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)
Such a peaceful religion
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
This is yet another reason why Lefties adore and admire Mohammedanism.
Even in the Soviet Union, with their Gulag and their Interior Ministry Police, being a Party member was optional.
Islam is an Evil Empire. Worse, in many ways, than the Soviet empire.
It's worse, simply because it's adeherents actually believe it and are willing to die for it.
Communist party members never believed in it, they just participated because it benefited them personally.
Thank God the Muslims that I helped convert lived here in the United States.
Every opportunity that I get to have a muslim open up to me I convert him to a Christian. Here is a copy of an insert from a diary that belongs to one of my Muslim friends.
Subject: I am not a Muslim anymore because
I am not a Muslim anymore because from now on, until I die, my way of thinking belongs only to me. I have opened my mind and started thinking for myself. As a child, I was raised to follow a prophet called Muhammad. I was brainwashed into believing in the teachings of a corrupted prophet called Muhammad. My thinking now is that Muhammad was an evil man and there was nothing holy about him. During his life he did whatever he felt like doing, even though it was wrong.
At the age of twenty-five Muhammad became the worlds biggest male prostitute by marrying a wealthy forty-year-old widow. This was his biggest sell out. Muhammad had many wives, one of them is a six-year-old child named Aishah (Ayesha). One of Muhammads wives was the wife of his own son; he took her away from him. Muhammad went from marrying an old woman, to marrying a six year old child. The history on his relationships alone shows a very confused sick evil mind.
Muhammads teachings teach against the Jews but when Muhammad took Aishah (Ayesha) as his six-year-old bride he acted very much like the Jews: Sanhedrin 54b. A Jew may have sex with a child as long as the child is less than nine-years-old. Kethuboth 11b. When a grown-up man has intercourse with a little girl it is nothing.
Muhammads teachings teach against the evil Western society but the United States did not exist during the time of Muhammad. The United States during Muhammads time was a paradise. The American Indians were living in paradise. There is no way that, in his lifetime, in the year 600, Muhammad was referring to the United States when he mentioned the evil western society. The United States simply did not exist during Muhammads time.
Today, I will turn my back on Allah the most evil God of the Muslim religion. Only an evil God could have guided and inspired Muhammad who was also evil. Muhammad was very evil that is why he and his followers are always scared of the devil. They can constantly feel the devils hands grabbing at them. Ive got news for the Muslims stones will not keep the devil from taking their souls, because Allah is the devil and they have already pledged their love and devotion to him.
Today, tomorrow, and the rest of my life I will refuse to continue believing in a corrupted prophet named Muhammad who was nothing but a male prostitute, a child rapist, a bigamist, a murderer, a thief, and a liar. He had a very confused sick evil mind and I dont believe a good God had anything to do with him.
Yes, I did call Muhammad a liar. He never had anyone to back up his story that the angel Gabriel appeared to him? There was never anybody who could back up his claim, only him.
I will always wonder why the angel Gabriel did not appear to someone else, to let them know that Muhammad was indeed chosen by God. What I dont understand is why the Muslims have never questioned this. Why year after year, they only take his word for it and follow him.
When God chose the Virgin Mary, who was pure without sin, at that point Gabriel also appeared to others and there was proof that God was involved. The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary, he also appeared to the shepherds and Joseph and the Eastern star guided the wise men to the baby Jesus (The son of God and the last true Prophet.). I do believe that Gabriel did appear to Joseph because I being a middle-eastern man do know that a middle-eastern man would not have stayed with Mary otherwise.
Anyone, like Muhammad can claim that they ascended into heaven or that they split the moon during a lunar eclipse. Notice that he messed up when he claims that he ascended into heaven and said that Moses was a tall brown curly-haired man. We all know that Moses hair turned white. Here is something to think about
Jesus rose from the dead, Muhammad did not. Jesus was the Son of God, Muhammad was not. Jesus did many miracles, Muhammad did not. Muhammad was put in a grave. Muhammad sinned against many people. Jesus sinned against no one. Not ONE of Jesus' enemies could ever truthfully say anything bad about Him. People that Muhammad tortured could certainly talk bad about him.
Outstanding letter. You should post this on one of them middle eastern websites.
Father God, The God of true peace, we pray for all of your missionaries across the world who daily risk their lives for truth. We pray for your protection on them and their families as you protected Paul so many times in the book of Acts. May your good overcome the evil that is scared of Christianiaty and its good deeds. In your sons name we pray, Amen.
I am working my way through a meticulously researched and very readable online book called Prophet of Doom.
You should check it out at:
http://www.prophetofdoom.net/pod_toc
For the average muslim, one can only feel pity when you see how twisted they have been by their false religion.
I feel the same way for a rabid dog that needs to be put down. It's a shame, but you can't let a rabid dog live, and you can't let a muslim terrorist live either-they behave the same way.
Some, like this poor convert in Iran, may yet be be saved as this man was, but they all will be martyred under Islam's yoke in the end in the end. It's like the mafia, you can get in but you cannot get out.
At least there will be something other than hell waiting for this martyr should the mullahs extract their vengeance on him.
I think I'll do so. Can you also do some on your end?
I've also visited this Prophet of Doom website, it is wild but the truth.
This leaves out the capital offense of "ticking off the judge," which is what got a teenage girl hung several weeks ago.
In Geneva, church discipline was expressed, at the instigation of Calvin, in the establishment of special overseers, who, in the individual districts assigned to them, had to watch over the moral behaviour of church members. There likewise came about the creation of such social arrangements as ecclesiastically controlled inns and taverns, in which not only the consumption of food and drink but even the topics of conversation were subject to stern regulation.
The Church herself isn't guilt-free in attempting to maintain faith by force. The various Protestant fiefdoms were religious dictatorships. This sort of thing is nothing new.
Ditto. Interesting stuff.
Oh my! This man's faith puts mine to shame. God bless him! And protect him!
Just think, you'll be saving lots of lost souls. May Jesus be your guide.
Will keep him in my prayers, along with all the other Christians in the land of the False Prophet.
Thanks!
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