Inside Iran, protests are met with brutal crackdowns, yet something extraordinary is happening beneath the surface. In this powerful episode, our partner Lazarus Yeghnazar shares stories of courage, persecution, and a growing underground church, with over a million turning to Christ -many through dreams. As fear of famine and further devastation looms, he calls for prayer, hope, and attention. This is a story you won’t forget.

To find out more about Iran please go to our interactive globe here: https://releaseinternational.org/globe

In this episode of the Release International Voice podcast, Tom Hardie continues his conversation with Sharif*, a former radicalised Muslim from a family of imams who encountered Christ while in prison.

We rejoin the story after his conversion, when Sharif was given an additional year behind bars on a charge of blasphemy, a sentence he calls 'the best year of my life.' From there, he describes the devastating fallout: his family’s fury at his decision to follow Jesus, the burning of his documents, his disowning, the loss of inheritance, and even a fatwa permitting his killing. The threats that followed forced him into a life of constant movement.

Despite this, Sharif was later sent as a missionary to a Muslim-majority island, where he witnessed extraordinary provision and spiritual harvest in the face of persistent persecution.

He also reflects on the tension between Indonesia’s constitutional protections for religious freedom and the harsh realities on the ground - village-level hostility, church closures and burnings, and ongoing legal pressure through hate-speech accusations.

Sharif closes by urging believers to pray for revival, courage, and steadfastness for those enduring persecution today.

*name changed for security reasons

Born into a family of imams and radicalised in the Muslim Brotherhood, Sharif* never imagined he would meet Jesus in a solitary prison cell. In Part 1 of this two‑part conversation, he shares how jihad, political activism, and imprionment led him to a series of mysterious encounters and a long, painful journey through the Qur’an that ended at the feet of Christ.

*name changed for security reasons