Christians in Iran: Threatening Situation

ICC Note

Iranian Muslim converts to Christianity face death for abandoning Islam.

Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh

07/28/2009 Iran (Iran Press Watch)-The regime in Tehran is sending out mixed signals as to whether Iran’s Criminal Code will now impose the death penalty on Muslims who forsake Islam to convert to Christianity. A final decision on the question should finally be taken this autumn. The bill’s first reading in the Majlis last September passed by a large majority: 196 representatives voted yes, seven voted no, and there were two abstentions.

Now, supposedly, the Majlis has excised this intended change to the Criminal Code. According to media reports on June 27, the Chairman of the Majlis Legal Affairs Committee, Hojatoleslam Ali Schahroki, said that the regulation on “renunciation of Islam” wouldn’t even be mentioned in the bill. According to the Farsi Christian News Network, Christians in Iran are surprised and irritated by this statement, because the truth is that the Council of Guardians and the Supreme Leader have the final say on this unsettled question.

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Up to now, punishment for renunciation of Islam – also known as apostasy – has been practiced arbitrarily in Iran. Once it becomes part of the Criminal Code, every Iranian court would be bound to enforce it. It’s certain that Christians who convert from Islam will continue to be arrested and convicted. This doesn’t include so-called ethnic Christians – members of the Armenian and Assyrian churches – but specifically evangelical Christians who actively pursue missionary work. The independent online Persian news agency Rooz, which is critical of the regime, reported on July 15 that two Christian women, 30-year-old Marsiye Aminsadeh and 27-year-old Mariam Rostampur, had been arrested in Tehran about four months earlier. The pair are social workers who without pay, help people in trouble regardless of race or religion. The two Christians were charged with apostasy and violations of national security and are being held at the notorious Evin Prison. Interrogated on a daily basis, they are held under very harsh conditions with no access to legal or medical assistance. According to Rooz, there are currently at least 50 Christians in Iranian prisons in Tehran, Schiras, Maschad and Urumije, among others.

Recent political events in Iran have ushered in a new phase in the emergence of a totalitarian dictatorship. Pressure on Iranian Christians is growing just as foreign powers are being blamed for rioting that broke out due to the electoral fraud. The argument on the influence of foreign powers is well known to Iranian Christians. Under the Islamic regime, they are regularly accused of embracing Western influence. The narrative of these allegations is this: that Iranian Christians are often in touch with European or American churches and associate themselves with their networks. The regime focuses on this, even accusing them of spying for foreign powers. Time and again, Iranian Christians are held hostage to the regime’s problems with the West.

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It’s interesting in this context to assess how Iranian Christians behaved during the recent presidential election. The agency says that a majority of those who participated in the elections voted for presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mussawi because they hoped, “bad would be better than worse.” But the elections have clearly shown that the political system of “Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists [Velayat-e-faqih]” doesn’t allow opposing political positions to have a serious chance. Those who believed that there was a “minimal democracy” in Iran have now been disabused, according to FCNN.

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However, following the recent riots and repression, more and more Christians are abandoning Iran. Since the first government of Ahmadinejad came into office, the situation of Iranian Christians has worsened significantly. It’s not yet clear what the nature of the future threat will be. But at the same time, FCNN has reported on an increase of interest in Christianity among Iranian young people. At least 70 percent of Iranians support more freedom for religious minorities and support the separation of religion and state. The more people are impacted by the violence of despotic rule, the more they will be drawn toward Christianity.

Josef Hovsepian, son of Iranian Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr who was kidnapped and murdered in 1994, told FCNN in a conversation on July 4 that, “in times of crisis, the unity of our communities is strengthened.” In particular, “young people are looking for a religion that isn’t being forced on them.”

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