In Shia Iran, converting to Christianity or any faith outside of Islam constitutes “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”
But there is a way around it: reeducation to return the convert to Islam. And if they refuse, Shi’ite Islam, like Sunni Islam, prescribes death for apostasy:
Shaykh al-Kulayni narrates a sahíh (correct) hadith from `Ammãr as-Sãbãti who said: I heard (Imam) Abu `Abdullãh (as-Sãdiq) (a.s.) saying, “A Muslim from among the Muslims who renounces Islam and rejects the prophethood of Muhammad and considers him untrue, then verily his blood is lawful (mubãh) for anyone who hears that from him, his wife is to be separated from him the day he became murtad, his wealth will be divided among his heirs, and his wife will observe the `idda of a widow (i.e., four months). The Imam is obliged to kill him, and not ask him to seek forgiveness.” (Furu al-Kãfi, vol. 7, p. 257)
Converts in Iran are often imprisoned, with a threat of death.
There is no freedom of religion in Islam, as well as no freedom of expression, and yet when mainstream Islamic groups set up their Muslim advocacy groups in free societies in the name of “human rights,” they impose their “Islamophobia” subterfuge on all of society in order to continue expanding the tenets of their religion everywhere they go, but they do it (ironically) under the guise of “tolerance,” “diversity” and “anti-racism.”
In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled “that an Iranian who sought asylum in Switzerland based on religious grounds could be deported to his home country because his life was not in danger” because the man “did not have reason to expect torture or to fear for his life, as long as he didn’t pose a threat to the Iranian government and “practise[d] his faith discreetly.” Absurd.
“10 Christian converts forced to take Islamic re-education classes in Iran: report,” by Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post, February 7, 2022:
Intelligence agents in Iran’s Khuzestan Province have instructed 10 Christian converts who had been cleared of all charges to participate in “re-education” classes led by Islamic clerics, according to a watchdog report.
Agents of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the 10 Christians, including eight who were cleared last November of any crime in a court in Dezful, on Jan. 29 that they will have to attend 10 sessions with Islamic clerics to “guide them back onto the right path,” Article 18, a nonprofit that promotes religious freedom and tolerance for Christians in Iran, reported.
The IRGC had summoned more converts, but they didn’t appear. However, those who didn’t appear were called and asked why they hadn’t appeared.
The IRGC arrested four converts in the southwestern city of Dezful last April and charged them with “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” because they participated in a house church, according to an earlier report from Article 18. The IRGC also summoned other Christian converts for interrogation at the time. The four arrested had personal property confiscated for nearly six months, including necessary items for their children’s schoolwork, laptops and mobile phones.
The U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern states that the “mandatory Islamic re-education classes directly conflict with the rulings of the Civil and Revolutionary Court of Dezful that said the group ‘merely converted to a different religion.’”
“The court noted that this apostasy could be punished under Islamic Sharia law but was ‘not criminalized in the laws of Iran,’” ICC noted in a statement.
In reference to other charges that Iranian Christians often face, the courts also ruled they “didn’t carry out any propaganda against other groups,” ICC added.
In 2021, Revolutionary Guards were responsible for 12 of the 38 documented incidents of Christians being arrested or their homes and churches being raided, Article 18 noted.
“So-called ‘re-education’ sessions have become much more common in recent years, even appearing in the list of ‘corrective punishments’ on official court papers,” Article 18 detailed.
Converts from Islam to Christianity are most at risk of persecution in Iran, especially by the government and to a lesser extent by society and their families, Open Doors USA states in a fact sheet on Iran.
“The government sees the growth of the church in Iran as an attempt by Western countries to undermine Islam and the Islamic regime of Iran, the fact sheet states. “House groups made up of converts from Muslim backgrounds are often raided, and both their leaders and members have been arrested, prosecuted and given long prison sentences for ‘crimes against national security.’”….
mortimer says
Better than anyone, the mullahs know the problems they face in the primary Islamic source texts that make faith in Islam impossible. The mullahs know what a sham it is to ‘re-educate’ someone who has lost faith in Islam and seen what a TOTAL sham Islam is.
The mullahs spend a life time producing and memorizing arguments that try to get around these contradictions of logic, reason, scientific fact, common-sense morality and, most importantly, contradictions of historical facts. The Standard Islamic Narrative (SIN) is unhistorical, therefore there is no point in defending Islam any further. Mecca was not the place, ‘Mohammed’ was not a man and the Koran was not a book.
Islam’s primary source texts have about 2,000 problems that make faith in Islam, because we expect the express words of a deity to be flawless and without error and the Koran, hadiths and Sira are full of errors and historical anomalies and immoral decrees that a true deity couldn’t possibly endorse.
Allah and Mohammed must have been on drugs with they wrote Islam’s primary texts. Islam is a fabricated sham created by the caliphs in the 8th and 9th centuries.
mortimer says
addemdum: “Islam’s primary source texts have about 2,000 problems that make faith in Islam IMPOSSIBLE” …
gregbeetham says
According to research opioid use was common across the region in ancient times (and probably still is), so was storytelling and the fabrication of stories; both endeavours were the main sources of entertainment in cultures that lacked means of communication.
Apparently good storytellers were highly regarded and had significant status, even slaves who could spin a good yarn were allowed extra privileges; so fabricating the hodge podge of Islam using familiarity with the existing widespread Abrahamic religions would not have posed any great problem, by the looks of it they suffered an embarrassment of riches and had to sift through and get rid of the vast proportion of submissions to the cause.
Obvious anomalies remained though, such as Hadiths written in Afghanistan. How anyone could believe that someone living in Afghanistan would be familiar with the daily life of an obscure desert bandit supposedly originating at the time from a few mud huts in Mecca stretches credulity to the maximum.
Rafael says
Where is the World that condemns China for it’s reeducation camps? Why are they silent on this issue? Because it does not fit their agenda of claiming victim status for Muslims all the time.
OLD GUY says
Islam follow or die, sounds more like a power struggle of a Dictatorship than a religion.
Proud Islamophobe says
Then the moslems should have nothing to say about China’s “re-education classes.” oh, that’s right, they’ve said nothing because they’re afraid. China’s finally good for something. Lord, please give the Christians strength not to deny You (Matthew 10:33; Revelation 14:9-11).