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The Stage Is Being Set—And It’s a Trap

Iran is preparing for what it calls the 13th round of the Islam–Orthodox Christianity Dialogue, an event being framed as a spiritual summit to promote unity, discuss Gaza, and foster cooperation between Islamic clerics and Orthodox Christian leaders. Confirmed just days ago in Kazan, Russia, this gathering is being positioned as a religious bridge-building effort.

But don’t be fooled.

Behind the polished language and clerical robes lies something far more dangerous: a geopolitical alliance cloaked in theology, where Iran and Russia use faith as a façade to legitimize jihad, condemn Israel, and advance a global authoritarian agenda.

Iran Doesn’t Do Interfaith—It Does Influence Ops

This is the same Iranian regime that:

• Criminalizes Christian evangelism under Articles 513 and 500 of its Islamic Penal Code
• Executes apostates under Article 260
• Raids house churches and arrests believers—like in February 2025, when six Christians were detained in Rasht for “acting against national security”

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani: imprisoned for nearly a decade for refusing to deny Christ.

Ebrahim Firouzi: arrested multiple times, banned from employment, and exiled internally—all for preaching the Gospel.

Fatemeh Mohammadi: arrested and beaten for protesting persecution of Christians and publicly criticizing the regime.

Even Baha’is and Armenian Christians, who have technically recognized status under the Islamic Republic, face restrictions, surveillance, and discrimination.

There are zero public churches for Farsi-speaking Christians in Iran. Bibles cannot be printed. Worship is driven underground. Converts live under constant fear.

Iran’s message is clear: Jesus is not welcome unless He’s been Islamized.

So why host a religious summit?

Because it’s not about peace.

It’s about legitimacy, distraction, and soft-power war—and Gaza is the excuse.

Kirill: Putin’s Priest, Not a Peacemaker

Among the invited or represented guests is Metropolitan Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a loyal mouthpiece for Vladimir Putin. Kirill isn’t a neutral bishop—he’s a strategic player.

In 2022, he publicly blessed Russian troops before they invaded Ukraine, calling the war a “spiritual mission” to stop the West’s moral collapse. This wasn’t metaphor. It was military-theological doctrine.

Under Kirill’s leadership, the Church has been used to:

• Justify state violence
• Push anti-Western ideology
• Build global partnerships with authoritarian regimes, including Iran, China, and Syria

This isn’t theology. It’s alignment.

Gaza: The Holy Excuse for Jihad

The supposed purpose of this upcoming summit?

To address so-called “Israeli crimes in Gaza.”

But let’s stop pretending this is about humanitarian concern.

This is not compassion—it’s camouflage. A geopolitical ploy dressed in religious robes. A chance for Iran and its enablers to pose as defenders of the oppressed while funding the very terrorism that destroys civilian lives on both sides.

Iran doesn’t care about dead children in Gaza.

If it did, it wouldn’t bankroll the men who put rocket launchers in schools and hospitals.

It wouldn’t arm and train Hamas—a terrorist organization whose charter is drenched in genocidal theology.

“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.”
—Hamas Charter, Article 13

That’s not a political grievance. That’s an open declaration of religious war.

Hamas doesn’t want land.

Hamas wants Sharia.

And the death of every Jew who won’t bow to it.

The ideological blueprint behind Hamas is not unique—it’s standard fare in classical Islamic jurisprudence. And it is still enforced in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan today.

Straight from Reliance of the Traveller—a certified manual of Sunni Islamic law, endorsed by Al-Azhar University:

“The caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians… until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” —o9.8

“A free Muslim man who apostatizes from Islam is killed.” —o8.7

“Jihad is a communal obligation… it is obligatory for the Muslims each year to conduct at least one military expedition against hostile non-Muslims.” —o9.1, o9.3

These aren’t metaphors.

These are commands.

This is the doctrinal fuel behind Iran’s regime, behind Hamas rockets, behind suicide bombers, and behind every “peace conference” that never utters a word about Hamas’s human shields, hostage-taking, or child soldier recruitment.

Where is the outrage from these clerics over Hamas hiding weapons in maternity wards?

Where are the condemnations when Iranian-supplied drones crash into Israeli neighborhoods?

Where is the grief for murdered Israeli civilians—men, women, and babies?

There is none. Because grief isn’t the point.

Gaza is not a wound they want healed—it’s a weapon they intend to keep using.

The Churches’ Deafening Silence

What’s most disturbing is not that Iran is hosting this farce.

It’s that Christian leaders are still attending—and almost no one in the broader Church is calling it out.

Not just the Russian Orthodox Church, which has long been a tool of the Kremlin, but major global churches:

• The Vatican, which frequently engages in “interfaith dialogue” with Islamic scholars while ignoring Christian persecution in Iran, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
• World Council of Churches, which issues statements about Islamophobia in the West but rarely mentions the slaughter of Christians in Muslim-majority nations.
• Eastern Orthodox churches across Eastern Europe, some of which now echo Kirill’s geopolitical sympathies.

How many Western Christian leaders raised their voice when Asia Bibi sat on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy?
How many marched when 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded by ISIS on a Libyan beach?

Now ask: how many will speak against this staged summit where the very regime funding Christian persecution will preach about justice and peace?

Almost none.

Instead, they attend.

They pose for photos.

They shake hands with tyrants and walk away in silence—while the underground church suffers in chains.

Religious Theater, No Reciprocity

Let’s be honest: these dialogues are always one-way.

Iran gets:

• International legitimacy
• A propaganda platform
• Religious cover for its foreign policy

The Church gets:

• Nothing.
  No new churches open.
  No Bible printing begins.
  No imprisoned converts are freed.
  No Christian is safer the day after.

It’s not dialogue. It’s diplomatic camouflage.

And some church leaders know it. They’re not deceived—they’re complicit.
Because aligning with tyrants gives them a seat at the global table.
And influence, they’ve decided, is more valuable than integrity.

This isn’t about unity or mutual respect.

It’s about weaponizing faith to serve a global realignment.

It’s about Iran and Russia forging a moral axis—a partnership draped in tradition and liturgy, but aimed at destroying freedom and Israel.

And we need to say it:

You cannot serve Christ while standing beside His persecutors.

You don’t glorify God by partnering with a regime that jails His followers and funds child-killing terrorists.

You don’t defend truth by endorsing lies in clerical garb.

This upcoming “dialogue” is not about understanding.

It’s about building alliances against the West—while cloaking those alliances in spiritual language to fool the world.

• Prayer replaced with propaganda
• Worship used to whitewash war
• Dialogue twisted into diplomatic deceit

If the Church won’t call this out, then it has lost its salt.

This is not spiritual unity.

It’s spiritual treason.

And it must be named—before it happens.