Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani faces execution for refusing to renounce Christianity: Where are the Hollyweirdos and Euroweenies now?; Update: White House statement; Britain, EU stand up
Over the years, I’ve highlighted the plight of Muslim apostates around the world.
See here, here, and here, for example.
One of the early blog campaigns I was involved in focused on Abdul Rahman, the Christian convert who fled Afghanistan in 2006 and found safety in Italy after Muslim mobs demanded he be killed for abandoning Islam.
See:
Many more Abdul Rahmans
Abdul Rahman update
Abdul Rahman has landed
Abdul Rahman: Safe for now
Abdul Rahman “vanishes”
Abdul Rahman seeks asylum
Abdul Rahman to be released
Steyn on Rahman and Islam
What are you praying for?
The religion of pieces
Condi Rice calls Karzai
Free Abdul Rahman
Canada supports Abdul Rahman
Rally for Abdul Rahman
Bush: “Deeply troubled”
Video: “I am not an apostate”
Who will save Abdul Rahman?
“We will cut him into little pieces”
Save Abdul Rahman
A Christian on trial
To oppose the Koranic mandate of death for apostasy is to take on the entire sharia-enforcing Muslim world.
Which is why you never hear purported anti-death penalty bleeding-heart celebrities say a peep about it.
It takes no guts or brains for Hollywood liberals (hello, Alec Baldwin) and America-bashing Brit journalists (hello, U.K. Guardian editors) to bemoan the execution of a convicted Death Row cop-killer who was able to pursue every last legal avenue for more than two decades.
It tells you everything about their selective outrage that they have nothing to say about the latest impending execution in Iran of a Christian pastor:
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, the head of a network of Christian house churches in Iran, could be executed as soon as midnight Wednesday in Tehran for refusing to recant his religious beliefs and convert to Islam, said the chair of a commission that monitors religious freedom around the world.
A statement by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent advisory group appointed by the president and Congress, “expressed deep concern” for the man’s fate.
After four days of an appeals trial for apostasy, Nadarkhani refused to recant his beliefs.
Leonard Leo, chair of the commission, said the pastor “is being asked to recant a faith he has always had. Once again, the Iranian regime has demonstrated that it practices hypocritical barbarian practices.”
Leo said that while the trial is closed to the press, the commission collects information from sources in Iran and around the world. A release by the group says their responsibility is to “review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally.”
“I would be disappointed if at the end of this whole maelstrom, there was no statement by our government on this situation,” Leo said. “At some point the United States has to stand up for the right of this pastor and for human rights more broadly and call countries to account for what they are doing.”
The commission’s statement also called the trial a sham and said Iran is violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party.
Take action here.
ACLJ has been helping with Pastor Nadarkhani’s defense. Support them here.
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Alec Baldwin’s first reaction when I sent out a reader’s tweet wondering why he didn’t seem to care about the case. He mocked:
Minutes later…
It’s progress. Anything to spread word of the story helps.
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More:
*Facing Execution for the ‘Crime’ of Being a Christian In Iran:
In 2010, the Iranian regime carried out 546 executions, more than at any other time during the preceding decade, and representing an increase of around 25 per cent on the previous year. Increasingly, execution is becoming Tehran’s favored method for dealing with anyone it deems an opponent — like Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor who has refused to recant his Christian faith.
Pastor Nadarkhani’s case is another grim illustration of the volatile situation faced by religious minorities living under Iran’s Islamist clerics. Even though the state formally recognizes the existence of Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, these minorities are under no illusions about their subordinate status.
Since 2009, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole Iran’s election to claim a further term as the country’s president, the crime of “moharebeh” — waging war against God — has frequently been invoked against those who question the Islamic legal codes which underpin the state.
Yousef Nadarkhani sentenced to die for changing his religion.
Yesterday it was reported that Yousef Nadarkhani faced the death penalty in Iran unless, on the fourth and final opportunity, he recanted his Christianity.
This seemed too incredible to be true. However, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) speedily provided original judgments and unofficial English translations. And, on the basis of the translations, it was clear: a man was actually sentenced to hang just for converting from one religion to another.
CSW now report that Nadarkhani refused to recant on the fourth and final opportunity. If CSW and the source they are relying on are correct, this means that Nadarkhani can now be hanged unless the Court decides otherwise.
*In Algeria, distributing CDs about Christianity will get you five years in jail.
Evangelical conservatives are fighting for freedom and basic human rights around the world. Our main adversaries are often theocratic governments.
Christians, like Youcef Nadarkhani, a pastor in Iran sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic for his faith, are on the front line of the global fight for religious freedom. On September 25, a court in Iran is set to decide whether he is a convert from Islam to Christianity. If the court finds that Youcef is an apostate, he can be executed.
Pastor Nadarkhani’s Iranian lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a Muslim, has been sentenced to 9 years in prison and banned from practicing law by the Iranian government, essentially for representing individuals such as Pastor Nadarkhani.
The ACLJ is working with Mr. Dadkhah, a well-known human rights attorney who founded the Defenders of Human Rights Center along with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.
A conservative Christian legal organization and a Muslim human rights attorney are battling theocracy together. This isn’t new for the ACLJ. In Pakistan, our office works with brave attorneys, some of whom are Muslim, willing to defend persecuted Christians.
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Flashback: Texas executes Mexican citizen despite pleas from Obama, UN
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This morning, I asked Press Secretary Jay Carney if the White House would weigh in.
At 2pm Eastern, this statement was released from the press secretary’s office:
The United States condemns the conviction of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people. That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran’s own international obligations. A decision to impose the death penalty would further demonstrate the Iranian authorities’ utter disregard for religious freedom, and highlight Iran’s continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens. We call upon the Iranian authorities to release Pastor Nadarkhani, and demonstrate a commitment to basic, universal human rights, including freedom of religion.
Good for the White House. May every other civilized country’s officials raise their voices and do the same.
***
More on White House reax.
Still no statement from State Department, which pleaded to save the life of a convicted Mexican child rapist. But they did tweet about World Heart Day today…
***
Update: Britain and the EU add their voices.
“I deplore reports that Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian church leader, could be executed imminently after refusing an order by the Supreme Court of Iran to recant his faith,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website.
“This demonstrates the Iranian regime’s continued unwillingness to abide by its constitutional and international obligations to respect religious freedom,” the statement said. “I pay tribute to the courage shown by Pastor Nadarkhani who has no case to answer and call on the Iranian authorities to overturn his sentence.”
***
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday joined calls for Iran to free a pastor facing the death sentence for refusing to renounce his Christian faith, AFP reported.
“I urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect its international human rights commitments, including on freedom of religion or belief, and strongly appeal to Iran not to sentence Pastor Nadarkhani to death,” Ashton said in a statement.
“I call for Mr Nadarkhani’s immediate and unconditional release.”
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I agree. But Obama probably secretly thinks the Pastor should die as a heretic. Just my opinion…!
There’s lots the US and other countries could do. Cutting off diplomatic ties for starters. Economic sanctions, such as what happened to S.Africa when they didn’t want to abolish apartheid. Letting them know that we don’t want to associate with countries that execute their own citizens for religious beliefs.
And the biggest elephant in the room: Obama could have supported the rebellion in Iran that would have overthrown the Theocracy.
I was prepped to go on November 5, 1979. I have been wanting to go ever since. Where’s the rally point at the deployment site?
You’re the one with the Bowie knife right?
P.S. ILMCorrupt-POTUS, please stay out of my line of fire. I would be mildly upset if you somehow accidently got shot. I hate to waste ammo on a valueless target.
I didn’t agree with the execution of Troy Davis and I certainly do not agree with killing people because of their religion.
The difference is that Davis was convicted by a jury of murdering a cop in cold blood. Whether he actually did it and how much of that was a witch-hunt, well, I might not know at least until Judgement Day.
But this Iranian situation may be a political one. While the media focuses a lot of attention on Christians leaving the Middle East, what they are missing is that the conversion rate to Christianity there is booming.
There is little doubt in my mind that deep down the hard-core Islamist leaders know that if they allow freedom of religion, people will leave Islam in droves.
Liberals fear two things more than anything else:
1) Offending conservative Muslim men and
2) Sarah Palin
Alec musta made a phone call.
King Arthur: (getting mad) Now look here, my good ma–
French Soldier: Ah don’ wanna talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food-trough wiper! Ah fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!
Galahad: Is there someone else up there we can talk to?
French Soldier: No!! Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!
If you’d come out of the darkness (of evil, not your parents’ basement) and into the light, you’d realize this man is already saved. He may perish on earth, but if so, he’ll spend eternity in paradise.
Since you love giving up your freedom and rights to the likes of Obama, perhaps you should go to Iran. I think you’d fit in better.
If Rogue Cheddar is the CIC, and Flyoverman is the deployment CO, you can count me in…tell me where and when (and I’ll have others with me who have very special talents…) Perhaps we can trade ILMC for the good Pastor.
You’ll recognize me, I’ll be the one wearing a tabbard with a big red cross and carrying a sword as big as the one used by Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII.
Got it. I’ll find you. Looks like First Skirt has the Special Ops contingent.
When the lady with the skillet arrives….we will be ready.
Scarlet Crusade or Knight Hospitaller?
None of it was a witch hunt. The eyewitnesses were black including three Air Force guys, and his friends who were there when he shot the guy in the car at the party and when he shot the police officer later in the Burger King lot said he did it and they were black. Some of his friends recanted, some did not. He was given the chance a year or so ago to call those who recanted to testify at the special retrial given to him and he refused to call them. The judge warned him he needed to call them to make his case but he would not do so.
It was not a case of “Officer, a black man did it.” “Round up the nearest black man.” He did it. And the black people on the jury said so.
It’s getting a bit chilly these days.
Might have to toss a q’uran or two on the fire…
KH Order of St John. Defend the Holy Land!
Don’t forget the marshmallows. Don’t have any? Use a lib.
1ConcernedMom said: ILMC is in the darkness of evil.
Whatever the heck that means.
I’m just glad this guy isn’t in a red state because you folks would be saying “send that Mexican back to Iran” or somethng stupid like that.
That’s funny because I had my post already in my head before I read yours, and I am not changing a word.
I’ll ride shotskillet!!
Ilovemycountry: Your making no sense once again.
You REALLY aren’t very bright, are you?
Flyman: You and the CIC can wear whatever you want….we’ll find you…we’re the ones in cammies and a whole s-itload of hi-tech gear, plus a bunch of stuff to kill the bad guys with, plus some other guys you don’t need to know about who have arranged our transport…heh.
You have to admire the consistency of ILMCorrupt-POTUS.
Are you kidding me….we would have to pay Iran to take it!
IRANIANS NOT WELCOME
(in your heart, you know)
I’ll meet you with my lawyer.
(or would that be against the Geneva Convention?)
As a former military Air Traffic Controller, I’ll call in the air strikes.
“Roger, Wilco, Over and Out.”
And when ILoveMySmellyBasement hears the knock on the door upstairs, he can wonder if it’s Iran taking over the US, or if it’s the USA coming to rescue his butte.
count me in…but I wonder what my talents will be…oh, that’s right.
count me in…I wonder what my special talents will be?
Now, we’ll have none of that, young lady! This is serious. No distractions. You will stay home. The matriarch has spoken
aw man; do I have to bake again?
Sheesh… I can never tell what gender you people are on here by your screen names. I’m gonna have a helluva time figuring out the berthing assignments when I’m ferrying you folks over there in my Navy ship.
(Hey, somebody’s gotta drive your bus, and I sure don’t want O’Barky doing it!)
Can I bring my .410 over-under? It’s not very big, but I used to bring down jackrabbits at 200 yards…. it might be useful.
redgypsy #132,
200 yds with a .410 ?
You fish too, don`t you ?
Where are the hollyweirdos? Exactly, they will take to the streets to march for gay rights, since they are too cowardly to march in the real neighborhoods that are anti-gay they stick to the safe streets of hollywood, but have no words against a brutal regime. Not only freedom of religion, but you would at least think they would show disgust against a country who hung two sixteen year olds for the crime of homosexuality. They hated Bush cause he said that he prayed, they accused this country of being like a theocracy. REALLY?
Alec Baldwin is a moron, and oh, if you read this that show 30 rock is a bomb. NBC’s Thursday night line up sucks. I know NBC has always been liberal, but at least they used to have some talent, Cheers, Seinfeld, Cosby Show, Night Court, Frasier, all good shows…. 30 Rock? I watched once and I still want that half hour back to do something worthwhile.
Spaceycakes: You would make a first rate Morale Officer. You’re smart, you’ll figure it out.
DonkeyHoatie – Man, we can use you–it’s turned into a gender-free operation so that will solve the berthing issue. Thanks, Navy!
RedGypsy: If you’re that kind of Marskman, we can definitely use you – hell yeah man, c’mon.
Sign painter guy – you’re welcome, too. Maybe a fisherman will be a skill we might need – bring your own desert cammies, though.
SPG, I do fish!
but I haven’t figured out how that’ll help the guy in Iran.
It does occur to me that we all ought to head out looking vaguely middle-eastern. You know–dark hair, dark skin, etc (don’t know what to do with the green eyes, though) That way security will be looking somewhere else….
redgypsy@136: Not to worry, we’ll be in and out of there faster than Michael Moore at a Tea Party rally. Trust your CO.
Well, Spaceycakes is female…do not doubt me.
In case you are still wondering where Hollywood is, they are too busy wife-swaping to worry about some Christian in Iran.
Let’s see…Marc Anthony and J Lo are divorcing because Marc is having an affair with Jada Smith, so Jada and Will are divorcing. Now I hear that Ashton and Demi are divorcing because Ashton was playing around, probably with someone closer to his age (which is recently out of high school, I think). Good times.
Hollywood is so full of immorality and corruption, I fear for all of them! This won’t end well for them. But for now, they are busy flaunting their money, living high and pretending to care about the “little people” while aggrandizing each other with award after award after award. Spit.
Oh, and Eva Longoria says that the conservative movement is dangerous to our country and must be stopped. She doesn’t give details.
redgypsy #136,
200 yds with a .410 sounds like a fishing tale to me. Just playin` with ya !
As for getting the Iranians to look the other way; that`s where spaceycakes comes in. (by her own self-description) By my guess, we could walk right in un-noticed wear Santa Claus suits !
happy,
The last I saw, and NO I don`t keep close tabs on the Hollyweirdos, the Jada and Marc story was just fabricated. Had you heard something recently ? I hate divorce !
The religion of peace continues to get trashed by evil men. what else is new?
I just caught something on ET about them, and Jada was seen out without her wedding ring. The rumors continue to fly. However, I don’t keep up very well either, and that might be incorrect. None of it surprises me because of the morale climate out there.
Thanks happy. The Nat`l Inquirer mentality is alive and well !
ILMC, you misquoted me. I said:
If you’d come out of the darkness (of evil, not your parents’ basement) and into the light, you’d realize this man is already saved.
John 8:12 says “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”"
Why don’t you familiarize yourself with your enemy (Christians)? Read the Bible and see what it says. I have read it through several times, and I try to read it daily. You seem to think we backwards conservatives don’t read, but many of us do, and not just the Bible.
Missouri was a red state in 2008. I can’t speak for all red state dwellers, but I would support bringing this man and his family to the USA legally.
Since when do Mexicans look like Iranians, other than the dark skin?
I really do pity you ILMC. I don’t like how you generalize and refer to us as “you people” and “racists,” but you obviously have something lacking in your life. I have been praying for you for some time, that God will reveal himself to you. Perhaps one day my prayer will be answered.
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HI SIGN_PAINTER_GUY–#139. Some of the over / under combination .410 shotguns use a rifle barrel for the second tube. As I remember they took a .30-30 deer rifle cartridge. One gun for small and large birds–and for deer or larger game also.
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A 200 yard shot is possible with the rifled barrel. Not likely with the unrifled .410 barrel.
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Handy for clubbing fish also.
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John Bibb
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Anyone with a heart for condemned Christians in Islamic countries should also be aware of the case of Asia Bibi, a wife and mother sentenced to death in Pakistan for “blaspheming Muhammad” (standing up for her Christian faith). Sign a petition for her release at callformercy.com.
Yeah, I’m definitely in the “doghouse”…
My comments show up when I’m logged in, and don’t when I’m logged out.
Try it yourself… see this coment here, then logout and watch it disappear…
I’d like to know what I did to deserve being put in the “doghouse”…
OK, I take it back… there just seems to be a delay at the moment, but my comments #11 and #113 only show up when I’m logged in, and disappear when I log out…
I wish I understood what was going on here…
Ooh!! Can I come? Can I? Can I? I’ve got a couple of bottles, some dry ice, a Mossberg 500, and a deluxe bacon cooker!
If you were CIC, we wouldn’t have to go to Iran to save him.
The Mad Mullahs are batsh** crazy, but they’re not stupid.
Tru dat.
Leftists hate Christians – they’re just bigots.
That’s why they don’t care of Christians are executed. If it was up to them, they’d feed us to the lions like in Ancient Rome.
It IS conservative Christians who are trying to save him.
Once again you’ve shown your ignorance and hatefulness.
You MUST be very young. If you are over 20, you are obscenely stupid. I’m not joking or trying to be condescending. I hope that you are young, so that you’ll have time to grow out of your idiocy – if you are not young, you have no excuse for your hate and venom and willingness to display them.