International pressure sometimes works. Some unexpected good news in an update on this story: "Freedom for imprisoned Christian 'apostates,'" by Chelsea Schilling for WorldNetDaily, November 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):
After millions of prayers and numerous petitions from around the world, two Iranian women jailed for no other reason than being Christian were released from a Tehran prison today.Maryam Rustampoor, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, were imprisoned for 259 days - since March 5. They were repeatedly told to recant their faith and that they would be executed as "apostates," solely because they are Christians.
But now Open Doors USA has confirmed the women have been released from the notorious Evin prison with no bail, a rarity for Christians released from prison in Iran. [...]
Compass Direct News noted that the women may still face charges of proselytizing and "apostasy," or leaving Islam.
An Iranian source told Compass the Iranian government faced intense public pressure for imprisoning the women.
"It was from the international pressure, and also the government couldn't handle it anymore," said the source. "Already their detention was illegal. At the same time, the government wasn't ready to prosecute them for apostasy. They already have many headaches. They cannot handle everything."
According to Facebook groups that support the women, Rustampoor and Amirizadeh had been participating in religious gatherings and handing out Bibles prior to their detention. Iranian security officials searched their apartments in March, confiscated their Bibles and arrested them.
As WND reported, Rustampoor and Amirizadeh appeared before a court in Iran and were charged with "crimes of apostasy, and propagation of the Christian faith." In a display of raw courage, they told a government prosecutor that not only are they Christian, it is up to God, not a bureaucrat, to whom He talks.
According to Elam, a dramatic part of the hearing came when they refused to deny their Christian faith.
They explained that God had convicted them through the Holy Spirit.
"It is impossible for God to speak with humans," Haddad, a deputy prosecutor identified only by his surname, stated.
"Are you questioning whether God is Almighty?" Amirizadeh asked him.
To which Haddad then replied. "You are not worthy for God to speak to you."
"It is God, and not you, who determines if I am worthy," she said.
Haddad earlier had asked if the women were Christian.
"We love Jesus," they replied.
"You were Muslims and now you have become Christians," Haddad stated.
"We were born in Muslim families, but we were not Muslims," the women said.
The deputy prosecutor asked about their regrets, and they said, "We have no regrets."
"You should renounce your faith verbally and in written form," he warned.
They refused....
God blessed those two young women.
I hope that whatever difficulties they had in prison can and will heal.
May they also find a safe place away from the persecution they have thus far suffered.
Get them out of that Islamic hell-hole and bring them to the land of the free.
The two Christian women have shown more courage than our elected officials when it comes to Islam....
Does Abdullah have anything he'd like to add?
How free can one be in an Islamic "Republic"?
Did Obama learn anything from this? Nope!
I pray for their safety and praise God for this miraculous release from prison. It gives me inward strength and shows how the fear of God is greater than the fear of men.
Peter and Paul (Acts 5:24-29 24:1-27 25:1-12) spoke to the authorities in the same way as these women.
Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction.
المؤيد 1:7 ومخافة الرب [هو] بداية المعرفة : [لكن] الحمقى يحتقرون الحكمة والتعليم.
"It is impossible for God to speak with humans," Haddad, a deputy prosecutor identified only by his surname, stated.
This deputy prosecutor is guilty of contradicting the koran, which states that Allah's hand is not chained, ie he can do whatever he wants to.
This argument of course can also be used against those muslims who state that it is beneath God to have a son.
They are guilty of limiting Allah's power.
But of course we who know better know that Allah is nothing more than the expression of the male reptilian brain. Islam being nothing more than male self-worship.
You got that right, pulsar182. Real right.
Well, Hellelujah! May there be millions, millions more of such sisters in Christ. May all of Iraq and Iran that now honor the martyrdoms of Ali, Hassan, and Hussein come to faith in the atonement and resurrection accomplished by Jesus Christ.
Thanks be to God!
Seconded.
I pray regularly for all non-Muslims in Muslim lands, be they ex-Muslims or people from non-Muslim 'dhimmi' communities, and I also pray for the preservation and guidance of all 'seekers' who (though currently identifying as Muslim) may be slowly and painfully struggling toward the light of life. I do not believe that anyone fights free of the death-grip of Islam without help from the Holy One, even if they themselves at the time know not where that help is coming from. I am quite sure our loving Lord had a discreet hand in the journey out of Islam even of an Ayaan or a Wafa Sultan; I can understand those many who, escaped from Islam, are wary of any religion and any God, now, as a battered wife escaped from a dangerous abuser is wary of remarrying; but I do still pray that one day they too will turn and see - smiling at them, holding out open hands - the one whom Johnny Cash called "the man in white".