Compass Direct News’ Top 2 Stories of 2006

 Silent Waves of Persecution in Iran  -

January 08, 2007

Motamedi Mojdehi

Working quietly beyond the international media spotlight, Iranian authorities followed through on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vow in November 2005 to “stop Christianity in this country.” A campaign to curb burgeoning house church growth in predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran emerged in 2006 as waves of arrests hit Christian leaders. When Issa Motamedi Mojdehi was arrested on July 24 officials told the convert from Islam that he must renounce Christianity or face years in jail and possible execution for “apostasy.” Originally facing drug trafficking charges commonly leveled at “undesirables,” Motamedi Mojdehi endured strong psychological pressures, including threats to kill his family and other Christians, as secret service agents and a professor of Islamic theology urged him to recant his faith. He refused, and on August 24 authorities released him “for the moment,” but not before a judge in the northern city of Rasht had a new accusation. He accused Mojdehi’s 8-year-old daughter Martha of trying to lead other children to Christ. Rasht police also shut down the shop of another believer in his church, as depriving converts to Christianity of employment became a common government ploy to force them to leave Iran.

Six of eight arrested in December

In one southern city, police beat two young Christian women in their homes, arresting one for several days, and daily threatened to re-arrest her and members of her family. In September, Iranian secret police arrested a Christian couple in the northeastern city of Mashhad, forcing them to leave behind their 6-year-old daughter. Authorities released Reza Montazami, 35, and his wife Fereshteh Dibaj, 28, by order of a Revolutionary Court in Mashhad only after Montazami’s elderly parents posted bail – turning over the title deed of property worth US$25,000. In December, Iranian secret police raided and arrested leaders of an indigenous house church movement in Tehran, Karaj, Rasht and Bandar-i Anzali. Several detained Christians were released, but four of eight jailed Christians remained in custody until Christmas, facing accusations such as “evangelization activities” and “actions against the national security of Iran.”

Even progress in justice was tinged with repression. Hamid Pourmand, whom a military tribunal in Tehran baselessly found guilty of deceiving the Iranian army by allegedly concealing his conversion from Islam to Christianity, was released on July 20 – with the warning that attending church services could result in him being sent back to finish the remaining 14 months of his three-year prison term

*** Photos of six of the Iranian house church leaders arrested in December and of Hamid Pourmand are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmitta