Notes from Day Seven: Religious freedom isn't simple

In the late 1980s, when I was still a seminary student, I met Steve. Steve was from Egypt, and he told me how he had converted from the Islamic faith of his family to Christianity. I was very interested in his personal journey and asked him to tell me more. At one point, however, I had to stop him and ask if I had heard him correctly. Yes, I had. He said that if he returned to Egypt, even for a short time to visit his family, his brothers would likely try to kill him. This was the first time I had come into direct contact with someone who endured death threats for his or her faith.

It would not be my last. Later in London I met a family who had arrived as refugees from Southern Sudan and the civil war that had been boiling there for decades. I learned that one of the most persistent dynamics in that war was that the Sudanese people to the north regard the Christianity of those in the south as inferior to Islam. Funda and his family fled, and with the help of the United Nations, made their way to London. Here, as Christian refugees (along with Muslim refugees), they were free to put into practice their understandings of God and faith.

This is not to say that all Muslims are antagonistic to Christians. That is certainly not the case. However, we need to recognize the painful struggle for the freedom of non- Muslims that is taking place in countries where Islam is prevalent and exerts strong influence on the government.

A more recent victim of those who oppress others because they reject Islam for Christianity is Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. Today Christians around the world are praying for his release from prison in Iran. And the United Nations as well as U.S. President Obama have issued public statements in his support.

Nadarkhani was first imprisoned for two weeks in Iran in 2006. The charges? Apostasy (renouncing Islam) and evangelising Muslims (trying to persuade them to become Christians). Then, in 2009 he learned that the reading of the Qur'an was now required for all students in school. Having children in school himself, Nadarkhani protested. In October of that year he was called before a tribunal on the charge of "protesting."

The next year, his wife, Fatemeh Pasandideh, was arrested — also for apostasy — and sentenced to life imprisonment. She was released after four months of isolation from her family. According BosNewsLife the children may be taken away to be raised as Muslims (a parallel to the way the Canadian government used to take Native children away and raise them in residential schools).

Around the same time in 2010, the pastor himself was again arrested for apostasy and evangelism. This time he was sentenced to death by hanging. For about a year now there has been a lot of legal wrangling about procedural issues. In the meantime Nadarkhani has been under constant pressure to renounce his Christianity — which would mean escaping the death sentence. He has not recanted.

Likely the Iranian government does not want to appear hostile to religious freedom. It has signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In the light of this agreement, the U.N. Commission on International Religious Freedom has declared the legal proceedings against Nadarkhani a "sham."

One apparent scheme that Iranian authorities have hatched to get out from under the scrutiny of agencies protecting religious freedom is to change the charges against Pastor Nadarkhani. The Iranian state media last month began saying that his death sentence is not for apostasy, but for rape and extortion.

But wait, it gets better. Perhaps fearing that the rape and extortion shtick won't work, Gholamali Rezvani, the Gilan Provincial Political Security Deputy stated, according to Wikipedia, "Youcef Nadarkhani has security crimes and he had set up a house of corruption. ... Nobody is executed in our regime for choosing a religion, but he is a Zionist who has security crimes."

A little more than a month ago, British Foreign Secretary William Hague paid "tribute to the courage shown by Pastor Nadarkhani." He called for the authorities in Iran to immediately overturn his sentence.

Pastor Nadarkhani is one of many around the planet who are risking everything in order to express their understandings of God and faith. Someday their courage may be celebrated in the same way that many celebrate rights pioneers such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. For now, prayer for Nadarkhani will continue along with efforts of rights advocates of all kinds. Hopefully we will hear of his release soon. That will be a good day, not only for him, but for all people, including the people of Iran.

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