Benjamin Weinthal reported yesterday that increasing numbers of Iranian converts to Christianity are making their way to Germany, reviving numerous churches across the European nation.
Iranian-born Muslims who converted to Christianity are breathing new spiritual life into communities across Germany, where they are fleeing to in increasing numbers to escape persecution back home.
Men and women, who have been sentenced to the lash or worse for apostasy – converting from Islam – are forming a thriving community of Christian ex-pats in German cities and towns. The Iranian immigrants seek asylum, or simply pay up to $30,000 to enter the country illegally with a fake passport, a new name and plans to start their lives over in new churches.
In one case, a woman named Afsaneh chose to put up a Christmas display, and suffered imprisonment and lashes along with her cousin for their open practice of faith.
Weinthal cited The Guardian, which reported that 4500 Iranian converts came to Germany in 2012, whereas fewer than 1000 had come four years earlier. The increase in Christian refugees from Iran reflects that “Iran’s regime is getting more and more radicalized and repressive – on a daily basis,” according to Saba Farzan, an expert quoted in the article.
In related news, Weinthal reported Saturday that Canada’s parliament has started an “adopt an Iranian political prisoner” campaign. The goal of this campaign is “to change the one-dimensional focus on Iran’s illicit nuclear program.”
In short, the parliamentarians, according to a 10-point plan released by Canadian MP Irwin Cotler, chairman of the Accountability Week program, aim to “expose, unmask and hold Iran accountable for its critical mass of violations of human rights, and in particular ensure that the ongoing P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran will neither overshadow nor sanitize the Iranian regime’s widespread and systematic violations of human rights.”
Canada’s human rights paradigm recognizes that the wholesale lack of western freedom in the Islamic Republic of Iran should not be decoupled from the nuclear talks.
The ongoing plight of Iran’s Christians underscores the continued repressiveness of the regime since the election last year of Hassan Rouhani as president. Although identified as a reformer, Iran has shown little moderation since Rouhani was inaugurated last August. Executions are increasing, political prisoners are tortured, minorities continue to be persecuted, Iran continues to destabilize the region, Iran’s state-sponsored terror continues, and Iran has shown no inclination to bring its illicit nuclear program into compliance with numerous United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
Despite its failure to reform, Iran has benefited from diplomacy allowing it to rebuild its economy without improving its behavior.
Michael Ledeen contributed Dare We Say It? The Mullahs Must Go to the December 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine in which he argued, “Khamenei knows that the greatest threat to his power comes from the Iranian people, who despise him and want to be free of his regime” and that is was up to the West to “help them.”
[Photo: Alan / Flickr ]