Empty Altar: Iran Arrests Leading Christian Minister and Drags Him Off Altar In Middle Of Services
jonathanturley
The Iranian government is continuing its crackdown on non-Muslim faiths this month with a shocking arrest of a minister in the middle of a service at Iran’s largest Persian-language Pentecostal church. One can only imagine the response of Muslims in the country if a Muslim cleric was arrested in the middle of a service in another country. However, the Iranian government pulled Pastor Robert Asserian off the altar and literally dragged him out of the church. The move is viewed as a warning to non-Muslims before the June 14 presidential election to replace President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Muslim clerics are alarmed by the rise in Christian services and do not want services conducted in Farsi (as opposed to Armenian which most Iranians cannot understand).
Iranian police also searched the minister’s home and took his computer and books.
So it appears that some religious freedom will be tolerated in Iran so long as it is not in a language that people can actually understand. Only the Mullahs of Iran would view that as a principled position.
