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EDITORIAL: PASTOR YOUSEF: CONVERT OR DIE
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/16/pastor-yousef-convert-or-die/
Dec 17 2011
Tehran delays execution to try to force Christian to apostatize
Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, the Iranian Christian cleric facing death
for the crime of apostasy against an Islamic faith he never held,
has been given a temporary stay of execution. Iran's top judge,
Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, instructed presiding Judge Ghazi Kashani
to delay carrying out capital punishment for a year in order to give
time for Mr. Nadarkhani to recant Christianity and become a Muslim.
The Iranian regime may be responding to international pressure. Mr.
Nadarkhani's case has become a prominent cause for the religious-rights
community. His story was first reported by Christian and Iranian
dissident websites, then by Western media outlets. On International
Human Rights Day, Dec. 9, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
called on "every government to release all prisoners of conscience
immediately and unconditionally, including Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani,
Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly [a Vietnamese Catholic priest], and the
2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo [dissident writer in prison
in China]."
Mr. Nadarkhani was arrested in his home city of Rasht in October 2009
for questioning Islamic control of religious instruction of Iranian
children. He was first charged with illegal protest and later with
the more serious crimes of apostasy and evangelizing Muslims. He
was convicted in September 2010 and sentenced to death. His wife
was given life in prison, and his attorney, Iranian human-rights
lawyer Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, was convicted separately of "actions
and propaganda against the Islamic regime," sentenced to nine years
in prison and barred from practicing law for a decade.
Mr. Nadarkhani appealed the death sentence, which was affirmed by
Iran's Supreme Court in June 2011. Prosecutors acknowledged he had
never been a Muslim as an adult but said the apostasy law still applies
because he has "Islamic ancestry." Hearings were held in September
to give Mr. Nadarkhani the opportunity to recant his faith and avoid
execution. When asked to repent his Christian beliefs, Mr.
Nadarkhani replied, "Repent means to return. What should I return to?"
The court pressed that he should return "to the religion of your
ancestors, Islam." Mr. Nadarkhani said, "I cannot."
The delay in carrying out the sentence buys time for the Iranian
regime, in hopes that Mr. Nadarkhani will either submit to Islam
or be forgotten by the international community and be executed in
secrecy, unnoticed. It's unlikely he will succumb to pressure. In
a 2010 prison epistle, he discussed at length the centrality of
suffering and sacrifice to his faith. The true believer, he wrote,
"does not need to wonder for the fiery trial that has been set on
for him as though it were something unusual, but it pleases him to
participate in Christ's suffering. Because the believer knows he will
rejoice in his glory."
Mr. Nadakhani counsels those following his case to, "Retain your souls
with patience. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret."
Iran's mullahs should be certain that if they sacrifice him on the
gallows, the world will know, and sit in judgment.
Photo: Iranian Christians attend Christmas Mass at St. Grigor Armenian
Catholic Church in Tehran on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. Iran has arrested
about 70 Christians since Christmas in a crackdown that demonstrates
the limits of religious tolerance by Islamic leaders, who often boast
they provide room for other faiths. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/16/pastor-yousef-convert-or-die/
Dec 17 2011
Tehran delays execution to try to force Christian to apostatize
Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, the Iranian Christian cleric facing death
for the crime of apostasy against an Islamic faith he never held,
has been given a temporary stay of execution. Iran's top judge,
Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, instructed presiding Judge Ghazi Kashani
to delay carrying out capital punishment for a year in order to give
time for Mr. Nadarkhani to recant Christianity and become a Muslim.
The Iranian regime may be responding to international pressure. Mr.
Nadarkhani's case has become a prominent cause for the religious-rights
community. His story was first reported by Christian and Iranian
dissident websites, then by Western media outlets. On International
Human Rights Day, Dec. 9, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
called on "every government to release all prisoners of conscience
immediately and unconditionally, including Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani,
Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly [a Vietnamese Catholic priest], and the
2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo [dissident writer in prison
in China]."
Mr. Nadarkhani was arrested in his home city of Rasht in October 2009
for questioning Islamic control of religious instruction of Iranian
children. He was first charged with illegal protest and later with
the more serious crimes of apostasy and evangelizing Muslims. He
was convicted in September 2010 and sentenced to death. His wife
was given life in prison, and his attorney, Iranian human-rights
lawyer Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, was convicted separately of "actions
and propaganda against the Islamic regime," sentenced to nine years
in prison and barred from practicing law for a decade.
Mr. Nadarkhani appealed the death sentence, which was affirmed by
Iran's Supreme Court in June 2011. Prosecutors acknowledged he had
never been a Muslim as an adult but said the apostasy law still applies
because he has "Islamic ancestry." Hearings were held in September
to give Mr. Nadarkhani the opportunity to recant his faith and avoid
execution. When asked to repent his Christian beliefs, Mr.
Nadarkhani replied, "Repent means to return. What should I return to?"
The court pressed that he should return "to the religion of your
ancestors, Islam." Mr. Nadarkhani said, "I cannot."
The delay in carrying out the sentence buys time for the Iranian
regime, in hopes that Mr. Nadarkhani will either submit to Islam
or be forgotten by the international community and be executed in
secrecy, unnoticed. It's unlikely he will succumb to pressure. In
a 2010 prison epistle, he discussed at length the centrality of
suffering and sacrifice to his faith. The true believer, he wrote,
"does not need to wonder for the fiery trial that has been set on
for him as though it were something unusual, but it pleases him to
participate in Christ's suffering. Because the believer knows he will
rejoice in his glory."
Mr. Nadakhani counsels those following his case to, "Retain your souls
with patience. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret."
Iran's mullahs should be certain that if they sacrifice him on the
gallows, the world will know, and sit in judgment.
Photo: Iranian Christians attend Christmas Mass at St. Grigor Armenian
Catholic Church in Tehran on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. Iran has arrested
about 70 Christians since Christmas in a crackdown that demonstrates
the limits of religious tolerance by Islamic leaders, who often boast
they provide room for other faiths. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)