Iran

Twenty years ago, Christian persecution in Iran rose suddenly along with the Islamic Revolution of 1979, reaching a peak in the 1990’s when several prominent church leaders were seized and executed.  In 2009, Iran again witnessed extreme tactics of imprisonment, torture and rape used by the Iranian government to terrorize and reduce the number of Christians within its borders.  It is no surprise that a totalitarian Islamic dictatorship would view Christianity as a threat to its religious and political authoritarianism. It is Iran’s strategy to eliminate any potential challenge to its sovereignty, and to intimidate its religious and political opponents.  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tyrannical regime is being challenged.  Iranians are on the street in mass (as seen during the June elections, National Student Day, and the Shi’ite holy day of Ashura) protesting Islamic coercion, and shouting, “Death to the dictator!”  On the brink of potential revolution, the Iranian reformist Green Movement, a coalition of agitated voices represented by the official color of movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, is demanding democratic revival, religious freedom and government regeneration.  Iranian jurisdiction has combated this threat with notorious tactics: murder, torture and imprisonment.  2009’s first opposition movement, a demonstration against President Ahmadinejad’s stolen election, witnessed the government killing of more than 73 protesters by the Revolutionary Guard, with hundreds more detained as ‘political’ prisoners. Directly connected to Iran’s revolution is the significant number of Iranians discovering the freedom found in Christ.  Presently, Christianity in Iran is spreading like never before.  Suppressed and disheartened by a tyrannical, incompetent and corrupt Islamic regime, many Muslims are encountering Jesus Christ.  This new-found hope has assisted the impetus of the country’s revolutionary fervor. Even before the June elections, the Iranian government was convinced that Christianity was growing beyond its control.  Many Christian conversions were a result of satellite television and radio Christian broadcasts.  The Iranian government has been active in obstructing television signals by erecting jamming towers in major cities, controlling phone lines to Christian television programs, and arresting house church leaders. Extremist Groups: Mojahadin-e-Khaleq (MEK)--This political opposition group has been implicated in several violent acts against Christians. As an armed group, it has been heavily oppressed by the government. Government: The Iranian Constitution declares that all “laws are based on Islamic criteria” and, in practice, the government severely restricts religious freedom, especially those of evangelical protestants.  Therefore, most Christians are forced to worship underground in house churches, with many choosing to keep their faith private so they will not be charged with apostasy (conversion from Islam), a “crime” punishable by death.  The total number of Christians in Iran is unknown, yet some estimate that there are as many as one to two million.