Iranian Christian Pastor Faces Execution For Not Embracing Islam

It’s a crime to be a Christian in Iran. One that is punishable by death if you do not embrace Islam and eschew your true beliefs. Under the Koranic laws (Sharia and Hadith), apostasy, the rejection of Islam, is a Capital Offense. Of course there are other things in sharia that Muslims break every day, but depending on who is interpreting the law, you may or may not be convicted of anything. It’s all very arbitrary. For being an apostate, however, Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani faces execution for refusing to renounce his Christianity and call Allah his god.

And no one really cares.

He was convicted of apostasy because it was determined that he has Muslim ancestry.

When asked to repent by the judges, Yousef said, “Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?” The judges replied , “To the religion of your ancestors, Islam.” To which Nadarkhani replied, “I cannot.”

You can join the fight HERE.

I only learned about this because I saw Michelle Malkin’s post in my feed reader.

I haven’t heard a word about it on CNN (it’s on their site but I have not seen it broadcast) or our local news. No, the big news story is that of Michael Jackson’s doctor’s trial (gag).

From CNN:

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, the head of a network of Christian house churches in Iran, could be executed as soon as midnight Wednesday in Tehran for refusing to recant his religious beliefs and convert to Islam, said the chair of a commission that monitors religious freedom around the world.

A statement by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent advisory group appointed by the president and Congress, “expressed deep concern” for the man’s fate.

After four days of an appeals trial for apostasy, Nadarkhani refused to recant his beliefs.

Leonard Leo, chair of the commission, said the pastor “is being asked to recant a faith he has always had. Once again, the Iranian regime has demonstrated that it practices hypocritical barbarian practices.”

The commission’s statement also called the trial a sham and said Iran is violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party.

Iran violating human rights or international laws? Say it isn’t so!

They also have a double jeopardy statute. SO if you’re found innocent in a main “court”, you can be tried again in the court in your home city/village for the same thing and get convicted there. Basically, you’re screwed.

“I would be disappointed if at the end of this whole maelstrom, there was no statement by our government on this situation,” Leo said. “At some point the United States has to stand up for the right of this pastor and for human rights more broadly and call countries to account for what they are doing.”

The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United Nations failed to comment on the ruling.Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the ACLJ, said the outcry from Christians in America has been loud and sustained.

“American Christian, like never before, are engaged in this,” Sekulow said. “This is evidence that Christians in America over the past decade have done a better job engaging in the persecution issue.”

Sekulow also said he hopes the White House or State Department will issue a statement on the issue.

I’m not seeing anyone tweet about this. And yet this is something we should all be screaming about. Where is Sean Penn? Why hasn’t he taken up this cause du jour? Why hasn’t any celebrity activist or even President Obama mentioned this egregious human rights violation? Oh wait, it’s about Jesus Christ and Christianity. Speaking out against a MUSLIM country’s brutality and religious intolerance goes against that liberal creed of tolerance for everyone.

Evil flourishes when good men do nothing.

~ Edmund Burke

Explain to me how that works again. We have to be tolerant of people who hate us (and make sure we know what horrible infidels we are and how we deserve to die) because we are Christian, white, black, Hispanic, Jewish and/or American but when one of those groups we are supposed to be so tolerant of orders the EXECUTION of a Christian who was born and raised in their country, simply for being Christian we are supposed to ignore it????

I DON’T THINK SO, Muhammad. It ain’t happenin’.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

~ Edmund Burke

Christians are being persecuted all over the world and no one is doing a thing about it. It’s like the Romans throwing Christians to the lions all over again.

But arrest and sentence to death a Muslim just for being Muslim, and prepare to suffer the wrath of righteous indignation, economic sanctions and the vilification of your morals as a society.

Has this world really gotten so far away from God that a death sentence for believing in Him is not something we see as injustice?

So while Iranian president Ahmadinejad spoke to the U.N. General Assembly about how America discriminates against Muslims, practices colonialism, has started every war since time began and orchestrated 9/11, his puppet masters were sealing the fate of one of their citizens, Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, because he is a CHRISTIAN.

In 2010, the Iranian regime carried out 546 executions, more than at any other time during the preceding decade, and representing an increase of around 25 per cent on the previous year. Increasingly, execution is becoming Tehran’s favored method for dealing with anyone it deems an opponent — like Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor who has refused to recant his Christian faith.

Pastor Nadarkhani’s case is another grim illustration of the volatile situation faced by religious minorities living under Iran’s Islamist clerics. Even though the state formally recognizes the existence of Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, these minorities are under no illusions about their subordinate status.

Since 2009, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole Iran’s election to claim a further term as the country’s president, the crime of “moharebeh” — waging war against God — has frequently been invoked against those who question the Islamic legal codes which underpin the state.

But we’re supposed to be tolerant of all other faiths, even those who want Christians and Jews wiped from the face of the Earth. Because, as Christians, if we are not tolerant, we are bigots.

No, we are standing up for ourselves. We are speaking out against injustice.

We are standing up for what is right. We are being the voice of the silenced.

It is our job as human beings, citizens of the world and Christians to fight against this kind of brutality and intolerance.

These are people who advocate female circumcision, death by stoning and honor killings. None of those things is moral or legal by real world standards.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

~ Edmund Burke

Just as I was bout to publish, I saw that The White House released a statement on this, but it’s NOT from President Obama:

From press secretary Jay Carney:

The United States condemns the conviction of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people.

That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran’s own international obligations.

A decision to impose the death penalty would further demonstrate the Iranian authorities’ utter disregard for religious freedom, and highlight Iran’s continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens.

We call upon the Iranian authorities to release Pastor Nadarkhani, and demonstrate a commitment to basic, universal human rights, including freedom of religion.

From Speaker of the House John Boehner:

Religious freedom is a universal human right.

The reports that Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani will be sentenced to death by the Iranian government unless he disavows his Christian faith are distressing for people of every country and creed.

While Iran’s government claims to promote tolerance, it continues to imprison many of its people because of their faith. This goes beyond the law to an issue of fundamental respect for human dignity.

I urge Iran’s leaders to abandon this dark path, spare Yousef Nadarkhani’s life, and grant him a full and unconditional release.

We all must stand up for this man. You can join the fight HERE.

Tags: Christianity, Iran, Muslim, Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani

Category: Politics