Iranian pastor refuses to reject religion, faces execution

[ButterflyBlood]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) -- 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."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/world/meast/iran-pastor-trial/

[yodermon]

1. um, not helping.

[vminfla]

8. The barbarism of apostacy laws

Too many people are killed because their religious beliefs run contrary to those with the guns.

[MADem]

2. Not surprising. The leadership (not the people) of Iran are a bunch of crazy assholes. NT

[No Elephants]

5. That is an oversimplification.

[MADem]

6. Perhaps--but it's also entirely true! nt

[No Elephants]

22. Something that is true can nonetheless be misleading, and relatively meaningless,

because it omits material facts.

Simply chalking this up to the insanity of Iranian leaders, and nothing more, is such an oversimplification that describing it as "true" is also a misleading oversimplification.

[MADem]

26. You're the one tossing in the "nothing more" caveats, not me.

It's not nice to put words in people's mouths...or ideas they don't hold in their heads.

If you want to discuss the subject, let's go. Otherwise, stop with the finger wagging. It's not adult.

[ButterflyBlood]

9. Still true regardless

nt

[No Elephants]

23. Please see Reply 22.

[socialshockwave]

3. Islamofascism at it's finest. n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Islam and the sharia at its finest

[No Elephants]

4. In Iraq, the Christian church was so far underground that Aramaic was still being used in services

[timtom]

10. That's weird...

I thought Tariq Aziz was a Christian.

[ButterflyBlood]

11. Might be talking about an underground house church network like this one

Aziz was a Chaldean Catholic, a recognized established church. There are a few in Iran too, but Muslims are forbidden from converting to them.

In this case though the guy has been a Christian his entire life. He's being charged with apostasy because some of his ancestors were Muslim, therefore one of his ancestors was the "apostate". But to the nuts in charge here it makes no difference.

[brooklynite]

12. He was...

...he was also Iraqi.

[No Elephants]

19. My post was about Iraq.

[No Elephants]

17. He was. So were a few others in high positions. My post should have ended "in some areas"

I thought I had written it that way, but, obviously, I didn't.

[No Elephants]

24. P.S. Thanks for pointing that out.

[riderinthestorm]

13. Despicable. "Convert or die" is still alive today. Religion sucks. nt

[CBHagman]

15. No, cruelty and intolerance are the problem...

...as well as misuse of power. Old story, not confined to people who purport to practice a particular faith. Take the Soviet Union and China, for instance.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. He was probably born muslim, and the sharia decrees death for apostasy

[ButterflyBlood]

21. No, he has been a Christian his entire life

However they dug up that he had some Muslims as ancestors, so by that decree he has to be a Muslim too with their little fucked up laws.

[No Elephants]

25. Before Islam, everyone in the Middle East was pagan or Christian or Jewish or

something other than Muslim.

Many of the original Christians of the Middle East first became Muslim under this same ultimatum: Convert or die.

So, how far back does he have to go to have a right to be Christian? Or do we always just conveniently stop the ancestry trail once when we find "some Muslims?"

(I realize you are not at all advocating for this policy, so my questions are purely rhetorical.)


.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

29. Try being Ba'hai in a muslim area

[ProgressiveProfessor]

28. We are in agreement...he was technically born Muslim under their sharia based laws

and the price of apostasy is death

[bananas]

14. Religious tolerance is a liberal value.

Religious intolerance is a conservative value.

[No Elephants]

18. Sometimes, it seems religious intolerance is a conservative religion.

[boppers]

20. Morons killing morons over their imaginary deities.

Lovely.

[LanternWaste]

27. We are indeed a planet of semi-morons

We also kill over imaginary red and blue lines on maps, imaginary political theories, imaginary pieces of credit and debit... seems to me that most wars are fought over imaginary things-- regardless of whether it's religion, economics, politics, or philosophies.

We are indeed a planet of semi-morons. Quite lovely indeed...

[boppers]

32. Once we solved the whole "how can we feed ourselves" problem with agriculture...

...we had to invent new reasons to kill?

[itcfish]

30. I Find This a Little Suspicious

There has to be more to the story. Christians and Jews are allowed to practice their religion in Iran with no problem. Only the 3 Abrahamic religions are allowed, all others are banned. This pastor must have done something and I find it strange that they would force him to convert.

[ButterflyBlood]

31. The issue is that he has Muslim ancestors

Therefore he "should" under the sharia law also be a Muslim, and as he isn't he is an apostate and should be put to death under their rather fucked up interpretation of the law.