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Iran: Pastor “viciously beaten” in prison, told only way out is to deny Christ

Jun 16, 2015 5:37 am By Ralph Sidway

Prison dawah, Islamic style. Now imagine if a Muslim imam were incarcerated in Greece, an Orthodox Christian nation, and Christian inmates were savagely beating him in order to force him to convert to Christianity. Wouldn’t the Western media take notice then?

Pastor Saeed is one of the great Christian confessors of our time. His wife, Naghmeh Abedini labors unceasingly on his behalf, trying to raise American awareness of his plight and the fate of other Iranian Christians and Americans imprisoned in Iran, but the Obama administration blunts her efforts by squandering every opportunity to pressure Iranian officials on their behalf.

“Pastor Saeed Abedini ‘Viciously Beaten’ in Iranian Prison, Told His Only Way Out Is to Deny Jesus Christ,” by Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post, June 11, 2015:

American pastor Saeed Abedini has reportedly been “viciously beaten” by fellow prisoners in an unprovoked attack in the Iranian prison where he’s being held. The pastor was punched in the face, leaving his eyes beaten black and blue, but prison guards intervened and prevented further injury.

The American Center for Law and Justice, the law group which represents his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and the couple’s two children in the U.S., said that the prisoners also demolished a small table that the pastor had used to study and read during the beating that he endured last week.

Abedini was allowed to see a prison doctor, who determined that he does not have any broken bones. On Wednesday, he was able to see a family member who came to visit him and see his injuries first hand.

“It is heartbreaking to me and my family that Saeed was again beaten in prison. Saeed’s life is continuously threatened not only because he is an American, but also because he is a convert from Islam to Christianity. It’s time to get Saeed home before it is too late,” Naghmeh Abedini said in response to the news.

Back in May, Abedini marked his 35th birthday in prison, where he has spent over two and a half years for his Christian faith. He was arrested in Iran in 2012 while working on an orphanage for children, and later sentenced to eight years in prison.

The pastor has faced a number of beatings while in prison, both from other inmates and guards. The ACLJ and Naghmeh Abedini have expressed concerns that his condition worsens after each beating.

Last week, Abedini spoke before Congress, pleading for further actions to be taken to help free her husband.

“Over the last three years, I have had to watch my two children, Rebekka (who is 8 years old) and Jacob (who is 7 years old), suffer daily as they have grown up without a father or a mother,” Abedini said.

“I am here today as a single mother who is trying to be strong for her children, and as a wife who humbly admits, I need your help. I cannot bear to look at my children’s longing eyes one more time and explain to them why their daddy is still not home.”

She later told The Christian Post that Abedini has been told his prison sentence will be increased unless he denies his Christian faith — something she insists her husband will not do.

“The times they have moved him in and out of solitary [confinement] and the times they have threatened him, they said ‘You will stay here longer than the eight years and your only key to freedom is if you deny your Christian faith and you return to Islam.’ The guards have said that, officials have said that continuously,” Abedini said.

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Filed Under: Apostasy, Featured, Iran, Jihad in prisons, Muslim persecution of Christians Tagged With: Saeed Abedini


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Comments

  1. Mirren10 says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 7:15 am

    What the hell is obama doing about this ?

    Oh, I know; absolutingly **nothing**.

    How utterly sickening and appalling this is.

    • Angemon says

      Jun 16, 2015 at 9:09 am

      Remember when Mahmoud “Holocaust Denier” Ahmadinejad was having democracy advocates killed in the streets of Teheran and Obama only gingerly criticized him? Yeah, I don’t think a Christian being beat up for his faith in an Iranian prison will matter to him.

      Maybe if there’s a whole nation campaign criticizing his silence he’ll notice it, but who wants to be called a “racist” in the MSM?

    • John C. Barile says

      Jun 16, 2015 at 9:57 am

      He’s just content to talk the talk about it. While Mr. Obama fails to follow through on his pledge to Pastor Abedini’s family, he did succeed in getting Egypt to free a Muslim Brotherhood operative who also held U.S. citizenship.

      As for Pastor Abedini, he and two other U.S. citizens held by Iran continue to rot. Obama threatens to veto any legislation tying a forthcoming agreement with Iran to the release of American citizens there.

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 16, 2015 at 10:16 am

      Mirren, you would think that one of the few saving graces of Obama’s deciding to open up “negotiations” with Iran is that he can directly address appalling cases like this one—but you would be wrong.

      He seems more determined to ignore the plight of victims like Saeed Abedini than ever.

      And this man is not just a Christian victim of the Iranian state—he is *an American*. You’d think that at least would lead Obama to act. But no…

      • Charli Main says

        Jun 16, 2015 at 1:34 pm

        I believe you have answered your own question—he is ” an American”

        Now if he was a Muslim —————–

  2. Matthieu Baudin says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 9:06 am

    What threat is posed by the Christians, Baha’i and Zoroastrians of Persia to the wellbeing of the people of Iran?

  3. duh_swami says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 9:10 am

    Interfaith outreach, Islam style…’Repent thy sins’…embrace Allah…or else…’The floggings will continue until moral improves’…Obama bin Kerry could bring this up at the meeting, but he won’t because it might rock the boat…

  4. katnis says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 9:48 am

    Where is the outrage? Why isn’t his family on the list of refugees permitted to come to the US? Where is the kickstarter fund to get him over here?

    Such a shame that this man is suffering for his beliefs.

  5. Richie says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 10:54 am

    This is the ‘religion of peace’ at work. It uses violence, torture and murder to assure people pray to their demon pedophile prophet

  6. miriamrove says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 11:03 am

    American pastor Saeed Abedini has reportedly been “viciously beaten” by fellow prisoners in an unprovoked attack in the Iranian prison where he’s being held. The pastor was punched in the face, leaving his eyes beaten black and blue, but prison guards intervened and prevented further injury.

    I don’t buy the fact that he is/was beaten by other inmates. If I am not mistaken, he is being held in the notorious Evin prison which largely holds political prisoners like this fellow. Those prisoners are also suffering like he is and tortured and beaten. This fellow is being tortured by guards and regimes people. They are trying to place the blame on other prisoners so not to get the blame. m

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 16, 2015 at 10:25 pm

      I imagine he is being beaten by other prisoners, miriam—but with the full knowledge and approval of the guards. At other times he is probably beaten by the guards themselves.

      Even though the other prisoners are victims of oppression as well, I would not assume that they are necessarily sympathetic to an apostate.

    • Champ says

      Jun 18, 2015 at 3:37 am

      Miriam, I believe you’re right and your firsthand knowledge is valuable, here. Thank you for sharing what’s undoubtedly the case …

  7. Walter Sieruk says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 11:14 am

    The hostile spirit of the the mullahs and other Muslim in power in the Islamic “Republic” of Iran towards Pastor Saeed and other Christian in Iran only exposes what a weak and fragile religion Islam really must be what. In that the mullahs and ayatollahs in this Islamic regime are,very much, afraid the the Iranian people might get a different or balanced views of things. This is the most true when it come to the Bible and the Christian Gospel . For the Muslim clerics have their power based on Islam which is the foundation of Constitution their tyrannical Islam regime. In other words, the Muslim clerics are scared that if the people of Iran start to compare and contrast both the Koran and the Bible they might discover and come to the conclusion that the Bible is the superior of the two books.. Therefore,the mullahs and others in power in Iran in order to keep their power and to uphold Islamic tyranny in power they will do their best to keep the Iran people in ignorance of the Bible and trapped in the darkness of slam. Thus the Muslims in power use prison and other tactics of intimidation against Pastor Steed and other Christians.

    • Lilithwept says

      Jun 16, 2015 at 7:14 pm

      It is the threat of violence and the killing of apostates that Islam depends on. David Wood did an exellent cideomon this!!!

      Does anyone have a transcript of what Obama said when Saeed’s Wife pled for her husband?? I would really like to hear what the Traitor is saying about his lack of action in this case….

      Obama has said that if there was a choice between a Christian and a Muslim , he would choose the Muslim. Never, ever u derestimate the Islamic brainwashing that children go through. Obama was brainwashed as a child by Islam. Never ever forget that.

  8. hocus pocus says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 1:30 pm

    why doesnt he just lie and say, ok i am converting back to islam. then leave jail and pack up and leave iran for good. use taqqiya!!

    • miriamrove says

      Jun 16, 2015 at 2:22 pm

      I am Iranian. This is not how it works. Once you say you are going back to Islam, they make you go to Friday prayers, and they watch your every move. This pastor is internationally known and he will be watched every minute of the day. m

  9. voegelinian says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 1:59 pm

    Consider also the reasonably supposed likelihood that these Muslim inmates who demonstrated this much violent fanaticism were, as inmates in the Iranian prison system, being punished by the Islamic regime for some crimes or other — and when we factor in that the Islamic regime of Iran often incarcerates people for supposed “crimes” against the “state” which more often than not = crimes against Islam, we may further reasonably infer that violent fanaticism animates even some of those Iranian Muslims who are opponents of the regime (you know, those Iranians whom so many in the Counter-Jihad hailed as Freedom-Loving People Just Like Me).

    • John C. Barile says

      Jun 16, 2015 at 2:14 pm

      People like Pamela Geller, who hailed the Green Revolution. But, not to worry–Inspector Voegelinian is on the case, fearlessly ferreting-out these compromisers and defeatists.

      But for you, Voeg, we insidiously Soft Counter-Jihadists would be in the ascendancy–curses!

      • John C. Barile says

        Jun 16, 2015 at 2:20 pm

        Oh, and Up the YPG!

      • voegelinian says

        Jun 17, 2015 at 1:46 pm

        Yes Person with the difficult to remember and spell nickname, Debbie Schlussel and Diana West were right, and Pam Geller and Robert Spencer were wrong, about the Great Revolution of those millions of Freedom-Loving Muslims in Iran. I guess for some it’s more important to upbuoy our Fearless Leaders as perfect beyond all criticism, than it is to be consistently anti-Islam (and anti-Muslim.),

        • Angemon says

          Jun 17, 2015 at 2:09 pm

          voegelinian posted:

          “I guess for some it’s more important to upbuoy our Fearless Leaders as perfect beyond all criticism”

          While others try to be the Fearless Leaders and silence all criticism, not by making cogent points and bringing forth new, fresh ideas that stand on their own, but by throwing their feces at others, like monkeys, misrepresenting their points, making up problems where they don’t exist, making up mountains out of specs of dirt, trying to gather their own personal army of brownshirts to silence opposition, etc.

        • John C. Barile says

          Jun 18, 2015 at 9:37 am

          It ain’t no mere nickname o’ mine, Voegy, it’s real.

        • John C. Barile says

          Jun 18, 2015 at 9:42 am

          No pseudonym, if that’s what you mean.

        • John C. Barile says

          Jun 18, 2015 at 9:45 am

          I suppose you meant Schlussel, now that I think of it.

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 16, 2015 at 11:41 pm

      It is true that even many Muslim “moderates” or opponents of this or that Islamic regime still hate anyone who dares leave Islam, and even agree with death for apostasy.

      Still—and I have said this many times before. Voegelinian—you can make your point without having to sneeringly revile your fellow Anti-Jihadists.

      • Angemon says

        Jun 17, 2015 at 9:23 am

        gravenimage posted:

        “Still—and I have said this many times before. Voegelinian—you can make your point without having to sneeringly revile your fellow Anti-Jihadists.”

        He could, but that wouldn’t make him stand in the crowd.

      • voegelinian says

        Jun 17, 2015 at 1:51 pm

        Diana West (and Andrew Bostom) showed with plenty of evidence that the movement those supposedly Freedom-Loving Iranian Muslims adhered to, and its managers and leaders, were all suficiently compromised by jihadsit ideology to make them suspect. While I believe they should be suspect by merely being Muslim, there was even evidence to satisfy those in the Counter-Jihad who should have known better. Instead, they let their emotions sway them, and their anxiously asymptotic need to find some Muslims somewhere whom they don’t have to suspect of the horrible evil they know, deep down below the threshold of their asymptotic Denial, all Muslims enable.

        • John C. Barile says

          Jun 18, 2015 at 9:18 am

          We ought to use the tools we have at hand. This is B.H.Obama’s big failing, not to support and engage the Green Revolution in Iran. I wouldn’t expect the abortive revolution to dress itself in anything but Islamic fashion, having sprung from an overwhelmingly Islamic milieu. It was enough for our purposes that these people were set against the theocratic mullacracy and the Supreme Leader.

          No, I wouldn’t expect the Green Revolution to renounce Islam (at least not all at once), nor suddenly embrace Israel and the Jews. It would have been enough as it was to lead to a less virulent Islamic polity which was far more circumspect about how it might destroy the Zionists and imperialist crusaders.

  10. Truth Seeker says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    His Crime is Not a Jihadi Terrorist. Had he been Obama, hillary Clinton etc would have made lot of attempts for his release.

  11. RonaldB says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 8:46 pm

    As an aside, I like to track the Muslim organizations claiming to be “moderate”, although there are far too many of them to actually follow.

    The ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial, is remodeling itself as a tolerant, interfaith society in tune with American values.

    As such, it has a statement on torture. Notice, that it mentions torture in Muslim countries, but lays that at the foot of the US, saying in weasel words that the Muslim rulers who used (and use) torture were US puppets.

    I searched the ISNA website for “Saeed”, “Abedini” and “Iran”, but nary a mention of torture or imprisonment of Christians. But, I did get a list of all the suckers…excuse me, partners who ally themselves with the ISNA opposing torture.

    “He added: “As American Muslims, it is extremely painful for us to see that our country has not only practiced torture as a means of interrogation but has also practiced extraordinary rendition, using the services of Muslim dictators to torture prisoners and thus making torture a standard practice of for suppressing freedom of speech in Muslim countries. We are glad that some of these tyrants who practiced torture on a mass scale have been disgraced through the Arab Spring, and we hope that others will soon follow. We demand that the prison at Guantanamo Bay be closed because it is a tarnish on our country’s name. It has become a symbol of torture for the world and must be closed in order to clear our country’s name.””

    “Dr. Syeed was invited by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, of which the Islamic Society of North America is a founding member. The event was also sponsored by Amnesty International, Center for Constitutional Rights, Disciples Justice Action Network, Interfaith Action for Human Rights, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition, Witness Against Torture and World Can’t Wait. ”

    http://www.isna.net/isna-joins-public-witness-against-torture.html

  12. EYESOPEN says

    Jun 16, 2015 at 9:46 pm

    May Almighty God give this man the grace, the courage and the strength to endure, for it is certain that the Usurper-in-Chief will do nothing at all on his behalf.

  13. gravenimage says

    Jun 17, 2015 at 12:17 am

    For what it’s worth, the Senate voted 90-0 (I imagine that ten of the senators were traveling or in their home offices when the vote was taken) to demand that Iran release Saeed Abedini immediately. Unfortunately, the Senate has limited clout when it comes to international matters.

    As for Obama, he made some noises around the start of Nowruz (Iranian new year) earlier this year about Iran addressing the cases of Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati and Jason Rezaian, and to locate Robert Levinson.

    But in all his months of playing footsie with Iran—while Iran openly sneers at the US—he hasn’t bothered to bring up the issue in public again, let alone make their release a non-negotiable point if we are going to deal with Iran.

  14. Sergio says

    Jun 17, 2015 at 4:57 am

    God, please help our brother. I hope he gets out of Iran soon.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Jun 18, 2015 at 3:06 am

      maybe it’s time for groups of Christians to commit themselves to prayer and fasting on his behalf..and on behalf of Asia , also, and on behalf of Egyptian ex-Muslim now-Christian Armia Bishou Boulos (formerly Mohammed Hegazy).

      Let’s pray first of al for their perseverance and faithfulness unto death, if it should come to that.

      But there’s no reason why we can’t pray that the LORD will do for them what he did for Daniel in the lion’s den, and for the Three Young Men in the fiery furnace, and even for St Peter when Herod threw him in prison (see Acts 12: 1-17). Screw up our faith and dare to pray for miracles.

      Imagine the *awful shock* for the superstitious power-worshipping bullyboys of Islam if our brother Saeed or our dear sister Asia or our brother Armia were were to simply *vanish* into thin air, through multiple locked doors (still locked!) and multiple layers of guards, and mysteriously ‘turn up’ somewhere well out of their (the bullyboys’) reach, declaring that they had been rescued by God’s holy angels.

  15. Jae M says

    Jun 17, 2015 at 1:29 pm

    Isn’t this the pastor whose family met with Obama to plead for his release? Something political needs to be done for these Christians. America gives billions of dollars to aid these backwards countries that continue to stomp all over human rights. Stop funding them!

    • Mo says

      Jun 17, 2015 at 2:01 pm

      @ Jae M

      “Isn’t this the pastor whose family met with Obama to plead for his release?”

      Yes, he is. They are reduced to pretty much begging. And the man Obama continues to do nothing. It’s sickening.

      “America gives billions of dollars to aid these backwards countries that continue to stomp all over human rights. Stop funding them!”

      An excellent point. Aside from helping the individual people, it would send a message to the world that we stand for freedom and against this type of oppression – something America once held as a foundation of its existence.

      Under the Obama regime, that is now gone. I still marvel that this man was elected not once, but TWICE. I keep thinking I will wake up from this nightmare. But it goes on and on.

  16. gina says

    Jun 18, 2015 at 8:16 pm

    Our poor excuse of a president is more concerned with Islam then about Christians cause he’s said on numerous occasions he’s a Muslim. And brags about his Muslim upbringing. And quotes the Koran excuse me the (holy) Koran. I saw a video on YouTube when 3 muslims were talking bout Obama.they he was a fool and was blind to what was happening right in front of his eyes.

  17. Dennis Tate says

    Aug 3, 2015 at 7:12 am

    Thank you for your powerful article. I shared it on my Facebook wall, (twice actually, this time so that it could be viewed by anybody, not only my friends). I also copied and pasted the link to your article into one online discussion forum and plan to put it into more places shortly. If we can raise awareness of this particular case….. this man can be released and sent back home to the USA.

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