Two Iranian Christian women were acquitted recently of apostasy charges and were allowed to leave their country, the Baptist Press (BP) reported.

According to the BP Marzieh Amirizadeh, 31,  and Maryam Rostampour, 28, were charged with apostasy for converting to Christianity.  They spent more than 250 days in jail for their faith.

While in prison Amirizadeh and Rostampour were repeatedly placed under great pressure to recant and deny Jesus Christ. They faced repeated interrogations, weeks in solitary confinement, and unhealthy prison conditions. Both became seriously sick during their imprisonment and did not receive the treatment they needed. Senior judges and officials also intimidated them.

Amirizadeh said, “We have seen the Lord do miracles over and over again.  He sustained us during a very difficult period.”  She also thanked those who prayed saying, “I have no doubt that God heard the prayers of His people,” the BP reported.

Rostampour, 28, said “I believe our arrest, imprisonment and subsequent release were in the timing and plan of God and it was all for His glory.  The prayers of people encouraged and sustained us throughout this ordeal,” according to the BP.

The two women faced possible death sentences for converting to Christianity and for reportedly engaging in evangelistic activities and Bible distribution.  They were arrested in March 2009 and held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison until Nov. 18 when they were given a conditional release, the BP said.

The apostasy charges however were not dismissed, and Amirizadeh and Rostampour endured a difficult six months waiting for their case to be heard in an Islamic court, where they could have been sentenced to prison again, the BP reported.

According to the BP, both young women told an Islamic judge that they would never deny their faith in Christ.  The International Christian Concern (ICC), a human rights organization, helped publicize the women’s plight.

According to Aidan Clay, ICC’s Middle East regional manager, “Their faith and endurance has been an encouragement to countless believers throughout the world,” the BP reported.

The women were warned that any future Christian activity in Iran would be seriously dealt with.  It has not been specified to which country Amirizadeh and Rostampour traveled, the BP said.

Rostampour was quoted as saying, “We hope to eventually share some of what the Lord allowed us to go through to highlight the need and the opportunity for the church in Iran, but right now we will take time to pray and seek the Lord for His will,” the BP reported.

A Christian leader in Pakistan called recently for the formation of a separate Christian province in the country, according to the Pakistan Christian Post.

Nazir S. Bhatti, head of the Pakistan Christian Congress  said recently that Pakistan has become a safe haven for Islamic extremist organizations.  As a result, they can wage Jihad against the Pakistan government at any time, the PCP reported.

Because of this, Bhatti recommended dividing the Punjab into four provinces, including a Christian province to preserve the country’s solidarity and integrity.  Christians are the second largest population in Punjab, according to the PCP.

As of now, some 20 million Pakistani Christians are victims of discrimination and denied equal democratic rights in Pakistan, the PCP said.  Nazir Bhatti noted:

• Christians are treated like slaves and untouchables.
• Christians may not dine in Muslim owned restaurants nor drink water in the same glass as Muslims in public places.
• One elected Christian member of the National Assembly of Pakistan was forced to pay for cups, glasses and plates when his delegation ate food from a roadside Muslim vendor.
• Muslim Imams call Christianity a religion of infidels.
• Muslims may force Christian wives to convert, but they may not eat with them.
• If a Christian is found to be eating a Muslim dinner, they will be beaten.
• Christians may not enter the catering business in Pakistan.
• Muslims must not eat food prepared by Christians.

According to Bhatti, the All India Christian Association favored the formation of Pakistan as a separate country upon the assurance that both faiths shall enjoy equal rights.  With this assurance, Christians in the Pakistan Movement played a large role in gaining the country’s independence in 1947.

However after the legislation of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1973 Christians became second class citizens in their own land, according to the PCP.

Bhatti noted that historically, Christians were sons of Pakistan soil, while Muslims were invaders who migrated from Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Bhatti said the Muslims forcibly converted Sindhi, Balochi and indigent Punjabi to Islam, the PCP reported.

Two academics who are also respected book authors said recently that secularism is just as much a religion as is Christianity and Islam.

Margaret Somerville, director of the Center of Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, recently called secularism “The most encompassing religion that functions as a basket holding all the other [secular faiths],” in an article she wrote for The Montreal Gazette.

In Somerville’s article, “Religion has a role to play in the public square” she wrote, “It’s a mistake to accept that secularism is neutral. It too is a belief system used to bind people together. We need all voices to be heard in the democratic public square, and they have a right to be heard.”

Somerville also wrote the book, The Ethical Imagination:  Journeys of the Human Spirit.

Her views were echoed by Ian Buruma, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights & Journalism at Bard College, NY.  In rd magazine Buruma said,  “Secularism can be turned into a kind of dogma of its own which is the case of France after the revolution.  Reason was almost treated as a matter of faith.”

Buruma, who also wrote the book Taming the Gods, said secularism, like laicite is ideological.  “To extol reason as the highest form of human expression, that wants to ban religious symbols from public places and so on…it can become quite dogmatic, which secularism doesn’t have to be,” according to rd magazine.

Somerville cited a wide range of secular religions, quoting religious studies scholars Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young.

Some examples are humanism, atheism, scientism and moralism which all have adherents bound through a common belief and ideology.

Somerville said they are harmful when, as Richard Dawkins does with scientism, they are used to deny any space for spirituality and traditional  religion in the public square and replaced with secularism, according to The Montreal Gazette.

Somerville adds that separation of church and state is simply a doctrine meant to protect the state from being controlled or wrongfully interfered with by a religion or religions, and to protect religions, within their valid sphere of operation, from state interference or control.

She contrasts this with Islamic societies like Iran where no separation exists, and China where the government interferes in the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops.

She concludes, “Values conflicts cannot be solved by excluding religious voices from the public square. On the contrary, doing so is likely to exacerbate those conflicts.”

Question: “Would the discovery of Noah’s Ark be important?”

Answer:
There have been numerous claimed discoveries of Noah’s Ark in recent years. The discoveries have been in various locations, ranging from Mount Ararat in Turkey, to a mountain range in Iran, to an entirely different location on Mount Ararat (with a visitors’ center).

It is not the purpose of this article to evaluate whether or not the Noah’s Ark discovery claims are legitimate. Rather, the question at hand is: If Noah’s Ark was discovered, would that be significant? Would the discovery of Noah’s Ark cause people to turn to God in faith?

The discovery of a boat-like structure in the mountains of the Middle East, carbon dated to approximately the time of the biblical account of Noah’s Ark (2500 B.C), with evidence of animal life once having been aboard would surely be a tremendous discovery.

For those who believe in God and trust in the Bible as His inspired Word, it would be powerful confirmation that the Bible is true and that early human history occurred precisely as the Bible describes it.

A verified discovery of Noah’s Ark would likely cause many seekers and open-minded skeptics to at least re-evaluate their beliefs. For the close-minded critic and hardened atheist, however, the discovery of Noah’s Ark would not make one bit of a difference.

Romans 1:19-20 declares, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (ESV).

If a person is rejecting the clear evidence of God in the universe, no biblically-related discovery would change his/her mind. Similarly, in Luke 16:31, Jesus declared, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” No discovery, no argument, and no miracle will change the mind of a person who has been blinded by Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4) and is, with a hard heart and closed mind, rejecting the light of the Gospel.

Conversely, would it matter if Noah’s Ark is never discovered? No, it would not matter because the Christian faith is not built on every biblical account being explicitly/conclusively proven. The Christian faith is built on faith. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). With that in mind, though, there are two primary explanations for why Noah’s Ark might never be discovered. First, the wood of the Ark would have been very valuable post-Flood. Noah and his family would have needed wood to build their homes.

It is possible that Noah and his family, or their descendants, deconstructed the Ark and used its wood for other purposes. Second, even if Noah and his family left the Ark intact, approximately 4500 years have passed (if the biblical account is interpreted strictly literally). A wooden structure exposed to harsh elements for 4500 years would, for the most part, decompose/decay into virtual nothingness.

While the discovery of Noah’s Ark would be a tremendous and powerful archaeological find, it will never be something Christians should place their faith in.

The discovery of Noah’s Ark, or the Ark of the Covenant, or the Garden of Eden, or any other biblical artifact will not prove the Christian faith and will not change the mind of anyone whom God is not drawing (John 6:44). “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Recommended Resource:
Bible Answers for Almost All Your Questions by Elmer Towns.

The U.S. Commision on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted in its recent 2010 annual report that President Obama has fallen short of doing what he can to lobby for the protection of religious freedom in the world.

The report noted that until now, President Obama has failed to appoint an Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom, a request that was made to him last month in a petition signed by lawmakers, scholars and human rights groups.

The same petition requested that the position be given equal level to other Ambassadors-At-Large who report directly to the Secretary of State, according to The Christian Post.

The USCIRF also noted that under Obama’s watch, no countries have been rated CPC, or “countries of particular concern” for having the worst religious violations.

Such a rating can prompt government action including trade restrictions, sanctions, embargoes, and withholding of military or financial aid, among others, The Christian Post said.

The same report said that the USCIRF, an independent US government commission, made these observations even as it said that with every year the issue becomes less and less important to the White House and the State Department.

The position of Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom, for example, was created in 1998, but it had only been filled in its initial year, and has remained vacant since 1999.

The commission warned Obama that failure to fill the position sent a message to the international community that religious freedom is not an important issue to the American government, the Christian Post said.

The same report noted that USCIRF took issue with the fact that Obama rarely mentioned religious freedom when he visited Ankara and Cairo last year.

Furthermore, Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton replaced the words religious freedom with “freedom of worship.”

The commission said authoritarian governments could skirt the issue by noting that faiths that are okay with them can freely worship.

Credit:svilen001/sxc.hu

They could also permit only token houses of worship for minority faiths.

According to CNN, the USCIRF also reported that:

* Over 24 countries are religious freedom offenders and practice religious persecution.

* Forms of religious persecution may include imprisonment, murder, being fired from jobs, and being kicked out of universities; being forbidden to have bank accounts, driver’s licenses and even birth certificates, among others.

* 13 countries should be rated CPC or “countries of particular concern” because they have the worst religious violations. These countries include Myanmar (Burma), China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Suda, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

* 12 countries on the watch list are Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.

* The report has five more countries under CPC rating than does the State Department’s 2009 report, which did not include Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan or Vietnam.

* 3 countries, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka, should be closely monitored.

Specific Countries

* Egypt. Members of the Baha’I faith and minority Muslim sects are imprisoned, fired from jobs, kicked out of universities, and barred from having bank accounts, birth certificates and driver’s licenses.

* Nigeria. A decade of violence between Muslims and Christians in the Jos state recently culminated in 500 men, women and children hacked to death with machetes and dumped into wells.

* China. Cracked down on Uyghur Muslims in the west.

* Iran. Labeled domestic political opponents “enemies of God” which is a capital offense and can merit severing of the head.

* Eritrea. Harassment of Orthodox Church members and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

* Vietnam. Imprisonment of Buddhists and Protestants.

The USCIRF report urged the government to double its efforts to protect international religious freedom and to raise issues of abuse to the highest levels of the world community, the Christian Post said.

“Anything less betrays our history and values, and fails to leverage the extraordinary capacity we have as a nation to promote religious freedom and related human rights for all,” the report said.

The United Nations’ Second World Conference on Racism (April, 2009) claimed that it would focus on all forms of defamation of religion. 

When it became known that Iranian President Ahmadinejad would be speaking at the Conference, also known as the Durban Conference II, many countries withdrew (see EuropeNews report).

When Ahmadinejad spoke, he accused western nations of defending a form of Israeli Zionism which he considers racist. From that point on, the Conference focused on one thing—“Islamophobia.” Islamophobia implies fearfulness of the Islamic faith and hatred of all Muslims.

The word Islamophobia has been popularized since accusations began against terrorists from Muslim backgrounds after September 11, 2001. In the last couple of years, it has become more and more politically incorrect to denounce even the most radical Islamic terrorism. The term Islamophobia is now being stretched to mean that if you fear or speak out against extreme Islamic terrorism, or you express suspicions of it, then you hate all Muslims. This equation is unfair and untrue. 

Now, the United Nations (UN) is considering a ”Defamation of Religions” resolution by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the largest group of nations within the UN.  Ironically, the OIC itself is made up mostly of nations under dictatorship or tyrannical leadership; many formally recognizing Islam or an Eastern faith as their state religion, and are almost completely intolerant of other religions. Some OIC nations have appeared on the U.S. State Department’s list of “nations of concern” for human rights and religious rights violations. See this 2008 State Department list for example.

The OIC has pushed for this for nearly a decade (per a 2008 Washington Times article), and they have made much headway. Although continued anti-Semitism toward Jewish people and intimidation of Christians has been increasing in many countries which were formerly quite tolerant of various other faiths, the only faith people are afraid to offend today is Islam.

The UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group, has decried this latest OIC resolution
as an attempt to imply that defamation of religion makes the Islamic faith itself the real victim of 9/11 –not the 3,000 people who actually died in the attack.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union suggests that a resolution like this would make simple religious disagreement a crime of blasphemy as it already is in some Middle Eastern and Asian countries. This could be especially dangerous if the country considers blasphemy (or “apostasy”) a crime deserving of life imprisonment or death.

Forbidding hate speech against Muslims, and against Islam as a faith, is of course understandable. There are many good and decent Muslims around the world. However, we shouldn’t stop people from speaking out against past terrorism, or expressing warning signs of forthcoming acts of possible terrorism. Case in point: the now-known fact that no one reported the earlier suspicious remarks and activities of the Fort Hood attacker, who – if not a terrorist – was influenced to a certain extent by a jihadist mindset. Instead, the government and media are jumping through hoops to create other scenarios for him.

Another case: In 2007, a University of Florida student group was censored by school authorities from passing out information about a movie revealing the dangers of radical Islamic terrorism. By using the description “radical” before the word “Islamic” and then the word “terrorism” in the title, the flier bearers made it clear that they didn’t want to offend Muslims who disagree with radical Islamic terrorism. Still, according to the Tampa Tribune, the University censored the group’s fliers for not being in the best interest of diversity.  

We must be able to recognize and identify our enemies. True, there is home-grown American terrorism, like Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. But  avoiding the real possibilities of “extreme Islamic terrorism” is a mistake. In the name of tolerance, events are escalating to desensitize us into our own demise. We are becoming an increasingly easier target.

Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh (last name posted as Esmaeilabad in some reports) were released from Iran’s Evin prison on Wednesday, November 18. They’d been held there since their arrest in March on various charges in connection with their Christian faith. On trial during the summer, neither would recant their Christianity even at the promise of being set free (see The Underground’s original report here).

There was no bail demanded for their release, but the two still face court hearings. In October, a judge dropped the charge that the women were “anti-state.” But they are still accused of trying to spread Christianity, which carries the charge of apostasy against Iran’s formally recognized religion of Islam. So the prayers of Christians everywhere are still needed.

Evin prison has been noted for human rights violations. According to Charisma Online, Rustampoor and Amirizadeh’s health suffered with ailments from infected teeth, headaches and back pain to severe food poisoning. Solitary confinement and repeat interrogations also took their toll.

Although Iran is watched for human rights violations by the United States Government as a “nation of concern,” not much action is being taken. It was a group called Open Doors that actively pursued the release of the women. Open Doors is an organization dedicated to rescuing and praying for persecuted Christians around the world.

Iranian-based intimidation of Christians has been increasing since the late 1970’s. Read about the Iranian Christian Church, its history and persecution, here at Elam Ministries.

“You will be persecuted and brought before syngagogues and prisons…this will lead to an opportunity to present your testimony” (Luke 21:12-13, NAS excerpts).

Can American Christians be this Courageous?

Background: Two Iranian Christian women, Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30) were first arrested in Iran in March and accused of apostacy against the Muslim faith.

Current: Rustampoor and Amirizadeh, who have both become ill while in Evin prison, were brought to trial in August. A sentence was supposed to be pronounced. Instead, because of the strong Christian testimony of these two young women, the prosecutor sent them back to their cells to reconsider their testimonies before sentencing would be pronounced.

The courtroom proceedings are recounted at Elam, a ministry to the growing number of Christians in Iran. It makes one wonder why we, as American Christians, sometimes don’t even have the courage to witness to our next door neighbors.

Mr. Haddad, the prosecutor, at one point asked the two women if they were Christians. They replied that they love Jesus. So he asked again if they were Christians, to which they replied, “Yes, we are Christians.” This could have been a death sentence for a man. Iran does not sentence women to death for apostasy, but they could face life imprisonment.

Haddad then proposed that they admit to previously being Muslims. Rustampoor and Amirizadeh replied they were born in Muslim families, but were not Muslims.

Haddad asked them if they regretted becoming Christians, to which they said no. He told them they should renounce their faith in both verbal and written form. They said they would not.

During the questioning, Rustampoor and Amirizadeh stated they believed that God had convicted them through the Holy Spirit to accept Christ. Haddad told them they were not worthy of God speaking to them.

Amirizadeh answered, “It is God, and not you, who determines if I am worthy.”

Haddad sent the women back to prison to think about coming back when they are ready to comply (in renouncing their Christian faith). But to this, the women told him they had already done their thinking.

Why has this barely been reported outside of Christian/Conservative media venues?
In June of 2009, President Obama said this in his now-famous Cairo Speech (text retrieved from USA Today):
…”And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

Yet, Iran and many other countries no longer recognize, or never did recognize, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights set forth on December 10, 1948 after World War II. It declares, among other things (Article 18, bolding mine):

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

(Take a look at the second part of that…we don’t even have this total right in the United States anymore.)

These two women are prime examples of Luke 12:11-12 (also Mark 13:11, just used in a recent article but worth repeating): “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

What say you, American Christians? If ever in such a situation, can we follow Paul’s advice to Timothy? “…God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Fervent prayer is needed for the failing health and eventual fate of Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh. As of the writing of this article, there was no news of a verdict. They are still in prison.

Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

In Tehran many Iranians haven’t accepted the results of the presidential elections held last Friday.

News reports show protesters streaming through the streets of Iran’s capital. There are also reports that Ayatollah Khamenei has directed the Guardian Council to examine claims of election fraud after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway winner.

Open Doors learned through its contacts that voters are frustrated and have lost trust in Iran’s government in cities outside of Tehran.

Iranian Christian Daryush (not his real name) from Shiraz reports: "In my neighborhood there is no evidence of any skirmishes or demonstrations and also no celebration from the elections anymore. The streets have been swept clean.

But the evidence that we have trouble in Shiraz is the constant presence of the various security forces and the military helicopter I saw flying overhead. But I have only driven around my own neighborhood, so I can’t speak for the entire city."
In other districts of the southwestern city of Shiraz the situation is grimmer. Daryush shares: "Friends told me that young people in Shiraz are being arrested and that they’ve seen young men and women being beaten or worse. A friend who lives near the university and student dorms told me she heard screaming, shouting and gunfire in the early hours of the morning.

The predominately young demonstrators are calling Ahmadinejad a dictator and yell chants like ‘Ma dolate zoor nemikhaim’ meaning ‘we don’t want a government of force.’ They also yell at the security forces and call them traitors and vote-stealers. A friend said that within the security forces are pro- Mousavi followers, saying ‘beechareh shodim!’ or ‘we are without hope.’"

Daryush shares that the "majority of people I spoke with consider the elections a fraud and don’t accept the results at all. A friend of our family lives in Shahe Cheragh, which is a predominantly religious and conservative district of Shiraz. He said that even in that district a huge numbers of votes went to Mousavi."

Daryush continues: "There are those who have never voted, didn’t vote this time and will never vote under this regime. They look at the rest of us as naive ones and say, ‘See, we told you that the one who had been previously selected would win the election.’ Others I speak with say they will never participate in an election again because ‘it was a total fraud.’"

While some Iranians never accepted this form of government, a certain percentage has considered the Islamic Republic of Iran to being a "limited democracy."

Daryush explains that "although the candidates were hand-picked and had the regime’s stamp of approval, at least we had a choice within those limits. This election, however, showed us that the Iranian people don’t have a ‘limited democracy,’ but as some are now saying ‘no democracy at all…we have an Islamic dictatorship.’"

Open Doors spokesman John Fox observes that Christians in general voted for Mousavi and hope for new elections: "We cannot generalize our observations to all Christians, but we asked 29 Christians from Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan and all voted for Mousavi. One of them said, ‘for us bad is better than worse. Mousavi also promised more religious freedom, so I hope he does not lie.’"

Open Doors USA President/CEO Carl Moeller adds that "we need to continue to pray for the situation in Iran, especially for the Christians caught in the crossfire. This could be a pivotal point in the history of Iran and the future of believers who live there."