Iran: Pastor Among Nine Christians Arrested
Hat tip to The Religion of Peace.
Iran: Pastor among nine Christians arrested
Tehran, 26 Feb. (AKI) – An evangelical priest was among nine Christians arrested in central Iran on Friday as authorities continued a crackdown against Christians in the Islamic country. The Christians’ evangelical church in the city of Isfahan was closed down last month, according to advocacy group International Christian Concern.
“Iranian Christians are under constant threat of discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even execution by the Iranian government,” said Washington DC-based ICC president Jeff King, quoted by Christian news agency BosNewsLife.
“This severely restricts religious freedom,” King added.
Reverend Wilson Issavi was arrested by Iranian state security agents in Isfahan, some 340 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, King said.
“Reverend Issavi, his hosts and others were apprehended by the security agents and immediately taken to prison. Friends and family are deeply concerned as they are unable to contact Reverend Issavi,” King stated.
Christian and opposition groups say Christians are the target of oppression by the Iranian government. Iranian intelligence services arrested six Christians accused of proselytism on 15 January, according to the opposition website ‘Rah-e sabz’.
Hundreds of thousands of Christians have left Iraq since 2003 to escape the violence and the economic crisis caused by the war sparked by the American invasion. Many fled to neighbouring Iran.
There are at least 100,000 Christians in Iran currently, compared with less than 500 in 1979, according to Elam Ministries, an organisation supporting churches in Iran.
Elam Ministries believes Iran’s conservative clerical leadership is concerned about the spread of Christianity in the Islamic nation.
King said he could not reveal the names of eight people who had been arrested, citing security concerns.
Issavi was visiting a friend’s home in Isfahan’s Shahin Shahr area when state security raided the house unannounced, King said.
The location where the nine Christians are being held and their physical condition is unknown, he said.
King said before Issavi’s church, the Evangelical Church of Kermanshah, was closed down on 2 January, it was among the few remaining churches still open in Iran.
Iran’s hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come under international pressure to improve religious rights but he has denied wrongdoing.
The Vatican has urged the government of neighbouring Iraq to uphold the rights of religious minorities in the country amid a spate of attacks on Christians in the multi-ethnic northern city of Mosul that has caused hundreds of families to flee the area.
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Christianity is not the only victim of islam. Hinduism is a major target in Indonesia, though muslims will lie and tell you that Hindus are treated well. We all know about the wonton destruction of ancient Buddhist statues. But by far the biggest target of islam is Judiasm. I have yet to understand why, but I'm happy to know that Israel is fully prepared to attack Iran before Iran attacks them with nuclear weapons the world has, for some unknown reason, allowed them to develop. Nuclear weapons in the hands of muslims is like a loaded gun in the hands of a small child.
The jews mocked mohammeds new religion and laughed at him.As the true psychopath he was he took it as an insult against him personally and vowed revenge on the jews which he finally carried out on the village of Khaybar where he massacred all the jews. As we now know the hatred didn't die with the pedophet but continues to this very day. Muslims say, first comes saturday, then sunday. But they tend to forget friday comes before that…
Evangelical Christians feel obliged to proselyte. In Iran one is free to practice the Christian or Jewish faiths and to raise one’s children in one’s faith.
Trying to convert Muslims to Christianity is against the law.
A year or so ago I heard the head rabbi in Iran say that the chief hardship Jews experienced in Iran was the danger of contact with Israel. This exposed Iranian Jews to suspicion of espionage.
In theory at any rate Islam is the most tolerant of the three monotheistic religions based on Judaism. Muslims revere Jesus as a messenger from God. We claim Mahommed was a heathen letcher.
When the Moors ruled Spain Christians and Jews were allowed to practice their faiths in peace. When we took over under Ferdinand and Isabella, we gave Muslims the choice, convert to Christianity, emigrate or burn at the stake.
Christians are persecuted in Iran.
Iran: Nine Christians arrested amid crackdown
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=3.1.58682193
The Islamic version of Jesus is not the same as the one of Christianity, and today is what counts.
[...] we look across the Islamic world, things are getting stricter and stricter. In this video we see thousands of Turks take to the streets in support of the arrests of dozens of [...]
muslims must know that our bible foretold your violence but surely be defeated till you loose your bigest mosque.MOHAMMED promised resurrecting but 2000years gone by HE is still lying in his grave . Doomed muslims