A courageous ex-Muslim battles the odds in Iran. From IranFocus, with thanks to Susan:
Iranian authorities have refused to give any reason for the arrest and prolonged detention of Hamid Pourmand, 47, a lay pastor in the Assemblies of God Church. No one has been allowed contact with Pourmand since September 9, when he was arrested along with 85 other evangelical church leaders....Of the other Christians detained with Pourmand, 76 were released by nightfall the day of their arrest. Ten pastors were kept for interrogations for three more days, after which Pourmand's nine colleagues were released conditionally. The freed pastors were warned that they should expect to be summoned again within a few weeks for more questioning.
But authorities have remained tight-lipped about Pourmand, a former Muslim serving as the volunteer pastor of a congregation in Bandar-i Bushehr. Famous as the site of Iran's first nuclear reactor, the port city is located 240 miles south of Tehran along the Persian gulf.
At the time of Pourmand's arrest, his Assyrian Christian wife and two young children were visiting relatives in Tehran. When the family returned to Bushehr, they discovered that their home had been broken into and ransacked, with all of the family's papers, documents and photographs removed.
Fear for his Life
"His relatives fear for his life," one source admitted, particularly if the secret police transfer him to the jurisdiction of a military court.
After converting to Christianity nearly 25 years ago, Pourmand had continued to serve as an officer in the Iranian army, despite laws instituted after the Islamic revolution to prohibit non-Muslims from holding officer rank. "Hamid did not keep his conversion secret," one of his friends told Compass. "But he is an honest man, and people liked and respected him."
A few days before Pourmand and his fellow evangelicals were arrested, a top official within the Ministry of Security Intelligence spoke on state television's Channel 1, warning the populace against the many "foreign religions" active in the country and pledging to protect the nation's "beloved Shiite Islam" from all outside forces.
Christian Activities 'Out of Control'
Reportedly, this same official participated in the extended interrogation of the 10 evangelical pastors, complaining that Christian activities in Iran had gone "out of control" and insisting that their church do something to stop the flood of Christian literature, television and radio programs targeting Iran.
Over the past year, prominent government leaders have publicly denounced Christianity, Sufism and Zoroastrianism as threats to Iran's national security.
The Muslim thought police are at it again.
And where is this story in the European and American media? Nothing.
But take a look at the BBC's lastest puff piece (Oct. 2, 2004) on Iran. A flattering colorful display of celebrations for 'the Hidden Imam'. Iran looks like such a lovely country, doesn't it? And what about the beautiful Shia celebration? My goodness, wouldn't you like to visit and shake the hands of the mullahs for doing such a fine job.
BBC Shia Celebration in pictures
No to BBC pro-Islam propaganda!
And for folks who need reminding, please take a look again at Ayatollah al Sistani's top ten list of things Najis (unclean), that moderate, Shia scholar and religious authority:
Top Ten Najis (Drum roll please) From the top select 'Najis'.
Among those things 'unclean', kafir, Infidel, that means you and me baby!
'And you can take the little dog, too.'
'Run Toto, run!'
JTF:
Totally, totally with you on this anti-BBC thing. How best can we expose these BBC dhimmis? I know e-mailing them doesn't work. Stopped watching their crap long back. Am spreading the word abt them but beyond that can we do more?
Iran's comments about Christians being "out of control" is, like similar statements in China, a sign that people are converting in numbers too large to be ignored. Hallelujah!
This is one reason why the ferment in the Islamic world, if it stays home and does not export itself, should be treated as other countries' internal affairs: let it run its course, and, if the Mad Mullahs win, the following generation will have big, big questions about the validity of Islam.
May there be many, many, many more Farsi, Kurd, Turk, Arab, Sudanese, Hausa, Caucasian, Fulani, Albanian, Central Asian, Hui, Malay, Panjabi, etc. people who similarly "out of control".
Those damned polytheists are at it again.
How can the mullahs concentrate on building their nuclear warheads with all that Bible thumping going on?
How RUDE!!
I truly do not know. Posting here has some effect, I think (but respecting the content of these forums is also important; hence I only post links to BBC bias when it relates to articles and comments here). Others have done this as well. Son of Albion posts occasionally specifics of BBC's bias when relevant. Hugh has written several informative pieces that exist in the archives on BBC bias, Islam and jihad. These are among the most detailed and crushing critiques of the BBC I have read. But it seems that British taxpayers (which I am not) must utimately be the ones to stop this nonsense. If I paid British taxes I would become active in the anti-BBC movement.
The anti-Semite, anti-Israel, anti-American, Islamic 'sugar-coating', taken in its totality, is treason: the British public lives everyday with the threat of jihad against innocent citizens and the BBC cannot even speak the name, 'jihad' or describe factually, without bias, the ideology and fascism of Islamic groups (Hamas, for instance: not one mention of the Hamas Charter in ANY article that I know of. Not one.) and states like Iran and Saudi Arabia. Unbelievable.
The comment by some Iranian official about those "out of control" Christians makes one recall that Monty Python “Hell’s Grannies” skit,, in which Cleese, Chapman, Idle and Palin, bewigged and and befrocked, raise all kinds of hell as a bunch of grey-haired English grannies, revving their motorcycles, swaggering down the sidewalk, making menacing gestures, and pushing helpless Teddy boys to one side.
Yes, that's the way it is in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Founding Father: Ayatollah Khomeini) -- the menace, the threat, of those "out of control" Christians. Where will they strike next? Pakistan? The Sudan? How can we stop this threat to domestic tranquillity and world peace?
Sayyid Qutb, spiritual father of so many now running around in Fallujah and Afghanistan not to mention London, Paris, and Rome, wrote his “Signposts Along the Way” (Ma-alim fi al-tariq), partly prompted by his disgust with the West that was the result of two years he spent in the United States in the late 1940s. How decadent it all was, how thoroughly un-Islamic. And do you remember what it was that offended him the most? It was the horrifying spectacle of a church social, and a square dance sponsored by the church where American girls and boys could swing their partners and do-si-do, and try not to step on your neighbor's toe -- now promenade. The horror, the sheer horror of it!
"foreign religions"? like, er, Zoroastrianism?
The mad mullahs of islam-occupied PERSIA are sounding more and more like the walking corpses who controlled the ussr in the period leading up to perestroika and the house of cards collapse of the whole rotten structure.
All dictatorships carry within them the seeds of their own destruction, to misquote our old chum Karl Marx (nowhere near as funny as Groucho IMO), and it looks as if this one is no exception.
Speed the day!