Dr. Shayesteh was raised a practicing Muslim in Iran. While studying in Tehran he became involved in the Iranian Islamic Revolution, and went on to become a leading Muslim politician and teacher of Islamic religious philosophy in northern Iran. In the second year after the Revolution, he fell out of favor with the Ayatollah Khomeini's political group. Kidnapped by Khomeini's Revolutionary Military, he was placed on death row awaiting execution. He was miraculously released and eventually escaped to Turkey, where, through a business relationship which went wrong, he came to know a group of Christians, and through them, Jesus Christ.