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A Christian Prisoner in Iran

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  • A Christian Prisoner in Iran

    Wall Street Journal, NY
    Sept 1 2014


    A Christian Prisoner in Iran

    Pastor Farshid Fathi shares a cell with common criminals.

    Iran's leaders are preparing for another visit to New York this month
    for the U.N. General Assembly, but many of their citizens aren't going
    anywhere as they languish in the regime's prisons for political
    crimes. One notable case is Farshid Fathi, an evangelical Christian
    pastor who this week will spend his 35th birthday in jail.

    The intelligence ministry arrested Pastor Fathi in December 2010. The
    father of two then spent a year in solitary and semi-solitary
    confinement in Evin prison's Ward 209, reserved for political cases.
    There he was interrogated for hours on end and subjected to
    psychological abuse, according to an Iranian Christian convert who has
    also spent time in prison for his beliefs, currently resides in the
    country and is familiar with Pastor Fathi's case.

    A Tehran revolutionary court in February 2012 convicted Pastor Fathi
    of acting against national security and sentenced him to six years
    including time served. More recently he has been transferred to Rajai
    Shahr prison on the outskirts of Tehran, where he is sharing a cell
    with addicts and other common criminals who routinely harass and
    threaten him. When he inquired about the reason for this latest
    transfer, the pastor was told that it was because he sang Christian
    hymns.

    The Iranian regime knows the political value of punishment and
    humiliation all-too well, and in Pastor Fathi's case his harsh
    imprisonment is meant to send a message to his followers. Iran's
    traditional Christian communities, such as Orthodox Armenians and
    Assyrians, are protected under the Islamic Republic's constitution as
    so-called People of the Book. Their daily lives are subject to various
    legal restrictions, however. Their schools and church activities are
    closely watched, and they can't lead most public institutions.

    Converts to Christianity receive harsher treatment since Tehran's
    authoritarians won't tolerate Shiites leaving the official religion.
    Apostasy is punishable by death under Shariah law, and
    Persian-language Bibles are banned (though contraband editions can be
    purchased in some bookstores). Yet the Internet has made it
    increasingly difficult for Tehran to root out evangelical
    Christianity, and the movement by some estimates claims up to 500,000
    Iranian believers.

    Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq have recently given the world
    a display of brutal vigilantism against minority religions. Pastor
    Fathi's case is a reminder that persecution also is conducted by
    long-established states, a truth to keep in mind as the world's
    leaders sit down to tea with Iran's dictators.


    http://online.wsj.com/articles/repression-of-christians-in-iran-1409594497




    From: A. Papazian
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