One For Israel

Erez Soref: Shalom everyone and welcome to another special Pod for Israel. Today we are joined by Hedieh Mirahmadi Falco. Hedieh was born to an Iranian family. She was a devout Muslim, and she is a national security expert and a bold follower of Yeshua, of Jesus.

She has tremendous insight into the mindset not only of Islam in general but Iran in particular. So we want to talk today about Iran, Islam, freedom, women under Islam, and the transforming power of the gospel. Hedieh, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it. So happy to meet you.

Hedieh Mirahmadi: Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor.

Interviewer: I hear a lot of talks particularly from US media and different publications that come out of different people in the United States that are saying we just don't understand. We as the US were having discussions with Iran and we were having negotiations and there seemed to be breakthroughs and things were going really well.

But then the Israelis, and apparently the Israelis affected the United States, started an unprovoked—what the Israelis and the American army now call—preventative military attack against Iran, and therefore killing any and every option to a fair negotiation because now everything is under fire. Is this perspective, which I have to say is not what we hear in Israel, true? You have a background that many people don't. What do you say?

Hedieh Mirahmadi: Well, I think there's nothing farther from the truth. The Iranian regime under the Mullahs has been the mortal enemy of the civilized world for 47 years. They have, ever since they took power, taken American hostages, held them for over 400 days, and have been attacking the US either through bombing or terrorist attacks through proxy networks, even our soldiers in Iraq during the 2003 war, and nonstop antagonistic behavior towards the United States.

I want to applaud President Trump for deciding he's not going to kick this can down the road any farther. He did it to protect the American people for our national security interest, and the fact that it helps Israel is a plus, but this is definitely in the US national security interest. It's just ridiculous for people to not see the legacy of blood and pillaging that Iran has left to the world and not realize how important this effort is.

Interviewer: Thank you. That's interesting and it's also super interesting for me as an Israeli to hear that because over here, Israelis absolutely don't hate the Iranian people. Actually, people that were alive in the 70s remember there were flights to Iran. It was very different. So there's no hatred. People just feel it's something that's forced upon us, the current conflict.

It's really important because even in Christian circles, people say this is un-Christian. Christian morals are that we should be turning the other cheek, we should be loving our enemies. That brings it to a moral ground where we say, what is a proper Christian response when you have someone that declares "Death to America, Death to Israel," in that order, by the way? How can we love our enemies as followers of Christ when we know there's not going to be any sort of fair war?

Hedieh Mirahmadi: I actually just wrote an article on this: what is the Christian response under the Just War doctrine? Great theologians and thinkers have been grappling with this issue for centuries. It's very important for Christians to understand that we do have the notion of war and it's actually from the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, that there is this struggle against evil. It began under Augustine, developed under Thomas Aquinas, and it went from legitimate authority, just cause, right intention.

I think Iran has demonstrated that this is a just cause, that they're wreaking havoc, killing, and just destroying communities and civilizations around the world. Lebanon is a beautiful country. Hezbollah has just destroyed Lebanon. Why? Because it's constantly attacking Israel as its neighbor, and as a result, Israel bombs Lebanon and the whole country suffers. They're literally held captive by Hezbollah.

So they've done this to country after country and community after community, and it needs to stop. This whole idea of a doormat Christianity that we're supposed to always turn the other cheek is just not biblical. I think it's a result of, especially here in the West, becoming lazy Christians. It's just easier to turn the other cheek because to confront evil requires you to lose something potentially. You could lose your reputation, you could lose friends. Agape love, what we talk about that unconditional love from God, is a covenant love—to obey God even when it costs you something.

Erez Soref: Hedieh, when the world generally talks about Iran, it often confuses the regime with the people. I think this is something that is not always the case. How do you explain the difference?

Hedieh Mirahmadi: I think it's important to understand that Iran, which is ancient Persia from the Bible, is a 3,000-year-old civilization. When the Islamic armies invaded, this contact that it made with ancient Persia and then later became Iran was always kind of hostile because there was a pagan religion there, Zoroastrianism, and there was a Jewish community there. The introduction of Islam has always been a source of conflict.

Even when the Ayatollahs took over, it was a Marxist-Islamist doctrine, very similar to what we're seeing with Mamdani, where it was, "We're going to give you free stuff, the monarchy hasn't been providing for you, everybody's going to live and have a good standard of living." So it was not so much Islamic as it was Marxist and this kind of socialist promise.

It wasn't until they came to power, executed and imprisoned the Marxist element, which was MEK, and turned into this brutal, oppressive Islamic regime. Whoever was Muslim, some became more devout, and others for the most part, the majority of the population over time now has become atheist or even Christian, but just basically this hatred for what Islam represents.

That's a result of what the Islamic regime has done. That's because the Ayatollahs have shoved Islamic doctrine and rules down the people's throats to the point where they would rather die on the streets than live a day longer under this regime.

Erez Soref: I keep on thinking and hearing voices from Europe and even to some degree from the United States, voices that are supposedly protecting human rights and rights of minorities and of oppressed in society, and they're supporting this regime. I'm just baffled. How can we help them see what you just said?

Hedieh Mirahmadi: It is such hypocrisy and honestly I think it is just the delusion that Americans are under, and in Europe, of the Marxist-Islamist alliance. They're so deluded by this far-left alliance with the Islamists that they'd rather support brutal dictators than to free the people of Iran.

All you have to do is look at social media and you see thousands of young people, people on the streets in Iran, risking their lives, getting shot in the eye, getting chopped with axes just to be free. If their hearts do not go out to them, then they're deluded by this horrible doctrine that's been put forward by the socialists, the far-left, and the Islamists.

Erez Soref: You told me briefly before we started to broadcast that you grew up in a secular family, then you became a devout Sunni Muslim, and then you've become a follower of Christ. That's super fascinating because you can understand the different worlds. Can you briefly share about your journey?

Hedieh Mirahmadi: Yeah, so my parents came in the 60s, so they came before the revolution, both Iranians, and they came to live the American dream. I was raised very patriotically. We spoke English in the house. We even had a dog. Everyone knows now that Muslims don't like dogs. We had a giant Irish Setter. My dad really wanted us to fit in. So there were no trappings of religion in our house whatsoever.

It wasn't until I get to college and I feel like my life is a chaotic mess, that I was off the rails, and I look for a relationship with God and my father says, "Well, we're Muslims," which was a surprise to me. It's because in Islam you're born into the religion. So even if they do not practice at all, you are born a Muslim.

I went on this journey to find Islam, actually encountered some radical groups and decided that was definitely not what I wanted, and I ended up in a mystical sect which is known as Sufism. It's like the New Age-y version of Islam. It was being part of that community that helped me to realize that there was this knockout-drag-out fight between the more radical interpretations, the more literalist interpretations of the Quran and the sayings of Muhammad, and those that were trying to reform and moderate.

I ended up in a career in counterterrorism working for the US government for 20-plus years. I was at FBI headquarters and I was just tired because the building of reform movements was going nowhere. It was failing miserably. We were considered apostates and heretical, and the US government for the most part, the factions that were working against us, were supporting these extremist groups because they had street cred, they had legitimacy.

I just got tired of wearing my head cover, took my head cover off, and people told me I was going to burn in hell for an eternity. I decided I wasn't going to worship a God that was going to burn me in hellfire for a piece of fabric. I ended up leaving DC, left my career, and decided I was going to start over in Southern California back home.

I ended up lost again, no relationship with God, and followed a tweet of a girl I don't even know who said that her pastor changed her life. I clicked on the message and heard the simple gospel literally for the first time—that Jesus loves you, turn and repent from your sins, trust in Him, and you'll spend an eternity in paradise. That was it. I was binge-watching this pastor.

I had no Christian friends, did not walk into a church, and just started praying for God to reveal Himself. Then I audibly heard the voice of Christ call my name. That was the beginning of this journey. I ended up writing a book, it's called *Living Fearless in Christ*, that chronicles my journey and then hopefully inspires and encourages people to walk boldly and courageously for the gospel.

Erez Soref: That's so encouraging to hear and I have so many things going on through my mind. With that journey and with what you know about what's happening with Iran, what can you tell us about the spiritual climate in Iran? Because as you said, it seems like there's a lot of people that are fed up with this version that is crammed down their throats. What's the spiritual status there?

Hedieh Mirahmadi: Iran is the fastest-growing Christian church in the world. I have some very dear friends that do really important work, and they've actually asked me not to mention their names or the organizations, but they're witnessing and discipling Iranians. The numbers are anywhere between one and two million people—don't know exactly—but just this fabulous outgrowth of faith in Christ.

People that are suffering and persecuted. They don't even have a copy of the Bible. It's one handwritten page of the Gospel of John, and they're sharing it with their friends and their family. People are coming to faith overnight by dreams, by visions, by the simple gospel. It's just extraordinary.

I'm so hopeful for what a free Iran can look like and what can happen to faith in the heart of the believers because also, with that disillusionment in the God of Islam, with Allah, it has turned people's hearts a little cold and I'm just really hoping and praying that their hearts will be opened to the God of the Bible, and that would bring them true peace.

Erez Soref: Amen. You know, I was chatting with you before we started, I mentioned this one Persian friend who keeps telling me, "I have a lot of faith that when this war is over, this phase is over, and borders are going to be open, we're going to go from Israel and other countries as well, but also us from here in Israel—it's not far—go and be able to share the gospel, bring Bibles, just share the good news of Yeshua with the people of Persia." So that would really be a dream come true.

Hedieh Mirahmadi: Amen.

Erez Soref: Still on the spiritual side of things, you mentioned that the believers in Jesus first of all they don't have a lot of resources in terms of even Bibles or Bible studies. Certainly, that is something we can pray for and consider what we can do. But you also mentioned that they're persecuted.

Hedieh Mirahmadi: It's illegal to have a Bible. Absolutely. The regime considers it treason, sedition. Because if you leave Islam you're a *murtad*, you're an apostate subject to death. So if you spread apostasy, that's treason against the government. They're not allowed to keep Bibles.

I've known people that have come from the underground church, they've moved 12 times in two weeks. They're baptizing people in the bathtub and then moving to the next house. They gather two-by-two, four-by-four. It's extremely dangerous to be a Christian and yet faith is still growing.

Erez Soref: Amen, amen. You know, it's interesting we often talk about it here in Israel about the similarities between when a Jewish person becomes a follower of Jesus and a Muslim person becomes a follower of Jesus. There are some parallels. I honestly think it's more extreme in the Muslim world for the most part, but how was it for you in terms of your family and environment when you became a follower of Christ?

Hedieh Mirahmadi: It's actually very difficult. There is a huge cost. People say, "Why do when Muslims come to faith, why do they have these supernatural experiences and Jesus comes in a dream and you hear His voice?" I say because it's going to cost you.

I think the Lord is very gracious in giving you this undeniable experience of His reality and His authenticity that is your anchor when the storm comes. Because there is a storm that comes and you lose just about everything. I lost my entire social network, most of my family. The only people I had left were my mother and father.

In losing that social network, you're then thrust into a new social network of the church, and that's like landing on another planet. It's a very different culture. The expressions are all different, the food is different, the people are different, the interactions are different, and that takes a while to adjust as well. But God is good. He's always good, and if you're willing to jump into the adventure and walk with Jesus, there's never a dull moment.

Erez Soref: Amen, and you know, this part is very similar to what I can say for myself, but also many other Jewish people that have become followers of Jesus—the losing part of the family and friends and so on, but also feeling like you walk into a very strange kind of place.

Well, Hedieh, thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to chat and I hope to talk more in the future. Really appreciate your time and your perspective and your wisdom. Just really want to thank you and to bless you in the name of the Lord.

Hedieh Mirahmadi: Thank you. Thank you so much and bless you all too. I hope the Lord continues to keep you all safe and that the war would be over soon.

Erez Soref: Amen.