Holding a meeting to counter the growth of “Christianity” in Iran
In a meeting to review strategies to counter the growth of Christianity, which was held at Al-Mustafa University in Qom, a researcher stated that the flow of Christian evangelism is superior to Islamic propaganda in social media.
The Islamic government in Iran, in order to combat Christianity has used many tools to counter the gospel of Christianity. These tools, on one hand, are severe security crackdowns and the imposition of severe punishments, and repression of Christians and attacks on house churches, and on the other hand, by filtering sites and blocking Christian pages on Instagram, or sending interference on Persian Christian networks abroad.
Since “anti-Christianity” is organized in Iran, the government spends large sums of money to strengthen elements and centers that have high incentives to destroy Christianity. This money is used to support clerics and missionaries who in meetings and lectures can say anything in defense of provincial Islam, and everything necessary to destroy and distort Christianity.
In recent days, several institutions, and Islamic research institute at Al-Mustafa University in Qom have held a meeting on “Propagating Christianity in cyberspace; The Nature, Realm, Perspectives, and Harms “, which the main focus was on countering the “evangelization and propagation of Christianity,” especially in cyberspace and social networks.
“The importance of the realm of cyberspace in comparison with the realm of real space, and the superiority of Christian evangelism over Islamic propaganda on these platforms was discussed,” the Hawza news agency reported on December 4th.
One of the researchers present at the meeting, Dr. Ahmadi, said, “Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are anti-Islamic and anti-Eastern, and most of them are in the hands of the religious current of Christian evangelism, and some are also in the hands of atheism.” “They are also hostile to Islam and, therefore, are at the disposal of the Christian evangelical movement.”
In part of his speech, he advised the need to confront Christianity with theological discussion and “good debate” in cyberspace with Christian evangelists, and emphasize the “theological and historical doubts of Christianity.”
“The differences between the policies of the proponents and the opponents of being in cyberspace have led to a further growth of the evangelical current and the creation of political skepticism for the younger generation,” the researcher warned.
In Iran, despite huge government spending on Islamic propaganda, reports indicate that conversion of citizens to Christianity is on the rise. In May 2019, cleric Hojjatoleslam Mahmoud Alavi, the former Minister of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic, referring to the conversion of people to Christianity, said in an interview that most of those who become Christians are ordinary people and from the middle strata of Iranian society.