"I am told I will hang for my faith in Jesus": American pastor faces death sentence in Iran

Saeed Abedini is accused of harming Iranian national security, apparently by converting from Islam to Christianity and founding Christian house churches. This kind of persecution manifests the fundamental fear, insecurity, and brittleness of the Islamic Republic. An update on this story. "'I am told I will hang for my faith in Jesus': American pastor faces death sentence in Iran," by Robert Tait in the Telegraph, January 18 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

An American Christian pastor faces a possible death sentence in Iran after prosecutors accused him of harming national security on charges he and his supporters claim amount to religious persecution.
Saeed Abedini, 32, who is Iranian born, is expected to go on trial next week before a revolutionary tribunal in Tehran in a hearing presided over by a judge blacklisted by the European Union for handing down harsh verdicts.

US officials have already voiced concerns over the fate of Mr Abedini, who has been held in custody since July 2011 after being arrested while on a visit to Iran from America.

His wife, Najmeh, says he has suffered beatings during interrogation and has expressed fears for his life in letters to her.

"This is the process in my life today: one day I am told I will be freed and allowed to see my kids on Christmas (which was a lie) and the next day I am told I will hang for my faith in Jesus," Mr Abedini, a father-of-two, wrote in one letter. "One day there are intense pains after beatings in interrogations, the next day they are nice to you and offer you candy."

The origins of the charges against Mr Abdini are not clear. But the American Centre for Law and Justice, a Christian advocacy group founded by the evangelist preacher, Pat Robertson, said it was connected with starting a home church movement.

"His court file indicated that this national security charge was directly related to his work starting a house church movement in Iran," the organisation said in a statement.

Harming national security is a capital crime under Iran's legal statute. Critics say it is vaguely defined and used to suppress opponents of the country's Islamic regime.

Mr Abdini, who converted to Christianity at the age of 20, was building an orphanage near the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea, fuelled by a belief that the Bible teaches helping widows and orphans, according to his wife.

He was detained in 2009 but later released after agreeing to sign a commitment not to engage in religious activities such as working in underground churches.

Mr Abidini had travelled to Iran nine times since his detention before being arrested again. "He had no worries that he would be arrested, believing that he kept his end of the promise and that the government would keep their end," she told AFP.

He has not had access to a lawyer since being re-arrested, she added.

She also said one of his interrogators had told him that Iran's theocratic rulers feared that "if the country is not following Islam, then we have less control over [its people]".

Mr Abdini is expected to be tried by Abbas Pir-Abassi, a judge subject to EU sanctions for human rights violations after sentencing several activists to death.

While Iran's constitution recognises the rights of religious minorities like Christians and Jews, the authorities have targeted Christian converts. Apostasy is punishable by death under the country's shariah code.

The US state department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, has expressed "serious concerns" about the case.

However, 49 US congressmen have urged the state department to call for Mr Abdini's release, saying the government could do more despite not having diplomatic relations with Iran.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel advising American policymakers, has called on Iran to release Mr Abedini "immediately and unconditionally."

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6 Comments

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Meryl Petkoff | January 19, 2013 7:51 PM | Reply

"I am told I will hang for my faith in Jesus"---

Bu... bu... but pedohammedans on taqiyya tell us that Muslims believe in Jesus and love him!

http://bit.ly/11HQ0hd

http://bit.ly/VRP0E6

Oh, the mythomania. Will it ever end?.

boakai ngombu | January 19, 2013 8:24 PM | Reply

"This kind of persecution manifests the fundamental fear, insecurity, and brittleness of the Islamic Republic." RS

the concern of the regime is the displeasure of the Allah god (unknowable; as imagined) ... and: "loss of control of the people if they are not following (SHARIA)..."

there is no fear of the One who can destroy the body and soul in Hell.

there is condemnation for any who has not attained righteousness; SHARIA does not bless the person with righteousness.

fear, inecurity, and bittleness shall remain, unless they truly do believe Jesus.

dumbledoresarmy | January 20, 2013 12:36 AM | Reply

From the article, Mr Abedini describing to his wife how the Muslims holding him captive alternate between nastiness and (faked) niceness.

"This is the process in my life today:

"one day I am told I will be freed and allowed to see my kids on Christmas (which was a lie)

"and the next day I am told I will hang for my faith in Jesus,"

Mr Abedini, a father-of-two, wrote in one letter.

"One day there are intense pains after beatings in interrogations,

the next day they are nice to you and offer you candy."

*There* you have it: the Ummah's goodcop/ badcop game - the same game that, writ large, they play toward all nonMuslims, whether toward individuals, groups or whole nations - in a nutshell.

Fake saccharine sweetness, flowery flattery, 'niceness' and smiles in a whipsaw alternation with shouted or hissed threats and verbal abuse and ultra-violent physical assault.

With the aim being to produce confusion, bewilderment and, finally, abject submission on the part of the targeted person, group or nation.

In Mr Abedini's case, it's possible to see through it because the very same people are doing both, between one day and the next.

But within non-Muslim countries today, it's a little harder to see that there may be an organic connection between the 'nice Muslims' over on this side of the room - Tariq Ramadan or Feisal Abdul Rauf, in their well-cut suits, or the elegant Huma Abedin - and the nasty Muslims on the other side of the room - the street corner threateners such as Anjem Choudary, and the brazen murderers such as those who in broad daylight ritually butchered Miriam Monsonego or Theo Van Gogh.

Midshipman Easy | January 20, 2013 3:36 PM | Reply

I still haven't quite figured this out, and I am usually disagreed with when I speculate on the matter, but, what, in heaven's name, is Islam so afraid of?

Shouldn't the fastest growing religion on earth, in command of wealth unparalleled in all of human history, believed with a literalness that Christianity stopped generating about two hundred years ago (so that, i.e., the certainty that God is on their side ought to be like granite) be completely confident that neither a few defections, nor the odd cartoon in Charlie Hebdo, can possibly have any power to weaken or undermine them?

Shouldn't they be absolutely sure that the world wide jihad, however it is carried on, is marching toward total victory? And yet here they are, scared to death that every little thing could be a mortal blow?

Leaving aside that this bit of weirdness is one of the more welcome pieces of news one hears about Islam, it certainly seems to me to call for explanation.

Biff Henderson | January 20, 2013 5:53 PM | Reply

America's "Christian" POTUS can't appear to show even the hint of favoritism towards his Christian brothers. Oh how this must vex him as he bravely puts on the facade of impartiality in all matters concerning faith. The inner torment of abandoning persecuted Christians throughout Dar-al-Islam most assuredly must be tearing his soul apart. We need to have our prayers buttress him against this onslaught to his faith. To remain silent as his fellow brethren in the one true faith he openly embraces are butchered with impunity by the minions of a competing theology he has rejected as a falsehood. Yet he says he will stand with the Muslim if their faith is derided or attacked, that their is no place for those that slander the Prophet Muhammad. He is truly a spiritually complex enigma that Christians like myself wish they had been blessed with an understanding of the merit of his ways. The spiritual gift bestowed on POTUS regarding these matters is in short supply to the rest of us. Borrowing a phrase from the Muselmen, we can find peace in our knowledge that G-d knows Best.

Champ ♥ | January 21, 2013 1:38 AM | Reply

..."converting from Islam to Christianity"

He has chosen wisely.

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