The Iranian Parliament voted in favor of a bill Tuesday that would punish apostasy with the death penalty, a human rights group reported.
Lawmakers approved the bill with 196 votes in favor, seven against, and two abstentions, according to U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The draft bill seeks to add several crimes to the list of acts that would result in execution, including “establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution, and apostasy.”
CSW advocacy director Alexa Papadouris commented, “It is deeply worrying to hear that just days after Matin-Azad and Basirat have been charged with apostasy at a court in Shiraz, the Iranian Parliament is debating a bill that could codify the death penalty for someone choosing their own religion.”
Mahmoud Mohammad Matin-Azad, 53, and Arash Ahmad-Ali Basirat, 40, are Christian-converts from Islam who were charged with apostasy last week at the Public and Revolutionary Court in Shiraz, Iran. They are currently awaiting the court’s verdict and have been detained since May 15.
In August, there were five known arrests of Iranian Christians in three cities by authorities, according to the persecution watchdog agency Compass Direct News. Among those arrested was Ramtin Soodmand, who is the son of the last Christian convert to be executed for leaving Islam, on Aug. 21.
Soodmand’s father, Hossein Soodmand, was an Assemblies of God pastor who was executed by the state in 1990 under the false charge of working as an American spy. Since Soodmand’s death, six other Protestant pastors have been assassinated by unknown assailants.
The younger Soodmand has been held in Tehran since he voluntarily turned himself in after repeated calls from the Ministry of Information. According to Compass sources, he was only allowed one phone call to his blind mother on Aug. 23, and allowed a “visit” by his wife and two young children where authorities only permitted them to have a two-minute conversation by phone. They never saw each other and his condition remains unknown.
Iran is ranked third in Open Doors’ World Watch List for countries with the worst persecution of Christians. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also lists Iran as a “Country of Particular Concern,” a label given to countries with the worst religious freedom abuses.
Reportedly, Iran had removed news of the bill’s approval from its Parliament website within hours of publishing it on Tuesday, according to CSW. But reports of the bill’s process in parliament was published by other official Iranian news agencies, including IRINN (Islamic Republic of Iran News Network) and morning papers inside Iran, such as Resalat.
“We call upon the British Government and the European Union to officially respond to this new development and urge the Iranian Government to reject the bill and guarantee the immediate release of all who are detained on the basis of their religious beliefs alone,” Papadouris of Christian Solidarity plead.
The approved bill will be sent back to the Legislative Commission to debate proposed amendments before it is brought back to the Parliament for another vote.
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I am an Indonesian Christian and thank the Lord Jesus Christ that we do not have the sharia as law here but our National Constitution, not that the Islamist Jihadist ever stop trying to change it and impose sharia. But that shall never happens as long as Nationalist here unite and the Spirit of the Lord guides and protects us.
For Islamic Republic of Iran case, this is where Christian worldwide needs to be united and pressure Iran to stop persecuting Christians.
I am not talking about the west, forget about it, but the whole 2 billion plus Christian worldwide - needs to be united in prayers and effort to stop this death penalty for apostasy.
Oh yeah, right, they hate us for our freedom. Of course, that's the reason. What other reason could there possibly be?..............LOL
But scitsonga, I thought they hated us for our freedom? :)
dp "It was carved up by the winners. That's how war works...."
Please study up on the history of the ME before you make any additional comments about the ME, you obviously are lacking in knowledge on the subject. Your not alone, very few Americans know or even care about ME history even though we have fought a number of wars there now. If Americans realized, or even cared, about the abuses in the ME by the US, they might not be so enthusiastic about our "liberation' of Iraq. Perhaps there too would be a better appreciation for why the Iranians call us the "great satan" and have a desire to gain nuclear weapons- to protect themselves just as other nuclear capable countries have done. I keep suggesting to you all here on CP to edify yourselves on the history of the ME, but seem reluctant to do so. I guess it conflicts with your perceived world-view. Sorry about that. Well anyway, let me help you out. During WWI there was an agreement that TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) made with the Arabs. He told them that he was instructed by the British government to promise them that if they, the Arabs, fought alongside Britain and its allies to defeat the Ottoman's (allied with the Germans), that the Arabs would be granted independence from the influences of the Ottomans and from the West. At the end of WWI and fall of the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France went back on their promise completely. Between the two of them, they carved up the ME, for oil and strategic interests. Iraq's borders are a result of that carve-up. The borders have little in the way of historical significance, but rather more a convenience for the European powers in which culturally disparate peoples were put together. Dictatorships in Persian and Arab lands was the result. The US a bit later joined in to get their share of the oil spoils. Today we see the problems in the ME as a result- terrorism directed towards the west and war. From oppression comes terrorism, we are now reaping what we sowed in the ME. Perhaps now you might realize the origins of 9-11.
"The ME was carved up by the West following the end of WWI mainly for oil at the expense of freedom and independence of the peoples of the ME."
It was carved up by the winners. That's how war works....
ohowy "Why is it that Muslims always justify todays evil actions by reffering to things that happened a thousand years ago."
Actually crimes against Muslims and the peoples of the ME by the West (Britain, US, and to a lesser extent France) are of more recent times. The ME was carved up by the West following the end of WWI mainly for oil at the expense of freedom and independence of the peoples of the ME.
Big problems were created in Iran by the US and Britain when they overthrew the Iranian prime minister, Mohammed Mosaddeq in 1953 and installed the West's' puppet dictator- the Shah, he would then become a loyal US business partner- OIL & WEAPONS as opposed to Mosadddeq who wanted nationalize the Iranian oil industry as he had every right to do as a representative of the Iranian people. The Shah's brutal reign finally ended with the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the unfortunate rise to power of the Mullah's. If not for US meddling in Iran, it might today be a democratic republic. There is a similar circumstance today in Saudi Arabia, it is ruled by a corrupt and autocratic royal family. Like the Shah, they are important business partners of the US- the US sells them weapons and the US military machine protects the royal family, they in turn sell us oil. The SA royal family is also friends and business partners to the bush family. So much for US defenders of democracy in the ME.
Perhaps now you can get some idea why millions of Muslims and Middle Easterners are weary of the West. Perhaps its time to let the peoples of the ME solve their own problems. I recommend that you do a bit of research on the Middle East and the West's influence there in the 20th C to better learn about the complicated relationship between the peoples of the West and ME before you make a blanket condemnation of Muslims.
The persecution of Christians by Muslims has started in the U.K. and will eventually come here to America. It is time to end all Muslim immigration, including student visas.
No Bible Zone U.K.
http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2008/06/no-bible-zone-uk.html
"Daniel: Are you mentally ill? Seriously."
Actually, I think Ethan may be ill thinking that Iran is enabled to have these positions because of people like me!
"You are everything that is wrong with the united states and x-tianity."
I had NO idea I was that powerful to be completely responsible for all that is wrong with this country. I thought you once posted that was Bush. Perhaps you could make up your mind!
:-)
Daniel: Are you mentally ill? Seriously. The article is about aposty in Iran and the death penalty and somehow you manage to blame it on the gays. Unbelievable. You are everything that is wrong with the united states and x-tianity.
Just FYI:
dhimmis---
"the people of the dhimma or pact of protection, Ottoman Turkish zimmi) is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law. The term connotes an obligation of the state to protect the individual, including the individual's life, property, and freedom of religion and worship, and required loyalty to the empire, and a poll tax known as the jizya."
You must be new around here, Ethan, if that's what you think!!! :D
I find it utterly wrong for government to tell people what they must believe and that they should deny their religious beliefs. I was appauled when a Christian doctor in CA was told he must pay a fine for standing up for his religious convictions. It is liberals like the gays that force their beliefs on others through the courts. They are the ones who behave like Iran.
"It is people like you who enable regimes like Iran"
How so? Just curious since I have a son that just deployed.
Daniel Paul... It is people like you who enable regimes like Iran. Iran knows there are many dhimmis' out there...
"Actually, for all the "bible believin' christians" you should be supportive of this, after all, it is in the bible."
So is not standing between a fool and his folly... thus I will not reply.... :D
We are expected to suffer for our LORD & MASTER JESUS CHRIST.
Actually, for all the "bible believin' christians" you should be supportive of this, after all, it is in the bible.
Ooops, Just in case someone is confused by what I mean by "troll" in my previous post I offer the following from "Wikipedia:"
"An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion."
The best way to deal with a "troll" is to ignore them. Hence, "Don't feed the troll."
PAX
ohowy:
With regards to philo777 - don't feed the troll.
PAX
philo777 there is a reason that we useby words like Dark Ages to refer to the period when such things happened. Why is it that Muslims always justify todays evil actions by reffering to things that happened a thousand years ago. "Its to kill you because a thousand years ago someone in a country similar to yours which you most likely have no link to killed unders a similar argument". Well that makes it ok then, now I dont mind them killing people for exercising a human right to choose their religion. thankyou for enlightening us philo777
That's right, Christians would never, ever pass any law like that, right? Only you have, haven't you? I seem to remember a time.........
They fear God, and evil is always trying to distroy him . We know that when the time comes God will distroy all evil.. Lets be in prayer for all our Christian Brothers and sisters. -- One way only -- Jesus the son of the Living God ...
May God protect these people, and may He open the way for the Gospel to be preached and for people to respond affirmatively.