MyFox Memphis, TN
May 29 2008

Report: Iran Arrests Suspected Converts to Christianity

Last Edited: Thursday, 29 May 2008, 2:45 PM CDT
Created: Thursday, 29 May 2008, 2:45 PM CDT

By Joseph Abrams

05/29/2008 —

Amid a growing crackdown on religious freedom, Iranian police
reportedly have been rounding up people they suspect have converted to
Christianity.

On May 11, police arrested eight people in the southern city of
Shiraz, according to Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, a
Christian organization that fights religious persecution.

Converting from Islam is a crime in Iran; converts can face jail and
other penalties.

Most of those detained have been released, but at least one of them,
21-year-old Mojtaba Hussein, is still behind bars and is not
cooperating with his captors, according to Moeller.

`He may not be willing to give up the names of other Muslim
converts. He may not be willing to recant his faith himself,’ Moeller
said.

Numerous calls to Iranian government representatives in the U.S. have
not been returned.

Though they are protected under the Iranian constitution, Christians
are not given the same freedoms as other citizens in Iran. Christians
can’t worship freely or hold public office, and they can be arrested
for even speaking to Muslims about Christianity.

`Such people are persecuted, and particularly in the 1990s such
converts were killed – it’s thought by government agents,’ said Paul
Marshall, a senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom at the
Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

Under the watchful eye of the Iranian government, many have been
forced to worship in secret and are moving underground into what are
called house churches -although some sects, such as Armenians and
Syrians, have been allowed to worship in churches.

`With [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad as president, the Iranians are
intensifying the religious dimension of their rule,’ Marshall
said. `The concern about the religious purity of the regime has become
stronger in the last two or three years.’

Earlier this year, Ahmadinejad proposed a law that would impose a
death sentence for any Muslim who converts to another religion. Under
current laws, those charged with converting can be prosecuted and face
jail time for vague crimes like `blasphemy’ and `insulting Islam.’

Marshall said these restrictive policies may be creating a backlash
among Muslims. `There are indications that with the deep unpopularity
of the regime that people are turning away from Islam,’ he said.

`Seeing Muslims converting to Christianity is directly threatening to
an Islamic regime,’ said Moeller.

He compared these small groups of converts to early Christians living
under the yoke of the Roman Empire, who met in secret and whose
beliefs were `dependent on dreams, visions, signs and wonders.’

Because Bibles are rare in Iran and teachings are not "as dependent on
the Bible as Evangelical Christianity in America is,’ said Moeller,
there is a `real lack of scriptural foundation."

But despite the growing pressure from the state, worshippers continue
to practice, and Moeller said the house church system seems to be
growing.

`We’ve got confirmed reports of groups of Muslim convert believers
doubling in size in the last six months,’ he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress