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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iranian Moslems Debate With Iranian Christians About Religion |
| 2005-02-05 |
| From Compass Direct Christian pastor Hamid Pourmand went on trial before a military court in Tehran last week, charged with deceiving the Iranian armed forces about his religion. It was the first time Iranian authorities have produced Pourmand, 47, arrested five months ago when police raided a church conference in Karaj, near Tehran. Although the nine other pastors and 76 laymen detained with him were all released within a few days, the Assemblies of God lay pastor has remained under incommunicado arrest since September 9, 2004. ..... Together with his wife and two children, Pourmand was living in Bandar-i Bushehr, a port city on the Persian Gulf in southern Iran. In addition to his military duties as a colonel in the army, he was the volunteer lay pastor of a small Assemblies of God congregation in the city. Pourmand converted from Islam to Christianity nearly 25 years ago. Shortly after the Islamic revolution, Iranian laws had been passed to prohibit non-Muslims from serving as military officers. But according to his family and Christian acquaintances, Pourmand had never concealed his religious conversion. Rather, he was widely liked and respected for his honesty, one friend told Compass. Pourmand reportedly declared in court last week that he had documented proof, in the form of a letter, that the army knew he had become a Christian before he was ever given officer rank. It is expected that regardless of the outcome of his deception charges before the military court, Pourmand will now be forcibly discharged from the Iranian army. During last week's trial, the Christian prisoner was informed that he would be transferred back to Bandar-i Bushehr, where he will face trial on two separate charges of apostasy and proselytizing. During the hearing, court officials declared that for many years Pourmand had belonged to an "underground" church through which "many Muslims" had deserted Islam and become Christians. ..... The world's only theocratic regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran maintains harsh suppression of local evangelical churches and various house-church movements accused of evangelizing Muslims. Since 1990, several ex-Muslims who converted to Christianity have been either assassinated or executed by court order, under the guise of accusations of spying for foreign countries. Under Iranian law, apostasy is listed along with murder, armed robbery, rape and serious drug trafficking as a capital offense. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |