Iran’s Oppressed Christians

[Falcon29]

They claim they are "Christian" while in reality they do not follow teaching of Christ and Christianity values.. you live among them, and you probably know how they act.. the society it self is far away from Christian values... Zionist banned public places from expression Christian values thus the society is drifting away, for example in some public places such as school you can't say Merry Christmas... to make this short, do you know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah... basically that is the western society... and when it comes to politics, those who claim to be "Christians" they are nothing but Zionists, using Christianity as a tool...

I know exactly what you mean, I don't think it will change anytime soon.

 

[al-Hasani]

Those are all Assyrians and Armenians excluding a small number of Farsi converts. They are not Persians. Just living in Iran like other minorities that form nearly 50% of the population.

 

[Abii]

Those are all Assyrians and Armenians excluding a small number of Farsi converts. They are not Persians. Just living in Iran like other minorities that form nearly 50% of the population.

it's more like 99%

 

[Infoman]

Iran’s Oppressed Christians

By LIANA AGHAJANIAN, MARCH 14, 2014

BERLIN — I met Mori in the basement of a Lutheran church in Berlin’s Zehlendorf district. A 28-year-old refugee who once ran a small business in Iran, he converted to Christianity five years ago and spoke to me on condition that I use only his first name in order to protect his identity. In 2011, delayed on the way to a secret Bible study session, he narrowly escaped when Revolutionary Guards raided his underground Evangelical church. He watched as his friends disappeared into Iran’s prison system; Mori suspects they’ve been killed.

“When you’re Christian in Iran, you can’t speak. You have to keep quiet and not talk about the truth that you know and that you believe in,” he told me. “There is no such thing as a comfortable life in Iran.”

Christianity of course is not alien to Iran. It arrived in ancient Persia not long after the death of Christ and has waxed and waned ever since. But in recent decades, especially in the last few years, things have grown worse. As Washington seeks rapprochement with Tehran over Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions, the Obama administration must not let its protests over cruel treatment of Christians and other religious minorities fall by the wayside.

Christians make up roughly less than half of 1 percent of Iran’s roughly 80 million people. Numbers are difficult to determine: There could be as many as half a million Christians in the country, according to a report by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. It cites research by the World Christian Database indicating that there were 270,000 living there in 2010. Most of them are ethnic Armenians and Assyrians who, though closely monitored, are able to practice their own Orthodox faith. It is the other denominations — mostly converts from Islam to Evangelical Protestantism — that are more likely to be harassed, imprisoned or even murdered.

The World Christian Database counted 66,000 Protestants in Iran in 2010. Open Doors, a nondenominational organization tracking Christian persecution, estimates that Iran has 370,000 “new Christians from a Muslim background.” In the last decade, televised proselytizing, often by ministers from the Iranian Diaspora, has fueled the rise of Evangelical Christianity. Tehran’s ruling ayatollahs see the trend as foreign meddling meant to undermine the regime. Under Shariah law, defection from Islam is not only a sin: It is a criminal offense. Legal and ex-judicial punishment can be severe, yet refugees say that Christians have boldly begun discussing their faith with Muslim neighbors.

Persecution is well-documented. In 2004, Hamid Pourmand, the lay leader of Jama’at-e Rabbani, the Iranian branch of the evangelical Assemblies of God, was arrested with more than 80 other members, charged with apostasy and imprisoned for years before his release. A report last year by Ahmed Shaheed, a United Nations special rapporteur, talks of Christians being “prosecuted on vaguely worded national security crimes for exercising their beliefs,” with more than 300 having been arrested since 2010.

Mori was one of the lucky ones. In 2011, he got a fake passport, paid 7,000 euros to a smuggler and joined the rising flow of refugees. The numbers entering Germany, known for its strong record for granting asylum, have soared in recent years, from 815 in 2008 to 4,348 in 2012, and will likely well exceed that figure this year, according to the Association of Iranian Refugees in Berlin. It is difficult to say how many of these people are Christian. A spokeswoman for the federal refugee office told me the government does not keep records on the religious affiliation of applicants.

Moreover, Iranians living in cramped conditions in converted schools and barracks are careful to keep their distance from one other, wary of talking about their cases or their lives back home. Many fear that Iranian government spies have been planted among them, a regular practice of Iran’s secret police.

Meanwhile, Iran’s crackdown on religious freedom continues. Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American pastor and ex-Muslim was arrested in 2012 on a visit to Iran and sentenced last year to eight years in prison for helping to build the country’s underground Christian church network. Though President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have both called for his release, the dream of better relations with Iran has clouded over sobering realities.

President Hassan Rouhani, often portrayed in the West as a reform-minded moderate, has urged an end to meddling in Iranians’ private lives. Last December, he sent his best wishes to those celebrating Christmas via Twitter, “especially Iranian Christians.”

But Mr. Abedini and others languish in prison. As a signatory of international human rights declarations, Iran must be held accountable for the appalling treatment of its citizens if it wants to normalize relations with the West.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/opinion/irans-oppressed-christians.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

How are Christians treated in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? Do they even have churches in Saudi Arabia? What would Taliban in Pakistan do?

In Israel they spit on Christians and vandalize churches.

 

[Duvdevan]

All of Iran's minorities are treated like shit.

They use the Jewish minority as a propaganda tool. So they don't suffer from hangings and such. They are under 24/7 surveillance though.

 

[TruthSeeker]

No, over there it's a case of an Israeli occupation against Palestinian Arabs. In areas around the world there are some minorites psychologically oppressed but not physically. The majority tries to justify the oppression by stating the fact that those minorites have more rights than they would have anywhere else in the world, while also making a point they aren't pyshically oppressing them. How do you view this?

My honest opinion when it comes to self proclaimed humanists is that they aren't humanist in their core. Otherwise they wouldn't be selective when it comes to their criticism and their criticism would be on a wide array of issues rather than limited and preferred issues. They also refuse to crticize what they hold dear to them. Why is this?

Yes, Israeli physical and psychological oppression of Palestinian Arabs in the Occupied areas and psychological oppression of Muslim Israelis in Israel proper. That's what my sentence meant to convey. And yes, there are many minorities that are psychologically oppressed all over the world by being excluded from many aspects of their nation's society (government positions, military leadership, professions, etc.). Probably this is true everywhere. I used to visit Japan a lot before I retired and I saw the discrimination against Koreans there. In Germany, I saw the disdain towards restaurant waiters whose German language skills weren't up to the standards of my German hosts.

I don't know what "humanists" you are talking about. Do you mean cosmopolitan secular liberals? They "oppress" anyone whose intelligence they question, including rural southerners in the USA. All human beings have the capacity for hypocrisy. Some more than others. At my age now (68) it seems that people are more self-centered, rude and lacking in empathy than in the past. But, maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy now .......

 

[Falcon29]

Yes, Israeli physical and psychological oppression of Palestinian Arabs in the Occupied areas and psychological oppression of Muslim Israelis in Israel proper. That's what my sentence meant to convey. And yes, there are many minorities that are psychologically oppressed all over the world by being excluded from many aspects of their nation's society (government positions, military leadership, professions, etc.). Probably this is true everywhere. I used to visit Japan a lot before I retired and I saw the discrimination against Koreans there. In Germany, I saw the disdain towards restaurant waiters whose German language skills weren't up to the standards of my German hosts.

I don't know what "humanists" you are talking about. Do you mean cosmopolitan secular liberals? They "oppress" anyone whose intelligence they question, including rural southerners in the USA. All human beings have the capacity for hypocrisy. Some more than others. At my age now (68) it seems that people are more self-centered, rude and lacking in empathy than in the past. But, maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy now .......

I'm not like that, but I'm very rare amongst people my age. Our world is getting worse, all people my age care about is partying and clubbing and meeting girls. Your past wasn't as pathetic as ours today, this is why I'm Islamist. Eventually I'm going to move back the Middle East and maybe try changing the whole region there. I believe in Islam and it's cause, I will fight for it till the end of time. It seems our future ahead is miserable, pray for this generation oh old man.

 

[TruthSeeker]

It seems our future ahead is miserable, pray for this generation oh old man.

Your words remind me of the lessons of "Desiderata", a poem written by Max Ehrman in 1927:

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy."

___________________________________________________
I used to bring this to the attention of my three children after a year or two after they went out into the world on their own.

 

[F117]

"Human rights" and "oppressed minorities" are propaganda that America uses to punish enemy nations. Iran should become a US puppet regime and then we will be relieved from these stories.

 

[Infoman]

Your words remind me of the lessons of "Desiderata", a poem written by Max Ehrman in 1927:

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy."

___________________________________________________
I used to bring this to the attention of my three children after a year or two after they went out into the world on their own.

Very good post.