Eleven Iranian Christians who have fled Iran in the wake of the government campaign against evangelical Christianity have received email threats from the "Unknown Soldiers of the Hidden Imam" urging them to either repent or face an extrajudicial death sentence. These "Unknown Soldiers" are said to have links to the Iranian security police.
The email, sent to each of the 11 on September 14, warned the recipients that although they have managed to escape Iran, they are not hidden from the "sharp eyes of the unknown soldiers". They claim to have advanced to the "heart of the Zionist regime" in recent years. The email ends by offering the 11 Christians "the opportunity to repent and ask for forgiveness from the presence of the Hidden Imam and the great Allah. Otherwise, according to the fatwa of Mehdi, the Hidden Imam, they must be executed." The Hidden Imam, or the Twelfth Imam, according to the teachings of the Twelver Shiites, is a kind of Messiah figure.
According to the Danish European Mission's partner organization, Elam Ministries, which closely follows the situation of Christian Iranians, there is reason to take the threats from the so-called unknown soldiers seriously. Threats and acts of sabotage against former Muslims who have become Christians have unfortunately become more and more common, and they also occur in Denmark.
