An American President who wasn’t a full-on appeaser might have insisted during negotiations with Iran that there would be no deal unless the Iranian regime guaranteed the full rights of religious minorities. “IRAN: Christians barred from holding Easter celebration in churches in northwestern city,” NCRI, April 7, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
NCRI – In the latest repressive measures taken against religious minorities in Iran, Iranian Christians in a northwestern city have been barred from holding Easter celebrations in churches.
On Saturday, the Iranian regime’s State Security Forces (police) sent threatening letters to churches in the city of Urumiyeh warning them against holding gatherings for Easter celebrations.
According to the directive sent by the force’s Office of Public Building, Christians have only been allowed to hold Easter celebrations in their homes.
Barring Iranian Christians from holding Easter celebrations is considered unprecedented in Iran – even under the mullahs’ rule which has been ranked one of the world’s worst nations for the persecution of Christians.
Iranian Christians, like the followers of other religions, are being deprived from their most fundamental rights under the dark rule of this regime and have suffered from discrimination….
RonaldB says
“An American President … might have insisted … the Iranian regime guaranteed the full rights of religious minorities.”
At this stage, I’d settle for just a sincere, forceful, official, and public expression of sympathy by the US government for the persecuted Christians in Iran….waiting.
The same government that holds news conferences at the highest level and sends task forces to investigate every time a white police officer shoots a black criminal who is attacking him, just can’t be bothered with viciously persecuted Christians.
I don’t even want to think about their reaction to the persecution of Jews…actually, their response seems to be, import more persecutors.
https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/90-of-syrians-being-imported-by-obama-to-u-s-are-muslim/
And what is the rationale for admitting a high proportion of Muslims?
http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/u-n-sending-thousands-of-muslims-to-america/
The rationale is that the US takes in only refugees who are being persecuted by the government. It is ISIS that persecutes Christians: the Syrian government only persecutes Muslims who are fighting it, but it does persecute them, and so they are eligible for entering the US.
Let’s look at the scorecard:
Christians persecuted, charged with slandering Islam, face hanging, churches burned in Pakistan;
Christians lashed for carrying a bible in Saudi Arabia;
Churches burned, Christians and atheists murdered in Bangladesh;
Churches burned, Christians murdered in Egypt, whose government is actually fighting such acts;
US President makes a heartfelt statement in front of the UN that the future should not belong to those who slander Islam. States elsewhere his duty as President impels him to improve the image of Islam.
At this point, I’d settle for a genuine neutrality from the US government.
Jay Airahs says
RonaldB
A phrase in your third paragraph is ill timed “…every time a white police officer shoots a black criminal …” It conflates the topic of race politics with religion and it weakens the effectiveness of your argument somewhat. While the Ferguson issue might hint at an Islamic link the recent shooting in South Carolina undermines the full effectiveness of the following paragraphs.
Also, you imply favoritism with the paragraph about admitting a high proportion of Muslims. This would not be surprising but the first link mentions 90 % of Syrians imported are Muslim which may well be true but I believe it failed to make clear that this may be because 90 % of Syrians are Muslim. This I believe also tends to distract and weaken your other very good points and overall message.
RonaldB says
Well, there is no greater favor you can do than to point out weak parts of my argument and messages.
As far as 90% of the Syrian refugees being Muslims, I think mentioned the second story, but may not have been explicit. The US governments stated rational for accepting refugees as refugees is that they are persecuted by the government. The Syrian government takes harsh measures on rebels, who are generally Muslim. It is the rebels, ISIS and the others, who are brutal towards Christians.
Therefore, under the criteria of the State Department, mainly Syrian Muslims are eligible for refugee status, but not Syrian Christians.
I don’t know if the conditions were in existence before the Arab Spring, or if they were ginned up by the present administration as a pretext to admit Muslim refugees.
Quite frankly, I oppose admitting any refugees at all unless it can be shown that their admission is beneficial to the US and its citizens. We have long passed the point where refugees should be admitted because they need to be admitted. We do not want to admit any refugees likely to become a public burden, likely to commit criminal acts, or who do not fully support our government of representative elections and individual liberties, including absolute freedom of speech. We need to admits only immigrants whose presence is beneficial to the country.
As far as injecting race politics into the debate, while I wanted to illustrate the inequities, I think your point about its being a distraction is excellent.
Jay Airahs says
Thank you RonaldB for the follow up with additional information.
Shane says
We should not be taking in any Muslim refugees, let the Muslim countries take them in. Every Muslim immigrant is a potential terrorist or a supporter of terrorism.
Jay Airahs says
Please help bring our daddy home:
Christian pastor Saeed Abedini
Renee says
Thank you for the reminder, he needs to be home soon. Will pray for you and your dad
Jay Airahs says
Thanks for the reminder that I forgot to include quote marks.
“Please help bring our daddy home:”, children plead
gravenimage says
Thanks for posting that, Jay.
This man is an *American citizen*. That his release has not been a condition *before negotiations even began* is just shameful.
mortimer says
The mullahocracy’s main goal in this appears to be to humiliate America as much as possible for their domestic titillation. They use innocent people to do so. This is typical of amoral bullies. When Muslims say ‘religion of peace, tolerance, Islamic ethics, etc.’, all they mean is a government like that of Iran or Saudi Arabia, where discriminatory Sharia oppresses women and ‘others’, unacceptable, cruel punishments are practiced and the kleptocracy at the top becomes mega-rich.
Obama and his cultural Marxist cronies are asleep when it comes to human rights. The sanctions against Iran should be increased. Iran obviously is not serious about getting a deal.
Fr. Basil` says
Why don’t we go back to the true historical name of this country as Persia?
I can believe Herodotus, Thucydides, and the Bible, or I can believe them.
bobm says
islam is in fact AGAINST the Gospel of the Lamb of God….. it ISIS antichrist in spirit.
tom says
At least christians can have churches in Iran, unlike sunni gulf states.
Islam_Is_Islam says
@tom—True that churches are allowed, but what’s the point of having a church building if the congregation is not allowed to use it?
tom says
Better safe then sorry, i guess. I am not saying this is right. But compared to pakistan and iraq, iran does not have much sectarian/religious strife. Maybe this is one of those measures.
gravenimage says
I’ve never understood why some people like to minimize the awfulness of Iran. Is it because they feel that if the Sunnis are bad, that the Shia must be “moderate”?
Iran is pretty bad:
http://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/worldwatch/iran.php
Many Christians cannot worship at all, especially those who speak nothing but Farsi and so would have to worship in that language; many Christians languish in prison, especially on (frequently false) charges of proselytizing; and apostates are in extreme danger.
deja vu says
True, tom, but that is an oversimplification of the situation in Iran. I quote:
‘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.’
From Open Doors: ‘Islam is the official religion of Iran and all laws there must match the requirements of Sharia (Islamic law). Only Armenians and Assyrians are allowed to be Christians, and even they are treated as second class citizens. Those who try to reach out to Muslims have reported imprisonment, physical abuse and harassment.
A Muslim who leaves Islam is considered an ‘apostate’ and is at risk of the death penalty. Muslims are not even meant to shake hands with Christians, touch them or eat their food. Muslim-background believers often meet in house churches, but these are frequently monitored by secret police and raided. At least 75 Christians were arrested in 2014, and in several cases they have been physically and mentally abused, including threats of execution.’
Substitute the word ‘tortured’ for ‘abused’ and you’d get the true picture. Iranian prisons are notorious for their inhuman conditions – much worse for those considered apostates from Islam. It is impossible to overstate the situation.
Betty says
I think if ob has his way there will not be any churches in AMERICA. and what is here will be turned into mosque. sooner or later.
Manuel Paleologus says
Those who voted for Musobama had actually helped to the historical critical situation of the whole world. The man in WH is Muslim. All his deeds in the past 6 years demonstrates empirically who and what he is.
Any commentary is futile and lack sense.
The question is: if those who voted for this anti-American president realized what they did?
When the Christianity in US will not persecuted, when the military will be treated with respect and supported, when the WH will stop the nonsense in supporting the homosexuality and abortion, when WH will begin the defend the Christians all over the world and will secure our borders, then America will re-become America.
If not -America will be gone for ever. That’s why this coming election is crucial and extremely important. The liberals will have to be defeated and send back in their box.
Also the question is how much damage the WH will create.
tom says
Please….
bush was just as bad if not worse then Obama. We catered to these Sunni Arabs, after they brazenly attacked us! And yet when Obama chooses the shia side, he’s all the sudden a muslim?
I do not like this president, nor did i like Bush. But obama is right about siding with Iran over Sunni Arabs.
gravenimage says
tom wrote:
But obama is right about siding with Iran over Sunni Arabs.
………………………
Oh, good grief. Sure—what’s a little “Death to America” between friends? sarc/off
Iran is also threatening to wipe Israel off the map.
Moreover, we are not “siding with Iran over Sunni Arabs”—we are all over the map. We oppose Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen, consider Sunni Saudi Arabia to be an “ally”, sorta side with Iran-backed Shi’ites in Iraq against ISIS, side with Sunni opposition against Assad in Syria, etc etc.
Right now, our foreign policy is completely schizophrenic, because we are just reacting to one factor in most of these conflicts—such as considering Bashir Assad a bad guy in Syria, and then (wrongly) assuming that the opposition must then perforce be “freedom fighters”.
The fact is that we should not be siding with *either* of these oppressive and murderous sects of Islam.
Margaritha says
Obama is anti Christian. When he has the power to stop the persecutions of Christians in Egypt Iran ,Pakistan, Syria ,and by ISIS, he keeps him mouth shut and refuses to help them in any way, but sends his military to help Muslim Saudi Arabia,in their fight against Shias in Yemon.
David, Thailand says
All part of the plan.
When an America-hating, white-hating, Jew-hating Muslim Socialist manages to reach the White House, it means he can do whatever he wants because the people have been dumbed right done.
David, Thailand says
down