Iran (MNN) — Throughout the past six months of war, Iran has repeatedly retaliated on United States airstrikes by conducting missile and drone attacks on U.S. allies in the Middle East. Last week, U.S. bases in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, and Iraq reportedly came under fire from Iran. 

Fadi Sharaiha with the MENA Leadership Center says the Iranian regime’s strategy to spread chaos comes from its worldview.

“The U.S. was bombing Iran, and the response is that Iran will bomb their neighbors, which doesn’t make any sense,” says Sharaiha. 

That is, it doesn’t make sense apart from beliefs held by many Shia Muslims. Iran is a majority Shia Muslim nation. Many in that branch of Islam (called Twelver Shi’ism) believe that a 9th-century imam called Muhammad al-Mahdi will return at the end of the world. 

“In their doctrine, in their eschatology, they need to see some kind of unrest and war in the world so that al-Mahdi will come,” Sharaiha says.

Photo of Tehran, Iran courtesy of Hamid Mohammad Hossein Zadeh Hashemi via Unsplash.

But the regime’s seeming goal for worldwide chaos isn’t shared by the Iranian people, much less the growing Church there.

“There are some reports that there will [be] around 2 million Christians in Iran who come from non-Christian backgrounds,” says Sharaiha. 

Please pray for God’s grace on believers in Iran who have lost family and friends in government crackdowns this year. Pray for opportunity to share Christ in the danger. Over it all, pray for peace in the Middle East. 

“We need to remind ourselves that God is is not surprised by this, and God is not saying ‘Oh what should I do?’ but God knows what’s happening,” Sharaiha says. 

As we watch the U.S.-Iran war touch the world, Sharaiha adds, “please remember that whenever you watch some kind of breaking news, this is not only breaking news. This is news affecting, impacting so many different people. Among those people are our brothers and sisters in those countries.”

Header photo: Jamkaran Mosque in Qom, Iran, a holy site in Shia Islam (Stock photo courtesy of Hossein Bagheri via Unsplash)