{"id":16360,"date":"2024-03-03T13:47:56","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T13:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/03\/iran-violently-clamps-down-on-christians-amid-reports-of-torture-fines-and-floggings\/"},"modified":"2024-03-03T13:47:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T13:47:56","slug":"iran-violently-clamps-down-on-christians-amid-reports-of-torture-fines-and-floggings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/03\/iran-violently-clamps-down-on-christians-amid-reports-of-torture-fines-and-floggings\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran violently clamps down on Christians amid reports of torture, fines and floggings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iran claims to allow the country\u2019s Christian minority to practice its faith in peace. The reality for many Iranian Christians, however, is plagued by whippings, arrests, imprisonment, surveillance and harassment, according to a February report from the religious freedom NGO Article 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One shocking finding of the Article 18 40-page study, titled \u2018Faceless Victims: Rights\u00a0Violations Against Christians in Iran,\u2019 states,\u00a0\u2018By the end of 2023, at least 17 of the Christians arrested during the summer had received prison sentences of between three months and five years, or non-custodial punishments such as fines, flogging, and in one case the community-service of digging graves.\u2019<\/p>\n

The report noted, \u2018Despite a comparable number of Christians being arrested in 2023 as in previous years \u2013 166 arrests were documented in 2023, compared to 134 in 2022 \u2013 fewer names and faces could be publicized.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rev. Johnnie Moore, the president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, told Fox News Digital, \u2018The Department of State\u2019s absolutely insane policy toward the Islamic Republic, which is wreaking havoc worldwide, also has real life-and-death consequences for the people in Iran. The mullahs presently feel they have a license to kill whoever they want and no one will do anything. So more people are being captured and killed and the terrorist leaders of the Islamic Republic particularly lust for the blood of women and Christians. \u2018<\/p>\n

Moore, an influential\u00a0evangelical leader, explained that Iran\u2019s regime persecutes Christians \u2018Because these mullahs fear the power and resolve of Iranian women, and they know that Iranian Christians, who only fear God, do not fear the ayatollah himself. The more the mullahs threaten, imprison and kill us, our movement just multiplies. No church in the world is growing, secretly, and faster than the Iranian church and Iran\u2019s women look very much forward to the day when the world greets the first woman president of a free Iran.\u2019<\/p>\n

He continued, \u2018I predict she and her cabinet, inclusive of evangelical Christians, the Baha\u2019i and others, will make their maiden international trip to Jerusalem and Washington. The mullahs want to kill us for one reason: they know we are winning. It would be nice to have more help from the State Department but it isn\u2019t required.\u2019<\/p>\n

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, \u2018The persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Iran is longstanding and well documented. The U.S. continues to condemn these actions and use all the tools at our disposal to address such egregious violations.\u2019<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added, \u2018The Department\u2019s most recent\u00a0Report on International Religious Freedom in Iran notes, \u2018Officials continued to disproportionately arrest, detain, harass, and surveil Christians, particularly evangelicals and other converts from Islam, according to Christian NGOs.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

When Fox News Digital asked if the State Department will impose new human rights sanctions on Iran\u2019s regime for the persecution of Christians, the spokesperson said, \u2018While the Department does not preview sanctions, Iran has been designated as a \u2018Country of Particular Concern\u2019 and imposed Presidential Actions under the International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom every year since 1999.\u2019<\/p>\n

The raw violence used by Iran\u2019s theocratic state against Iranian Christians was documented in the Article\u00a018 report. Ali Kazemian said his interrogators \u2018discovered that I had a metal implant in my left leg from an historic break\u2019 and \u2018for this reason, one of the agents kicked my left leg several times. Then they put me on a chair, tied my hands together, and the interrogator said: \u2018You are now in an electric chair\u2019\u2026 Then they violently punched me several times.\u2019<\/p>\n

He said the security forces threatened him, declaring: \u2018We\u2019ll harm your wife and children!\u2026 We\u2019ll bring your wife to the interrogation room and strip her naked in front of everyone, to see if you can really resist and stay quiet!\u2019<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s regime has targeted all forms of Christianity for persecution, including Protestants and the\u00a0arrest of Catholics.<\/p>\n

Article 18, which published the report in collaboration with Open Doors,\u00a0Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Middle East Concern, said\u00a0there might be as many\u00a0800,000 Christians in Iran. The report extrapolated the\u00a0number 800,000\u00a0based on a\u00a0\u2018A survey of Iranians\u2019 attitudes toward religion in 2020, conducted by a secular Netherlands-based research group, revealed that 1.5% of Iranians from a sample size of 50,000 self-identified as Christians.\u2019<\/p>\n

The report was published on Feb. 19 to draw attention to the 45th anniversary of the Iranian regime\u2019s brutal\u00a0execution of\u00a0Anglican\u00a0pastor Arastoo Sayyah in his church in Shiraz, a mere eight days after the Islamic Revolution. Sayyah was the first Christian murdered by the regime.<\/p>\n

Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian Christian who fled the Islamic Republic, told Fox News Digital, Christianity in Iran is classified under political-security crimes, Despite this, more and more Iranians are converting to Christianity every day. Christianity is considered by the Islamic Republic in Iran as a Western religion and works against the Islamic Republic.\u2019<\/p>\n

Vojoudi, who is an associate fellow for the U.S.-based\u00a0Gold Institute\u00a0for International Strategy, added, \u2018The persecution and killing of the Christians started after the occupation of Iran by the Islamic Regime and since then the Islamic Republic has murdered at least 15 Iranian pastors.\u2019<\/p>\n

According to Vojoudi, Iran\u2019s regime ramped up its persecution of the struggling Christian community following the Green revolution movement in 2009 against the widely documented fraudulent election of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018The regime in Iran increased the persecutions and arrests due to fear of its downfall and that, of course, doesn\u2019t exclude the Christians in Iran,\u2019 Vojoudi said.<\/p>\n

She said, \u2018The regime burned 300 Persian Bibles and seized 650 Bibles and until today having a Persian Bible is a crime. A prohibition on preaching in Persian in the churches was announced by the intelligence organizations.\u2019<\/p>\n

Vojoudi converted to Christianity and fled to Germany due to religious persecution.\u00a0Article 18\u2019s report stated, \u2018Christian converts from Islam are numerically the largest Christian community in Iran, but they are not recognized by the state and are frequently targeted by the authorities and, in some cases, by their extended families and society. \u2018<\/p>\n

Vojoudi said, \u2018I used to go to a church near this cathedral church in Tehran, of course secretly. This church was open to the public, but I forgot on which days, but is extremely under [the] watch of the regime.<\/p>\n

\u2018The picture of [Ayatollah Ruhollah]\u00a0Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic regime, sits right next to the church, means that they watch everyone, and they have no respect for other religions.\u2019<\/p>\n

Article 18 wrote, \u2018With converts constituting the largest \u2013 albeit unrecognized \u2013 Christian community in Iran, the issue of \u2018apostasy\u2019 is a central concern\u2026 a Christian convert was sentenced to be hanged for apostasy in 2010, the charge of apostasy and death sentence were overturned in response to international pressure, but many converts have since been threatened with a similar fate upon arrest and during interrogations.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dire fate of Iranian Christians has forced them to organize house churches as part of an underground movement.<\/p>\n

Vojoudi said Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s supreme leader, declared in a speech the \u2018importance of confronting the house churches and provoked his followers against the Christians by claiming that the house churches are created by the \u2018enemies of Islam\u2019 and must be stopped.\u2019<\/p>\n

Article 18 listed a number of demands for the international community, including that foreign nations urge Iran \u2018to ensure and facilitate freedom of religion or belief for all its citizens\u2019 and \u2018highlighting human rights infractions during bilateral and multilateral dialogues with Iran.\u2019<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital sent numerous press queries to Iran\u2019s U.N. mission and its Foreign Ministry in Tehran.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran claims to allow the country\u2019s Christian minority to practice its faith in peace. The reality for many Iranian Christians, however, is plagued by whippings, arrests, imprisonment, surveillance and harassment, according to a February report from the religious freedom NGO Article 18.\u00a0 One shocking finding of the Article 18 40-page study, titled \u2018Faceless Victims: Rights\u00a0Violations <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}