Various news sites are reporting that four Christians have been sentenced in Iran to 80 lashes each for drinking communion wine at services and possessing a satellite antenna. Behzad Taalipasand, Mehdi Reza Omidi (Youhan), Mehdi Dadkhah (Danial) and Amir Hatemi (Youhanna) were reportedly arrested during a house service in December. These house services are efforts of Iranian Christians to practice their faith in the face of the continued Iranian crackdown on non-Muslims. The cases have been made public in the aftermath of a United Nations report criticizing the denial of religious freedom in Iran.
The report contradicts Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s suggestion that Iran will seek to reduce such punishments.
In the new UN report by Ahmed Shaheed, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, maintained that the denial of religious freedom continues unabated: “At least 20 Christians were in custody in July 2013. In addition, violations of the rights of Christians, particularly those belonging to evangelical Protestant groups, many of whom are converts, who proselytize to and serve Iranian Christians of Muslim background, continue to be reported.”
Notably, Iran’s state-controlled news source Press TV featured an Iranian official from the UN mission saying that Shaheed “has not paid sufficient notice to Iran’s legal system and Islamic culture and considers whatever he sees in the West as an international standard for the entire world.” So, Iran is arguing that religious freedom cannot be defined as the actual exercise of religious freedom. That is just a Western conceit, it appears. It is similar to the argument used to create an international blasphemy standard that the notion of free speech in the West must yield to Islamic sensibilities. It is all part of an effort to portray basic human rights as a fluid and varied concept. We have heard some of the same views on this blog with people accusing us (well, me) of constantly imposing American values in discussing cases from other countries. However, civil libertarians do not advocate free speech or free exercise or free association as “American values.” They happen to be guaranteed in our Constitution but they are basic human rights.
The Iranian effort to redefine freedom of religion in a new Islamic image shows the real purpose behind claiming cultural intolerance in asserting basic civil liberties. In this distorted way, freedom of speech cannot include anti-religious speech and freedom of religion cannot include practice of other religions.
This view is not confined to rogue nations like Iran of course. Our close allies like Saudi Arabia routinely deny the same rights. The Saudis will not allow the construction of a church and, like many Muslim countries, makes both blasphemy and apostasy a crime. The new effort of Muslim countries to create a relativistic standard for basic rights is all the more menacing with Saudi Arabia seeking a seat on the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. A nation that denies basic rights to women, cuts the heads and hands off of wrongdoers, denies freedom of religion, bars free speech, and imposes Sharia law insists that it should help set the standards for human rights in the world. Like Iran, the Saudis argue that these concepts must reflect different religious and cultural approaches.
These efforts should put civil libertarians on notice. These countries are using “cultural sensitivity” and tolerance arguments to negate individual rights. Civil libertarians need to hold the line globally in defense of rights are must be complete and consistent to have any meaning in the modern world.
Thank you for the report. Christians are expecting a lot worse treatment when the global elite will mandate injectable ID’s.
Well what do you expect….
i have a comment apparently eaten by WP can someone please get it out for me…..
Thanking you in advance
BLESS YOU ALL/…
lies all the way around and NO!!!! im not saying mr turley is lying i am saying the news service and corporations are lying…. why is it we keep hearing only about what so called fanatics in the middle eastern countries are doing… when reality is israel is doing much worse. AND YES JULIET N IM ONCE AGAIN SHOWING MY ANTI SEMITIC SIDE…… every side of organized religion has been influxed with judaism which is from the torah. of which is combined with kabbalah and that is satanic worshipping……the muslims true muslims know exactly what is happening and who is behind it.. and they protest everyday but in the lame stream media the lie is told that they are fighting to instill sharia law…. the only ones trying to force thru sharia law is cia.mossad/mi5/mi6 agents…………
as long as satanic jews can keep the world focused on so called muslim terrorist then YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO MURDEROUS JEWS.
you know the ones who run the real corporation and now the bs we are allowed to know about… the ones who owns the banks that have robbed and enslaved the people… the same bankers who say ‘ hey you need a loan come to us we’ll help you….. and all you have to do is pay us 92% in interest.. and if at anytime you cant pay that interest we are taking everything you own and then some…
Hey john we need this land to build more condos…
but mortimer this land is owned by the williams family and they dont want to sell to us..
what do you mean they dont want to sell to us? the land and house are only worth $250,000 we offered them 60,000 for it all and they refused? hell we are being generous by offering them that… well since they are refusing to sell us the land and take the pennies we offered. then we’ll take it from them anyway and leave them broke. via eminent domain damn it i want those towers up by the beginning of the new year!
ok john new towers by the beginning of the year it is….. sound like any banks you heard of ?
now research who the world bankers are?
research who the billionaires are?
research who runs hollyweird?
research who runs the music industry?
research who runs the fashion industry?
research who runs wall st?
and after you research all of that you tell me how many of them are muslims vs how many are jews?
dont worry i dont plan on dying just yet….chemo and radiation aside
This is just one more sad example of what happens when countries mix religion and government.
[in sainted mantra]
“I play dominos, you play dominos, I can beat you at dominos!”
That is the kind of thing that gets you killed in a Pirate Territory like Iran. The “students” will enforce the anti Christian reprisals.
You CAN have a state that is Islamic in character, just as Israel is Jewish in character, but both kinds of state need to respect minority religions. Israel does respect Moslems. They have lots of them. Only Israeli extremists ever attack Moslems and that is rare. Moslems are in their legislature.
So it’s OK to have a Jewish State but not an Islamic State?
daystart, Welcome and thanks. Don’t feel like you should only comment on issues like this. Read and comment on any post you have something to say. We need more perspectives here.
True Muslims (we need to hear from them) will testify that the Quran calls Christians ‘People of the Book,’ that is, an acceptable religion. This should not be happening, therefore, according to the Quran. Baha’is by the way (I am one) are totally out of luck in Iran, being considered heretics and not “of the Book.” I call on Muslim friends to let all of us know that this in not true Muslim teachings or action to persecute persons of other religions.
I have gotten to know some Iraqi Christians in San Diego. Stereotypically, they own all the convenience stores. The stories of what they endured under Sadam Hussein is akin to this. These people came here escaping tyranny and love this country more than most people born here. We take our freedoms for granted, they don’t.
The WMD bullshit isn’t working so let’s use the mistreating Christians rhetoric. It’s almost predictable. Next we’ll be hearing that they’re ripping babies out of incubators and tossing them out windows.
Oh, yes the moderates are truly on the rise in Iran! But Iran is no more a rogue nation than Saudi Arabia and others in the ME whose idea of freedom is an Islam only sign with small type that says “only our version of Islam mind you”. The shame is that the US in an attempt to look “inclusive” or tolerant is backing international blasphemy “standards” . Freedom looks very strange in today’s world.
The Word Press Teetotalers forbade my commentary communion.
Teetotalers are mutating it would seem:
(Wikipedia, Teetotalism). Some atheists also demand teetotally perfect abstinence from the imbibing of any and all religion.
Madness is popular.
Maybe it was only “students” who were involved in flogging the Christians. There were not any pedophile priests involved were there?
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.