Three minority religions - Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity - are constitutionally recognized, but others are not and their followers are barred from holding services or possessing religious materials in Persian. The report covering 2020-21 also notes the Iranian authorities' increased focus on cracking down on evangelism online, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei advancing a so-called "cyberarmy" to "protect" the Islamic republic from perceived threats.įollowing the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Twelver Jafari School of Shi'ite Islam was named as Iran's official religion under the constitution, which also states that all Iranian laws be derived and consistent with Islamic doctrine.
The IRCG was responsible for 12 of the 38 documented incidents of arrests of Christians or raids on their homes or house churches in 2021. The joint report says that one of the most striking trends in 2021 was the increased involvement of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the crackdown on Persian-speaking Christians. The organization's latest annual report, produced jointly with other religious advocacy groups, reports more than 120 incidents of arrest, detention, or imprisonment of Christian converts, Iran's largest Christian community. That is because it is illegal for Muslims to convert in Iran, where unrecognized religious minorities are barred from assembling.Īrticle 18, a London-based nonprofit organization that promotes religious freedom in Iran and advocates on behalf of its religious minorities, has documented the experiences of many who, like Shahvari, were forced to flee abroad to pursue their religious beliefs or who remain and are persecuted in Iran. After initially questioning the messages of Jesus Christ broadcast in Persian from abroad, Shahvari eventually converted to evangelical Christianity under a new name, Iman (Faith).īut his path resulted in multiple arrests, a year in detention, and charges of blasphemy, acting against national security, and engaging in evangelical activity with the aim of attracting others to "deviant thoughts." Two decades later he found salvation on satellite television. But after one of his brothers was killed and another wounded in the 1980-88 conflict, he turned to drugs. He was devoted to his country to the extent that he twice volunteered to fight on the front lines in the devastating Iran-Iraq War. Ali Shahvari grew up in a traditional and religious Muslim family in Iran.
0 kommentar(er)
