically.
During his No Longer Nomads interview with Josh Doyle, he described Iran as a nation disillusioned with the Islamic regime after decades of oppression, corruption, and violence.
“Islam is dying as you have never seen anything die this fast inside Iran,” Faridi shared: “Religion is dead in Iran.”
He pointed to reports that 50,000 mosques out of 75,000 have shut down in recent years and described scenes during the 2026 protests where Iranians burned Islamic shrines and publicly rejected the regime’s ideology.
But while many Iranians are turning away from Islam, they are not abandoning spirituality altogether. A spiritual hunger for truth remains — and they are discovering THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life in Jesus!
According to reports from organizations monitoring religious persecution, Iran is now home to one of the fastest-growing underground churches per capita in the world.
Despite arrests, surveillance, persecution, and executions, Iranians are flocking to house churches across Iran.
Many former Muslims report encountering Jesus through dreams, visions, or miraculous encounters before ever meeting a Christian. Others secretly download Bibles, watch sermons online, or hear the Gospel through trusted friends. The very regime that tried to control a nation through fear has unintentionally created a generation desperate for truth and grace!
The nation that once trained young men to die is now witnessing thousands discover new life in Jesus!
Perhaps that is the great irony unfolding beneath the surface of Iran today: while the ideology of death slowly collapses under its own weight, the underground church continues rising from the ashes — alive, growing, and impossible to bury!
* Featured image courtesy of Iran Alive Ministries
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