Iran Tries To Stem Religious Conversions From Islam
The Islamic Republic of Iran seeks regional dominance but suffers from numerous self-inflicted wounds. The dictatorial regime has fixed elections, mismanaged an economy already burdened by U.S. sanctions, and imposed totalitarian social controls. Tehran diverts substantial resources to multiple Mideast conflicts and recently launched a full-scale missile and drone fusillade on Israel, risking escalation to a major conflict.
Iran is widely viewed as a pariah state. Its elites utilize brutal repression and persecution to remain in power.
The regime’s brutality was dramatically demonstrated by the July 2022 death of Mahsa Amini during a crackdown on unveiled women. That incident triggered large protests across the country. Having reestablished control, the regime today pretends piety while continuing to enforce arbitrary religious rules. The Iranian people resist a system dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is more interested in maintaining political control than fulfilling Islamic principles. While ruthlessly targeting those who resist its dictates, the regime’s control appears brittle, its legitimacy having long ago dissipated. (READ MORE from Doug Bandow: At 75, Remember NATO Objective of Rearming Europe)
Particularly embarrassing for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the growth of the Christian church in Iran. Nima Alizadeh, a convert to Christianity and founder of Revelation Ministries, observed, “In the past two decades, Iran has had the fastest growing church in the world — even though the Bible is illegal.” While the regime propagates a harsh form of Shiism, the people are turning elsewhere. Crossway Ministry pointed out that “Nima and his uncle are evidence of this — his uncle becoming a Christian during his time in the United States and bringing his faith back to Iran to share with Nima, who then put his faith in Jesus as a teenager.”
Apparatchiks are right to fear Christianity for subverting Iran’s Islamist dictatorship. The former is not imposed from above but arises below, with the faith passed from one person to another. Explained Lela Gibson of the Family Research Council and Hudson Institute: “In my research and interviews, it has become clear that new Christians’ witness to others is mostly shared in quiet conversations, encouraged by low-profile online Bible studies, and affirmed by visions, dreams, and miraculously answered prayers. Due to their risky circumstances, recent Christian converts are enthusiastically communicating about their changed lives with friends and loved ones — but quietly and carefully. However, their discreet but persistent witness accounts for the extraordinary number of new Iranian believers, who meet in small house churches.” Such converts naturally oppose the Islamic Republic’s corruption and oppression.
The response of Khamenei & Co. has been more repression and persecution. In a 2021 hearing before the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Ahmed Shaheed, then the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, testified that Tehran
takes a proactive interest in preserving and propagation of its interpretations of Shia Islam. This endeavor often conflicts with a range of other obligations to protect human rights, including freedom of religion or belief for all persons. The Government applies high levels of restrictions on the rights of individuals that do not subscribe to the majority religion to secure and preserve this monopoly. It imposes a high degree of regulation of the institutions and associations of minority religions and enforces religious precepts of the State religion in law and State practices, with devastating consequences for religion or belief minorities and dissenters, and on women, girls and LGBTI+ persons.
Moreover, religious charges are commonly deployed against regime opponents. For instance, the State Department reported that “According to numerous international human rights NGOs and media reporting, the government convicted and executed dissidents, political reformers, and peaceful protesters on charges of ‘enmity against God’ and spreading anti-Islamic propaganda.” A panel of United Nations experts denounced Tehran’s practices: “The international community cannot remain silent while Iranian authorities use overbroad and vague national security and espionage charges to silence religious minorities or people with dissenting opinions, remove them from their homes and effectively force them into internal displacement.” In 2022 State explained that “the government arrested 140 individuals, imprisoned 39, issued travel bans against 51, summoned 102, raided the homes of 94, and brought 11 to trial for their religious beliefs.”
No one is exempt from abuse. Jews, Gonabadi Sufis, and Sunnis suffer. Perhaps most victimized are Baha’is, with more than 1,000 currently imprisoned for their faith. Last year USCIRF reported that Tehran “escalated its repression of Baha’is, restricting access to religious sites, issuing legal rulings supporting confiscation of Baha’i properties, denying Baha’is entrance to universities, and conducting systematic arrests.”
Finally, reported State, “Officials continued to disproportionately arrest, detain, harass, and surveil Christians, particularly evangelicals and other converts from Islam, according to Christian NGOs. Authorities also forcibly disappeared Christian converts, whom it accused of ‘Zionism’ and proselytizing.”
Indeed, the groups Open Doors, Middle East Concern, and Christian Solidarity Worldwide recently issued a joint report, “Faceless Victims: Rights Violations Against Christians in Iran,” on Tehran’s campaign against Christians. It makes for grim reading. (It was more difficult listening to two Iranian converts discuss their personal experiences at a recent conference on religious persecution which I attended, but their names cannot be revealed out of concern for family members left behind.)
The regime largely tolerates expatriates and “historic” Christians, most notably Armenians, and Assyrians. However, while not so often imprisoned, these groups are closely monitored by the fearful Islamic regime. “Faceless Victims” details how “intelligence officers belonging to the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran, or FARA JA, were using spyware to monitor members of minority communities, including Christians. The spyware is capable of extracting data, including photographs, screenshots of conversations, and recordings of video calls, from applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram, and most victims live in minority areas, including West Azerbaijan Province, home to many Armenian and Assyrian Christians.”
Usually suffering far more are converts, who directly challenge Islam’s dominance. They are “numerically the largest Christian community in Iran, but they are not recognized by the state and are frequently targeted by the authorities and, in some cases, by their extended families and society.” Most dramatic is the ban on converts from established churches. The controls are based on language:
The right of Persian-speaking Christians to assemble peacefully for worship has been consistently violated. Christian converts sought to participate in the Persian-language services conducted by established churches. However, over the past 15 years the authorities have forced these churches to refuse admission to converts and cease Persian language services, closing down the churches that refused to comply. Just four Persian-language churches now remain, although unable to function freely — the Anglican churches of St Luke in Isfahan, St Paul in Julfa (a suburb of Isfahan), St Paul in Tehran and St Simon the Zealot in Shiraz. Members must be able to prove that they were Christian before the revolution of 1979, and the churches are not permitted to accept new members. These churches were closed in line with other public places of worship under the health provisions during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, unlike other places of worship, they have not been permitted to reopen since restrictions were lifted.
Converts thus are forced to rely on house churches, which “are subjected to raids by Ministry of Intelligence agents or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, under the guise of protecting ‘national security.’” Persian-language materials, including Bibles, are often confiscated. (READ MORE: Unlikely Persecutor: Japan Threatens to Shut Unification Church)
Participants face arrest, torture, imprisonment, and internal exile. Aware that people are choosing to leave Islam despite its status as the state religion, the government targets Christians for being Christians. For instance, convert Mojtaba Keshavarz Ahmadi reported: “My interrogators told me frankly and boldly: ‘You have no rights and no choice because your religion has already been chosen for you … You were born a Muslim, and Shiite. Shiite blood runs in your veins and you don’t have any other choice!’”
Similarly, Shahnaz Jizan, a convert and wife of a church leader, reported on her detention two years ago, when after three days she complained to her interrogators: “‘I still don’t know why I was arrested!’ I said. ‘My husband has also been arrested; you can interrogate him, but let me be with my children!’ The interrogator said: ‘You’re here for the crime of Christianity!’ They demanded that Farhad and I write down the names of our church members in Ahvaz, and also in the other cities where Farhad supervised churches. They said: ‘You have overstepped the limits we set for you! You have rebelled! We will not allow you to convert Muslims to Christianity!’”
Nevertheless, the regime prefers not to admit to the world its war against other religions. In a report on Iranian religious propaganda, USCIRF detailed,
While the specific false accusations against each minority group are distinct, there are overarching themes in the government’s propaganda campaign against all. A common thread in the content published on religious minorities is their alleged ties to foreign states and their nefarious activities aimed at sowing discord and division within Iranian society. It is noteworthy that religious minority groups typically are not attacked for their religious beliefs per se. Instead, they are targeted on the pretext of posing threats to Iran’s sovereignty and security.
Verdicts often are decided by the government, not the judiciary. Christian convert Touraj Shirani reported that his case was decided before the hearing: “After insulting us a lot, [the prosecutor] called for two officers to come to take us to a room and detain us. This was completely illegal. We were kept in that detention room for the rest of that morning, all the way until 4 p.m. Then the prosecutor came and said: ‘I have already discussed everything with you. You are apostates, so it is clear what your verdict will be! It has already been decided! You will be informed about it later.’” Sentences, too, are frequently preset. Shirani reported, “The judge kept shaking his head and saying: ‘Wow! Oh, wow! There is also the charge of apostasy! The Intelligence Ministry has suggested a two-year sentence, but you will have to go to prison for five more years because of the things you have done!’”
The regime applies whatever pressure is available to reverse conversions. “Faceless Victims” noted, “Many Christian converts have also reported that they have been subjected to coercion to recant their faith during interrogation after their arrest, while some have reported that family members have been brought in to try to persuade them to return to Islam.” Even converts acquitted of criminal charges have been “forced to attend Islamic reeducation classes.”
Unsurprisingly, the government interferes with family relationships, violating parental authority. For instance,
Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani first came to the attention of the authorities after complaining that his sons’ school was forcing his children to take classes in Islamic Studies and the Quran. Members of recognized religious minorities — including Christians — are ordinarily exempt from these classes, but children of converts to Christianity, such as Pastor Nadarkhani’s, are not afforded this right as they are still considered Muslims. The pastor received a death sentence for apostasy, which was quashed following an international outcry. However, after being sent back to prison for house-church activities, he continued to fight for his children’s right to be educated, engaging in a three-week hunger strike in 2019. His son Youeil was later denied his high-school certificate and hence an opportunity for further education because he had not completed his Islamic education.
Given the increasingly extreme nature of the ruling regime, repression against Christians increased last year. “Faceless Victims” explained:
Comparatively few Christians were arrested in the first half of 2023, but this all changed in the summer, when more than 100 Christians were arrested within the space of three months. However, the vast majority of these Christians opted not to publicize their situation, in the hope it may help their cases, meaning that despite a comparable number of Christians being arrested in 2023 as in previous years — 166 arrests were documented in 2023, compared to 134 in 2022 — fewer names and faces could be publicized.
Unfortunately, persecution does not end with prison. Cases are reopened and new cases are brought. Moreover, “Revolutionary Court judges are increasingly adding additional punishments to maximum prison sentences, such as terms of exile, flogging, fines, travel bans, and deprivation of social rights, including membership of any group.” Many Christians lose their jobs when employers yield to government pressure.
The regime also continues to pressure those released and their families:
Many Christians report that they continue to be monitored and harassed long after their release, and in many cases this monitoring goes beyond simple observation; Christians will receive distressing and disturbing telephone calls from their interrogator, which remind them of the psychological torture they experienced during their detention. Often, the Christians are also summoned back to see their interrogator and give an account of their activities following their release.
Touraj Shirani’s wife, Elaheh Kiani, reported how the interrogator “regularly called our home from an unknown number. Every time he called, we trembled with fear and sadness.”
Yet such behavior suggests that regime apparatchiks are more fearful than Christians. Despite possession of all the tools of coercion, the state worries that freed Christians will continue to gather, worship, and evangelize. What believers in America take for granted is understood to be truly revolutionary by Iran’s corrupt and oppressive rulers.
It is important not to allow the victims of Iranian persecution to be forgotten. “Faceless Victims” seeks to ensure the victims are faceless no more. Among those whose cases it details are Yousef Nadarkhani, Zaman (Saheb) Fadaie, Mehdi Akbari, Mehdi Rokhparvar, Amin Khaki, Milad Goodarzi, Alireza Nourmohammadi, Abdolreza (Matthias) Ali-Haghnejad, Hadi (Moslem) Rahimi, Sasan Khosravi, Sakine (Mehri) Behjati, Morteza Mashoodkari, Ayoob Poor-Rezazadeh, Ahmad Sarparast, Sara Ahmadi, Homayoun Zhaveh, Joseph Shahbazian, Malihe Nazari, Anooshavan Avedian, and Aida N. They are just a few of the Iranians persecuted for their faith. All deserve the support and prayers of people of goodwill around the world. (READ MORE: Naming Names: The World’s Worst Religious Persecutors)
Iran is widely viewed as a pariah state. Its elites utilize brutal repression and persecution to remain in power despite rising dissatisfaction with a regime that has failed to deliver good governance, economic prosperity, or respect for human life and dignity. The sharpest rebuke against its record is the increasing number of Muslim converts to Christianity.
Tehran’s attempt to roll back Christianity’s advance will fail, as did so many similar efforts throughout history. In time the Islamic Republic and those who seek to control their countrymen will end up in history’s celebrated trash can. Then Iranians of all beliefs will finally be free, heirs to a celebrated heritage stretching back centuries.
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