Posted on 10/18/2004 6:12:15 AM PDT by NYer
Tehran (AsiaNews) Hamid Pourmand is a Protestant minister of the Assemblies of God Church. He converted from Islam several years ago. Since September he has been held in prison at an undisclosed location and under Iranian law he can be put to death for apostasy against Islam. He was arrested on September 9 in Karaj, a town 30 km west of the capital Tehran during a police raid against the annual General Council of the Assemblies of God Church.
Reverend Pourmand (see photo) is 47-year-old, married with two children, and a colonel in the Iranian army based in the city of Bandar-i Bushehr (380 km south of Tehran). If brought before a court martial he could face espionage charges and sentenced to death. Although laws instituted after the Islamic revolution prohibit non-Muslims from holding officer rank, he continued to serve as an officer in the Iranian army. Hamid did not keep his conversion secret, a friend told Compass, but he is an honest man and people liked and respected him.
Pourmand was arrested along with another 86 Protestant leaders; 76 were released the evening of their arrest whilst another 9 were let go three days later. But Pourmand was the only one who is still in prison. According to eyewitnesses, Iranian police had detailed information about each one of them.
Since his arrest, Pourmand has been able to talk briefly to is wife (an Assyrian Christian) by phone and tell her that he was alright. At the time of his arrest, she and their children were in Tehran visiting relatives. Upon her return home, she found that their home had been searched and family documents and photos taken.
The September raid against the council of the Assemblies of God comes in the wake of several arrests of Christians in northern Iran in May and June.
In July 1994, Mehdi Dibaj, another minister of the Assemblies of God Church who was also a convert from Islam, was killed after spending nine years in prison for refusing to abjure his Christian faith and return to Islam.
Under Iranian law, capital punishment is reserved for apostasy, murder, armed robbery, rape and drug trafficking.
Some months ago Shiite cleric Hasan Mohammadi from the Ministry of Education said in a speech to Tehran high school students that on average every day, 50 young Iranians convert secretly to Christian denominations.
There are about 360,000 Christians in Iran out of a population of 65 million. Of these, 25,000 are Catholics. (LF)
"Islam is an evil empire. Worse, in many ways, than the Soviet empire."
You got that right. It's the Islamic way or no way at all. Poor misguided fools.
His faith puts lots of Christian's faiths to shame. I put a post yesterday with very little response from the Christian ministers and Christian people. What do you think about the response? Here is the body of the post.
Christians in Iraq caught in the crossfire http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2851578
Now is the time God will be testing all the Christian ministers and Christian people in the United States and the world. Let us see if these Christian ministers and Christian people can find it in their hearts to start up collections, to help rebuilt the five Christian churches in Baghdad which have been firebombed. Iraq's 800,000 Christians, who make up less than 4 percent of the population, have come under growing threats and violence. They need help. The word of the Lord must not die in Iraq. These terrorists are doing the work of the devil and we must not let them win.
Ever since the war in Iraq started I've always wondered why so many Christians have protested it. Iraq is home to some of the most important sites mentioned in the Bible. Christians should realize that after the fall of Saddam Hussein the door to the past will some day be opened to foreign visitors. That is, after Iraq becomes the nation that the United States has hoped it will be.
The Christian people will be able to visit the place where they are told it all began, at the crossroads of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in whose lushness once stood the Garden of Eden in the city of Qurnah (Genesis 2:10-14).
Another city the Christian people will be able to visit is the city of UR. Genesis 11:27-32 suggests that Abraham lived here. And, the city of Babylon is where the Tower of Babel was built.
For all Christians the journey to the past begins in Iraq.
http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/
Thank you. I agree with you that Iraq is vitally important.
Societies evolve. Christians today are not "guilty" for what those who came before them did centuries ago.
How many majority-Christian countries *today* are "religious dictatorships?" How many still allow the burning of heretics at the stake? How many *today* execute people for blasphemy?
The point is, *none.* Christianity has *changed.* In some ways for the worse, perhaps, but Christians no longer call for the murder of those who leave or who disagree.
To us, that is a quaint backdrop to a history that also included the flowering of science.
To a Moslem woman in a burqua, that would be liberation, by comparison.
He's a marvelous young man with a marvelous wife. This stuff really happens to real people.
Like the Mafia used to be....only way you could leave was feet first.
Letter regarding Muhammed in post 7
Prayers for a fellow Christian, a modern saint.
Sometimes I kvetch about the small irritants in life, forgetting the greatest gifts passed on from our Founding Fathers in America.
I'm very thankful I live in a country where I am free to worship God according to my own conscience and to choose any religion I want, even Islam.
I'm saying many prayers for this good and brave man, trapped in the land of the heathen mohammedan.
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