Via JPost:
Iranian security forces in Shiraz dismantled a network of four underground ‘house churches’ on Sunday night, and arrested their leaders, according to reports in Iran’s media.
A Monday report by the Persian-language service Fars News, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), described the churches as a ‘network of criminals’ which exploited vulnerable people.
“Most people attracted to these networks come from weak and vulnerable segments of society, who have psychological, emotional and economic problems,” the report said, echoing a recent warning by a prominent Qom cleric.
In June, Qom’s Friday prayer Imam Hojatoleslam Seyed Mohammed Saeedi told the Organization of Islamic Propaganda that Iran’s enemies targeted vulnerable Iranian families in order to establish underground ‘house churches’, according to Iranian Christian news agency Mohabat News, which works to report violations of Christians’ rights in Iran.
Monday’s Fars News report blamed the growth in underground Christian houses of worship on the spread of ‘Zionist propaganda’ from enemies outside the Islamic Republic.
“It is interesting to note that this illegal network is affiliated to Zionist propaganda deployed from outside the country,” the report said, although Fars did not specify how the Christian churches were linked to any Jewish or Israeli groups, or explain why it believed Jewish organizations would promote Christianity in Iran.