Iran insists it allows the country’s Christian minority to practice their faith in peace. However, the reality for many Iranian Christians is one of flogging, arrest, imprisonment, surveillance and harassment, according to a February report by religious freedom NGO Article 18.
One of the shocking findings of a 40-page study of Article 18 titled “Faceless Victims: Rights” Violations against Christians in Iran“By the end of 2023, at least 17 of the Christians arrested in the summer will have received sentences ranging from three months to five years, or non-custodial sentences such as fines and canings, and in some cases communities have He was punished,” he said. -Grave digging service. ”
The report states that “the number of Christians arrested in 2023 was similar to previous years, although 166 arrests were recorded in 2023 compared to 134 in 2022. Fewer names and faces are likely to be made public.”
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One Iranian Christian reported that “more Iranians are converting to Christianity every day.” (Adis Easaghlian/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
The Reverend Johnny Moore, president of the Christian Leadership Conference, told Fox News Digital: “The State Department’s absolutely insane policy toward the Islamic Republic, which is wreaking havoc around the world, has real life-or-death consequences for our people.” “I’m working on it,” he said. “Muslims now feel they have the power to kill anyone they want, but no one will do anything. So more people are captured and killed. The terrorist leaders of the Islamic Republic especially desire the blood of women and Christians.”
Moore, an influential evangelical leader, explained that the Iranian regime persecutes Christians, saying, “These mullahs are afraid of the strength and determination of Iranian women, and they are the only Iranians who fear God.” Because Christians know that they are not afraid of the Ayatollah himself.The more the mullahs threaten, the more every church in the world is growing secretly and faster than the Iranian church, and Iranian women are We look forward to the day when the world welcomes a free and first female president of Iran.”
“I expect she and her cabinet, which includes evangelical Christians and Baha’is, to make their first overseas trip to Jerusalem and Washington,” he added. “The mullahs are trying to kill us for one reason. Because they know we’re winning. It would be nice to have more support from the State Department, but it’s not necessary.”
Iranians protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained by the moral police in Tehran, September 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Middle East Images, File)
“Persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Iran has been long-standing and well-documented. The United States continues to condemn these acts,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We will use every tool at our disposal to address these egregious violations.”
The spokesperson added, “The latest information from the ministry is Report on international religious freedom Iran said: “According to Christian NGOs, authorities continued to unlawfully arrest, detain, harass, and monitor Christians, particularly evangelicals and other converts from Islam.”
When asked by Fox News Digital whether the State Department plans to impose new human rights sanctions on the Iranian regime for its persecution of Christians, a spokesperson said, “The State Department is not considering sanctions in advance, but Iran is a ‘country of special concern.” Each year since 1999, the country has imposed executive actions under international religious freedom law for engaging in or condoning particularly serious religious freedom violations.
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A guard stands in the hallway of Evin Prison in Tehran on June 13, 2006. (Reuters/Morteza Nicobazul)
The graphic violence perpetrated by the Iranian theocracy against Iranian Christians is documented in the Article 18 report. Ali Kazemian said the investigators “found a metal implant in my left leg from a historical fracture,” adding, “Therefore, one of the investigators kicked my left leg several times. .Then they made me sit on a chair and tied my hands.” We were together and the interrogators said, “You’re now in the electric chair”…and they hit me hard several times. ”
He said the security forces “we will harm your wife and children!…We took your wife into the interrogation room to see if you could really resist and remain silent. He said he threatened to strip her naked in front of everyone. ! ”
The Iranian regime targets all forms of Christianity, including arrests of Protestants and Catholics.
Article 18, which published the report in collaboration with Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Middle East Concern, says there may be as many as 800,000 Christians in Iran. The report states, “A 2020 survey on Iranian attitudes towards religion conducted by a secular Netherlands-based research group found that out of a sample size of 50,000, 1.5% of Iranians self-identified as Christian. The figure was estimated to be 800,000 people based on “the number of people who died in the United States”.
A huge mural of Iran’s supreme leader on Motahari Street in Tehran on March 8, 2020. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
The report was released on February 19 to draw attention to the 45th anniversary of the Iranian regime’s brutal execution of Anglican pastor Arasto Sayer in a church in Shiraz, just eight days after the Islamic Revolution. It was done. Saiya was the first Christian killed by the regime.
Shayna Vojdi, an Iranian Christian who fled the Islamic Republic, told Fox News Digital: ”Although Christianity in Iran is classified as a political security crime, more and more Iranians are converting to Christianity each day. Christianity is considered a Western religion by the Islamic Republic of Iran and is hostile to the Islamic Republic. ”
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An anti-American design painted on the wall of a government building in the capital next to the Armenian Cathedral in Tehran. (Adis Easaghlian/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
“The persecution and killing of Christians began after the Islamic regime’s occupation of Iran, and the Islamic Republic has since killed at least 15 Iranians,” said Bojdi, an associate fellow at the US-based Gold Institute for International Strategic Studies. ” he added. Pastors. ”
According to Bojdi, the Iranian regime intensified its persecution of the beleaguered Christian community in response to the 2009 Green Revolution movement against former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s widely documented election fraud.
“The Iranian regime, fearing its collapse, has increased persecution and arrests, but of course that does not exclude Iranian Christians,” Vojdi said.
She said, “The regime burned 300 Persian Bibles and confiscated 650 Bibles, and to this day it is still a crime to own a Persian Bible. It was announced by the institution.”
Vojdi converted to Christianity and fled to Germany due to religious persecution. The Article 18 report states that “Christian converts from Islam are numerically the largest Christian community in Iran, but they are not recognized by the state and are frequently targeted by authorities. In some cases, they are also targeted by their relatives and society.”
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Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei looks on at a group of military cadets during a graduation ceremony at the police academy in Tehran, Iran, on October 3, 2022. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, via AP)
Vojdi said, “I used to attend a church near this cathedral church in Tehran. Of course it was a secret. This church was open to the public, but I forget the day of the week, but it was very empty. “I’m doing it,” he said. [the] government surveillance.
“Photo of [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic regime, sitting next to the church means they are watching everyone and have no respect for other religions. ”
Article 18 states that “as converts constitute Iran’s largest (albeit unrecognized) Christian community, the issue of ‘apostasy’ is of central concern…2010 A Christian convert was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy, apostasy and the death penalty.” This sentence was overturned in response to international pressure, but many converts have since been sentenced to similar crimes during arrest and interrogation. Exposed to fate. ”
The tragic fate of Iranian Christians forced them to organize house churches as part of an underground movement.
Mr. Vojdi said that in a speech, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “declared the importance of confronting house churches, stating that house churches were created by “enemies of Islam” and must be stopped. He provoked his followers against Christians by claiming that they must be punished.”
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Article 18 enumerates a number of demands on the international community, including that foreign countries “ensure and promote the freedom of religion and belief of all peoples” and that “Iran “to highlight human rights violations in bilateral and multilateral dialogue with the United States.”
Fox News Digital sent numerous press questions to Iran’s mission to the United Nations in Tehran and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
