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Christian advocates fear imminent execution for Iranian pastor
After spending more than two years in an Iranian prison for refusing to recant his Christian faith, Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani may be facing final execution orders for apostasy against Islam.
Christian advocacy groups are reporting that Nadarkhani’s attorney is trying to confirm reports that an Iranian court has issued a final order—death by hanging—and that the pastor’s execution could be imminent.
The White House and the U.S. State Department issued statements on Thursday condemning Iran’s treatment of Nadarkhani and calling for his immediate release. Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)—a Christian group that has followed Nadarkhani’s case closely—said the U.S. government’s strong statement “confirms our belief, and those of our contacts in Iran, that the government of Iran has issued the execution order for Pastor Youcef—an execution that could be carried out at any time.” … COMPLETE STORY >>
back to top43 Comments to “Christian advocates fear imminent execution for Iranian pastor”
Folks,
This is the Muslim Faith on display. Where are the American Muslim Group calling for this man’s release? Where is CARR?
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Lord have mercy!
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NW Juliana
The problem here in America, is we are told, to look at the Muslim Faith, through the examples of the Muslim Living in America as being the real example of the Muslim Faith. the Muslim Living in America, do not condemn or question the behavior of the Muslim in the Middle East. The questions that must be asked is why and who are the real example of the Muslim Faith?
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I went off topic on my blog today to urge prayer for this – thank you World, it’s hard to find info about the issue so I’m glad to see your article.
http://surpassingglory.blogspot.com/2012/02/detour-in-journey.html
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This is an example of the point Franklin Graham tried to make about Obama giving Muslims a pass and not standing up for Christians in the Sudan as well. But the MSNBC agenda was to focus on Graham’s clarity on Santorum’s morals while not being so clear on Obama’s. Obama told Rick Warren that knowing when life begins is above his pay grade.
And of course there won’t be any helpful comments from the Council on Amierican-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
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May God give this man grace and courage to face whatever the outcome. I pray for his release and his life. May God’s will be done.
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Where is the Council on Amierican-Islamic Relations (CAIR)? why are they not demanding the release of this Pastor.
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*embarrassing typo – Amierican should be American in CAIR.
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Pastor Roy, we know that CAIR is only interested in filing nuisance lawsuits claiming discrimination against Muslims by the FBI. But that’s way off topic. Sorry.
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Louise it is not off topic. To me it gets to the root of the problem. What is example of the real Muslim Faith.
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The greatest advocates for Christians persecuted in the 3rd world? Men like David Horowitz. He and others who are nonChristian.
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#11 Sawgunner – there are a lot of Christian advocates too, and some organizations doing great work — Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs to name only 2. They just don’t get much of a media platform or, often, have to work so discreetly to protect the remainder of the church in a country that they can’t publicly disclose their efforts.
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This Pastor may lose his life for Christ, and here in the United States. Christian are facing losing their place of worship because New York City finds the Christian Faith is no longer permitted and a threat to the Publicly Schools and kids. An Mr. Obama has decided that the Christian Faith is wrong on medical issues regarding women and that Mr. Obama has the right to force the Christian School’s, Business, Church to provide medical issues regarding women.
So in Iran it is a threat of death to force people to reject the Christian Faith. In the United States it is the threat of intimidation by the Government to force people to reject the Christian Faith…
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Matt 24: 9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
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I don’t want to get into the politics of it, but thank you, Roy. I pray the Lord will have mercy on this man and his family.
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A terrible thing. As are all religiously motivated killings, hatred, and violence. How many tens of millions have died at the hands of people convinced that they were acting out the wishes of one god or another? It is a plague that has been with us forever. Absolutely senseless recurrent tragedy.
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I haven’t heard about this anywhere else, have you?
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I have read this is in retaliation for the sanctions.
I think Pastor Roy’s #14 is a good reminder. Muslims prove exactly what they are with this sort of thing. This is NO religion of peace, and nothing anyone says can convince me of that. They riot because a book is burned. Do you know any Christian who would kill someone because a Bible was burned? No. We should withdraw our men and all aid from these countries immediately. Bring home all our people.
This pastor has the cutest little boys. What becomes of them? I have been praying for him for the past few days. I am heartsick over this.
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This is the guy I asked you to pray about when my post appeared three times in succession the other day.
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Chas – Foxs has bee following it for a few month now.
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Anyone who wants to write encouraging words to Pastor Nadarkhani may do so through information provided at Prisoner Alert. Just make sure to follow the security instructions. You can also write the Ahmedinejad if you like—just keep it polite.
http://www.prisoneralert.com/pprofiles/vp_prisoner_214_profile.html
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The ACLJ is also helping to keep this front and center.
http://aclj.org/nadarkhani
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Arcadia, which god prompted Stalin’s or Pol Pot’s murders?
Murder is not a problem of religion, since religions condemn murder. It is a problem of the wickedness of human nature. Religion is sometimes just an excuse for people to do wicked things.
I thought that you were one of the ones who has said that Islam does not condone violence?
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It promotes it.
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Kyle: Stalin was at one point a seminarian and also took some kind of position with the Orthodox Church. One doesn’t hear much about that church protesting his elimination of Russian Jewry, does one?
I have read that Pol Pot was known from time to time to refer to himself as a Buddhist god of some kind. But I don’t know how true that is and it likely was not a major part of his act.
NJL: My point is simply that once one becomes accustomed to obeying voices or directions from powerful invisible beings, all kinds of atrocities become possible, even easy or heroic. And they also enhance the power and prestige of the mortal leaders who direct the atrocities.
As for your global condemnation of all of Islam, it is just silly.
There are lots of contemporary Christian killing machines out in the world today, that does mean that all of Christianity condones killing people. But historically, I would venture to say that Christianity’s record is probably a lot worse than Islam’s. And then there is sect on sect violence that both of these religions are prone to.
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“But historically, I would venture to say that Christianity’s record is probably a lot worse than Islam’s.”
Arcadia, there are these things called history books. I recommend reading one before making s blatantly incorrect claim about history.
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We know so little of persecution, yet each is called to serve where s/he is, and in the way and arena in which each is placed.
My prayer for this believing man is that if his life is spared, it will be a Paul and Silas moment for those around him—that the prison will be shaken with the power of God, and the enemy will be forced to release those souls bound in darkness and they will come to trust and rely on the Savior.
But if his life is to be taken, I pray it will be as the first martyr Stephen, that he will be so filled with the Spirit and anointing that those around him will literally see the glory of God on his face, and be convicted in their hearts.
Not every martyr is known. I think this young man’s situation is published around the world for a reason. There is a great unrest in Iran—a yearning for freedom from the darkness that has held the people in spiritual bondage. I pray this becomes a catalyst for a Great Awakening in that nation. There is no greater legacy to encourage the Saints, and to uphold his young wife and children in the difficult days ahead.
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28. Amen.
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Call me silly all you want, but it is Islam that is causing all the violence in the world, not Christianity.
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Arcadia, so atheists are really religious believers and all religious believers are rabidly violent?
I learn so much from you. Thanks for the excellent history lessons.
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This Pastor reminds me of Bonhoffer:
Rev 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”
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No matter what happens on this, I feel confident that I will know and love this man in eternity. Of course, I always defer to God on such matters and rarely venture opinions on ultimate judgments, but there are transcendent truths to claim here.
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NJL: So you agree with me about the historic atrocities of Christianity? How many centuries did the Inquisitions last? How many “Crusades” were there?
BTW: What do you think is happening in Northern Ireland still? What happened recently in Rwanda (the most Christian nation in Africa) or in Srebenica? Do you really think that the Holocaust would have happened if not for centuries of formalized and officially sanctioned rabid anti-semitism by Christian churches?
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Bible-believing Christians were the victims of the Inquisition (along with Jews & others). Power-craving paranoid political NON-Christians who claimed and pretended to be Christians were the perps.
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Evil people like to grease their evil by attempting to wear the name Christian (or act in that name, or some other good mane to exploit) because it is such an effective way to cover themselves. It’s actually a testimony to the unique goodness of Christianity that evil people would so often exploit the label. Don’t judge reality by labels stuck on the surface. God doesn’t.
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The moral and quality-of-life record of all human movements are problematic and flawed. The moral and quality-of-life record of recent times for anti or non-Christian movements has been especially flawed:
1. The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution was very anti-clerical (anti_Catholic) and pro “goddess of Reason.”
2. Napoleonic total war took place on the coat-tails of a period of great hostility toward the Catholic church in France. Such things are more likely to happen (in my view) when Christian influence is weakened.
3. Marxist revolutions have been especially brutal.
4. Darwinian eugenics and racism (not to say that all Darwinism took that route but it did fuel it).
5. Bolshevik communism.
6. Lenin’s concentration camps (he invented them) and the gulags.
7. Stalin’s collectivization and his purges.
8. Italian fascism.
9. German Nazism and the gas chambers of Auschwitz. They held our Judeo-Christian heritage is deep disdain.
10. Third World “liberation” movements have been soooo bloody
11. Nasser’s Arab socialism.
12. Pol Pot’s killing fields.
13. Mao’s “Great Leap Forward.”
14. The Baathist regimes of Syria and Iraq.
15. Sandinista death squads.
16. Nicolae Ceausescu’s Securitate.
17. Those atheistic “paradises” on earth, Enver Hoxha’s Albania and Kim Il-Sung’s North Korea.
18. An estimated 100 million people were murdered in the name of atheism and/or communism in the 20th Century.
_____________________
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The Inquisition introduced the modern legal constructs of the adversary system, in which a trial consisted of both a prosecution and defense, and in which forensic evidence regarding the actual offense was considered by an impartial court, a huge step forward from trial by ordeal, or by combat and testimony consisted of character witnesses. Few offenses lead to executions, and first time convictions for heresy almost never did. Those convicted were always urged to recant, and only persistent, public, and defiant heretics were afforded the strictest punishments.
The Crusades were a response to Muslim aggression and there is no need for any Christian with accurate historical information to apologize for anything.
CAIR is a political propaganda arm for the Muslim Brotherhood, fully committed to a radical supremacist ideology with the aim of bringing the entire world under Sharia.
Obama apologizes for the accidental burning of some Qur’an; we wait in vain for any apologizing for the burning of Christians alive in their churches in Muslim countries like Egypt and Iraq.
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#25 Arcadia “There are lots of contemporary Christian killing machines out in the world today…”
Name one.
Since Christ condemned murder, anyone who murders is acting contrary to Christianity. But Muslims who murder and torture are acting in accordance with the teachings of Muhammad.
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Arcadia obviously favors the violence of the muslims living today because she uses their argument/justification: the crusades.
Why, pray tell, does Arcadia not expect them to become more civilized through the centuries. Beheadings then, beheadings now.
Just saw a news report on the koran burnings — an Afghani says he doesn’t want an apology, he wants the US out of his country. I say, let’s go, and take our money with us. Let them kill each other, not our men. They like living like animals. Let them.
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NJL, I agree that we should remove our military presence since we have completed the mission by destroying al Qaeda training camps and the chief perpetrator of 9/11. This incident is just another demonstration that political freedom, even if presented on a silver platter, will not cure spiritual darkness. There is only one cure for that, and He is the light.
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I don’t think anyone can fight for another’s freedom. Iraq will fail, too.
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“I don’t think anyone can fight for another’s freedom.”
Respectfully, I can’t agree with that. Still, much wisdom is needed for discerning when, where and how such fights should take place, or not.
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