The Iranian government through its embassy in London has finally put out an official response to the furor over Pastor Yousef, and it sounds a lot like Alfred E. Newman:
The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London renounces the published news regarding the death penalty for Mr. Yousof Nadarkhani and announces that the Court of Appeal in the Islamic Republic of Iran has not issued any verdict on his case. Accordingly, the allegations to the issue of the death penalty for the above mentioned, are unsubstantiated.
The American Center for Law and Justice responds:
These are boldfaced lies being spread by the Iranian regime about Pastor Youcef because they have been caught in the act of attempting execute a man for his faith, something that violates international and Iranian law and reportedly hasn’t happened in Iran for over 20 years.
We have the actual verdict from the Iranian supreme court (in original Farsi and translated into English by the Confederation of Iranian Students in Washington ), which provides undeniably that “Mr. Youcef Nadarkhani . . . is convicted of turning his back on Islam . . . .” The verdict further states, “During many sessions in court with the presence of his attorney and a judge, he has been sentenced to execution by hanging . . . .”
There is no question that Pastor Youcef has been convicted of apostasy and sentenced to death. It is crucial that Secretary of State Clinton – our top international diplomat – take the lead and that the United Nations (U.N.) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) end their silence on this issue and pressure Iran to spare Pastor Youcef’s life and release him unconditionally.
The ACLJ also reports that it can confirm that, as of today, Pastor Yousef is still alive. Keep praying!
(Via The Moral Liberal from Viviana Duque Rodas.)
Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice has been following Pastor Yousef’s case closely, and has exposed the fraud that is the sudden change of charges against him. His latest update says:
In a troubling development, Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani’s attorney, Mohammed Ali Dadkha, has acknowledged the possibility of the charges against him being changed. Recall, throughout the last two years and most recently at the Iranian Supreme Court, Pastor Nadarkhani was on trial for apostasy and nothing else. Now, as Fox News reported, the Iranian government is claiming that Pastor Nadarkhani was charged with a number of crimes including being a threat to national security and a Zionist, but not apostasy.
The charge of being a Zionist and thus a traitor, terms that imply he is some kind of spy for Israel and opponent of the Islamic Republic, is among the most serious accusations that can be made in Iran. Unfortunately, we know that this is the charge Iran levies to justify executing people who were actually arrested, imprisoned, and tried on completely different charges. While these new charges may be, as I said before, an attempt to deflect media and international attention, the fact that it is possible the Pastor could actually face these charges means that his life is in more danger now than it has been at any other time since the trial began.
It is also becoming more difficult to confirm that he is still alive. Throughout Pastor Nadarkhani’s two-year imprisonment, he has traditionally only been permitted to have one visitor per week. This is one barrier we have to overcome each day when we try to get solid confirmation that he is alive. We can confirm that our contacts in Iran have reported that as of yesterday evening, Pastor Youcef was still alive, but that is becoming more and more difficult to confirm each day.
The ACLJ has a petition to Secretary of State Clinton on its website that you can sign to support Pastor Yousef. It asks her to speak out as forcefully as possible on his behalf. She has already spoken at least once, but it can’t hurt to ask her to keep the pressure on.
I should note further that Dr. Faheem Younus of the University of Maryland writes about this case at the Huffington Post, and points out something that he strenuously disagrees with, but which is nonetheless a frightening reality:
A 2011 Pew survey showed that 86% of Jordanians, 84% of Egyptians, 76% of Pakistanis, 51% of Nigerians and 30% of Indonesians supporting death penalty for apostasy. Remember, there are well over 500 million Muslims just in these five countries. In corporate terms, that’s like 350 employees who have never read (or misread) their company’s policy and procedures manual: The Quran.
The Quran refers to apostasy several times (2:217, 3:86-90, 4:137, 9:66, 9:74, 16:106-109, 4:88-91, 47:25-27) and yet never prescribes any worldly punishment for it, let alone death.
So how do millions of Muslims justify such a barbaric act in the name of Islam? Well, because their clerics claim that leaving Islam is not just apostasy, but treason – a crime punishable by death.
Dr. Younus says this is “nonsense,” and in Western terms (and even from the standpoint of an enlightened Islam) that is certainly true. But in some strains of Islam (and particularly in the Khomeinist form of Shia), there is virtually no distinction between the faith and the state that embodies the ummah. So from the standpoint of the Iranian government, apostasy=treason, which means that they can justify such a charge against Pastor Yousef, even if they put it in terms (Zionism?) that are patently ridiculous. As I said in my last post, the threats against him are meant to control an increasingly restive population, so I suspect that without divine intervention this is going to come down to a political calculation. What’s more important: avoiding international condemnation, or sending a message to any Muslims who might be considering Christianity?
Keep praying!
According to the International Business Times, Pastor Yousef is not in imminent danger of execution. His case is being reviewed, but it has taken an ominous turn:
Faced with mounting international pressure over the death sentence handed out to Christian pastor Yucef Nadarkhani, Iran has said the charges were not related to apostasy but rape, extortion and threat to national security.
“This individual has committed crimes, but his crime is not, as some claim, recanting Islam or converting others to Christianity,” the deputy governor-general of Gilan province for political and security affairs, Gholam-Ali Rezvani, told the official Fars News Agency.
Rezvani criticized the Western media’s coverage of the issue and said Nadarkhani has committed several violent crimes, including repeated rape and extortion, Fars News reported.
“He is guilty of security-related crimes. … The issue of crime and of capital punishment of this individual is not related to his faith or religion as in our system, no one can be executed for changing his/her religion,” Rezvani said.
Maybe in Iran, rape and extortion are considered “security-related crimes,” but it doesn’t matter, since the charges are trumped up, anyway. Rezvani eventually got to what they really want to charge him with:
Rezvani countered the allegations that Nadarkhani was sentenced for death on apostasy charges, but said the Christian pastor was a “Zionist.” . “… this Islamic state has nothing to do with those who have embraced other religions …. But he (Nadarkhani) is a Zionist, a traitor and had committed security crimes,” Rezvani said.
Rezvani’s claim that “no one can be executed for changing his/her religion” is nonsense, of course, but the fact that the state is charging him with other, undoubtedly bogus crimes in order to cover up the real, sharia-based reason for wanting him dead is both an indicator of the political (read: diplomatic) sensitivity of apostasy executions and the desire of at least some in the Iranian government to make Pastor Yousef an example for those Iranians who may be considering converting to Christianity. According to the Jerusalem Post:
Nasrin Amirsedghi, a German- Iranian academic and author, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, “As soon as Iran’s regime is placed under international pressure because of its barbaric Middle Age laws, the regime looks for another reason to peddle” its case against Nadarkhani.
“According to classical Islamic law, particularly Shi’ite case law, the death penalty is clearly applied to apostasy,” she continued.
Amirsedghi, who has written extensively on the application of Shari’a law, said that “not even a fatwa [Islamic legal opinion] from a mujtahid [Islamic scholar] can prevent” an execution for apostasy.
“Therefore, to implement the death penalty, the regime devised absurd accusations like ‘rape and espionage.’ It is the regime’s method. Moreover, it’s clear that the regime is afraid because many people – precisely after years of Islamic brutality – are turning away from Islam,” Amirsedghi said.
By the way, you might be interested to note that neither Iran’s official Press TV nor Al Jazeera have mentioned Pastor Yousef or his case on their web sites.
Keep praying!
Iran is now claiming that Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani is not going to be executed for apostasy. Instead, demonstrating that chutzpah is not just a Jewish characteristic, the regime is claiming he’s facing the death penalty for rape and extortion. According to Fox News:
Iran state media put out a stunning report Saturday claiming that imprisoned Christian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani is facing the death sentence for rape and extortion, not for apostasy and refusing to renounce his religion, as his lawyer, human rights groups and Western news media have reported.
“His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,” the deputy governor of the Gilan province, Gholomali Rezvani, told Fars, the semi-official state news agency.
“We’re trying to determine if this is the state-controlled media throwing it out there,” said Jordan Sekulow, Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).
“There’s been no mention of any other charges than apostasy in trial documents.”
In a ruling from the Iranian Supreme Court, translated into English by the ACLJ, Nadarkhani was sentenced to execution by hanging for, “turning his back on Islam” and “converting Muslims to Christianity.”
The ruling also alleges that he also participated in Christian worship by holding home church services and baptizing himself and others, effectively breaking Islamic Law.
FoxNews.com obtained a copy of the ruling and there is not a single mention of rape or extortion allegations.
“The only question now is whether the Iranian government is actually leveling these new charges against him in court or just throwing out new accusations to try and deflect media attention,” Sekulow said.
I don’t know the answer to that question, but there’s no mystery about the motivation. International attention has now been focused on Pastor Nadarkhani, and there are obviously some in Iran’s government that want him dead, so they are looking for an excuse to execute him that will get the international community off their backs.
Keep praying, and if you haven’t written to the Iranian Embassy to protest the barbaric treatment the pastor has received, you can do so here.
