Iran Churches Warn Of Christmas Raids, Detentions
Iranian Church leaders have urged prayers for Christians in Iran amid concerns authorities will raid more house churches and detain believers over the Christmas and Western New Year period.
Iranian Church leaders have urged prayers for Christians in Iran amid concerns authorities will raid more house churches and detain believers over the Christmas and Western New Year period.
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Arrested just before last Christmas, four Christian converts recently received a total of four years in prison at the Revolutionary Court in Ahwaz according to Christian news agency, Mohabat News.
An Iranian court has ordered the temporary release of a jailed devoted house church Christian and mother of two children, after her teenage son suffered a seizure, local Christians following the case.
An official of one of Iran’s largest house church movement says recently detained church members are tortured and otherwise pressured to confess to crimes they did not commit.
Massive arrests of evangelical Protestant Christians, including many former Muslims, are reported in Iran, with men and women being dragged to prisons across the Islamic nation.
Although Halloween isn’t celebrated in an Islamic Republic, state security agents have been scaring away potential parishioners from both St. Luke’s and St. Paul’s churches in Esfahan to prevent Iranians from following Christianity.
Five Christian converts will be tried in southwestern Iran on charges linked to their Christian activities, after spending eight months in prison, an Iranian Christian news agency reported.
The recent Arab unrest against U.S. embassies throughout the Middle East may prove to be the galvanizing event Muslims need to unite their disparate “Arab Springs” and usher in the return of the Islamic Caliphate.
Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was sentenced to death and became a symbol of what his church called “suffering Christians” in this heavily Islamic nation, could embrace his wife and children Saturday, September 8, after he was unexpectedly released from prison, Worthy News learned.
A jailed Iranian pastor, who may be executed for “apostasy”, already faces death as authorities continue to deny him medical care despite earlier promises, a church official and close friend told Bmay be Worthy News.
An Iranian house-church leader has been released after spending 560 days in prison “because of his Christian faith,” Iranian Christians told Worthy News.
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.