There was mounting concern Tuesday, July 17, about the health situation of jailed and mistreated Iranian Pastor Behnam Irani after he became unconscious and was hospitalized, an official assisting him with advocacy said.
In his opening speech at an Islamic conference in Tehran Tuesday, the President of Iran said that God didn’t create Judaism, or Christianity.
Both the Central Assembly of God Church in Tehran and its summer campsite have been closed by the Islamic authorities, according to the Farsi Christian News Network.
It’s been almost three years since Iranian officials arrested Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani on charges of apostasy, but now Iranian judges may add crimes against national security and blasphemy, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
The rise of Christianity and the accompanying spread of its clandestine house churches in Iran is seen as a serious threat by the Islamic state’s senior clerics.
Evangelical Christians in Iran’s capital Tehran were without a church building Sunday, June 10, after Iranian security forces closed it down as part of a wider crackdown, Iranian Christians and activists told Worthy News.
Iranian authorities recently told church leaders to submit the names and National ID numbers of their members, threatening the security of Christian converts.
Prominent Iranian house church pastor Behnam Irani is still beaten in his prison but less frequently, an official assisting him with advocacy said Monday, just weeks after his family expressed concerns he may die.
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani’s Iranian attorney has been convicted of defending the rights of religious prisoners in the Islamic state and may soon begin serving a lengthy sentence.
Following a February raid on a house church in Shiraz and the arrest of its Christian converts, the first of many interrogations for five detainees was finally held after they spent 80 days in Adel-Abad prison, according to Mohabat News.
Pastor Matthias Haghnejad and eleven members of his congregation were tried in Iran during Easter for their faith in Christ and are now awaiting the verdict.
Historic Christian monuments in Iran are being destroyed, or allowed to fall into disrepair in an attempt by the Islamic authorities to wipe out that country’s Christian heritage.
There was concern over the plight of several Iranian Christian asylum seekers in Sweden Tuesday, April 24, after Swedish authorities decided to deport them despite fears they may be jailed or even executed there, Christians said.
Twelve Christians are to stand trial in Iran on Easter Sunday on charges including “crimes against the order”, an activist assisting them with advocacy told Worthy News.
Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani who faces execution for refusing to abandon his faith in Christ and embrace Islam was still alive, “through the power of Jesus Christ and prayers”, an official assisting him told Worthy News.
Another church in Tehran was ordered to cease holding services in Farsi, the Iranian national language, otherwise it could be “bombed”.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that the Secretary of State name Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern in its 2012 Annual Report.
At least a dozen devoted Christians from Iran’s third largest city remained in jail Saturday, March 17, as part of an attempt by authorities to discourage Muslims and Christian converts to attend church services, Iranian Christians said.
Yet another convert and member of a house church was arrested along with many other Christians in Esfahan, according to the Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News.
Iran again ordered the death penalty for jailed Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani for refusing to recant his faith in Christ and return to Islam raising fears his execution is imminent, a well-informed church official told Worthy News and its news partner BosNewsLife Tuesday, February 21.