Iran’s Christians

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Inherent to Iran’s theocratic social code is the unfair treatment of all religious minorities, regardless of their recognition in the Constitution. Armenians, Jews and Zoroastrians are considered half citizens. This means that if a member of any one of these minorities wants to testify in court, his testimony is equivalent to half that of a Muslim man.  When speaking about minority women, their worth is 1/4 that of a Muslim man.  If a Christian or any other religious minority is wet and a Muslim man touches him, he has to go wash as he is now considered najess (impure).

Historically, the Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities flourished for centuries in Iran, but from the onset of the Islamic Revolution, religious persecution and social marginalization set off a mass exodus in cultural and religious minority groups.

Under the Pahlavi dynasty, the Armenian community thrived, as a result of the modernization efforts of Reza Shah from 1924 to 1941 and Mohammad Reza Shah from 1941 to 1979. The Armenians advanced and established themselves in the arts, sciences, economy and entrepreneurship. They settled in Tehran, Tabriz and Isfahan and had a growing population of about 3,000,000.

They were politically independent with their own senator and member of parliament.  They had churches, schools, cultural centers and libraries that catered to their community.

Armenian books, newspapers and other literature was published and freely circulated throughout Iran.

The history of religion within Iran, clearly parallels their political timeline.  After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iranians connected again with Islam. This was particularly the trend a couple of years later when Iran entered a bloody religious war of Shiite versus Sunni with neighboring Iraq. Naturally, Iranians became increasingly patriotic, rallying around the flag of their new Islamic country.

The Islamic Revolution and the years following brought a sudden end to a thriving era for the Armenians. Facing religious pressure, increased religious propaganda surrounding the Iran-Iraq War and subsequent economic struggles induced a sudden emigration of more than 1,000,000 Armenians from Iran who settled in Europe, North America and Australia.

The plight of Christian converts, very few in number at the time, became even more precarious.  The Iranian government expelled all Western missionaries and in the backdrop of a fiercely fundamentalist Islamic influence that was quickly spreading throughout the country, those who wished to continue living as Christians, were forced to face the consequences.

Christian converts have faced brutal persecution for three decades, yet, as the crackdowns increase, the Iranian people are still drawn to Christianity as a way to communicate with God and routinely attend prayers and Bible readings.

Christian activists around the globe have cried out against the recent arrests, claiming that these Iranians are being persecuted merely for practicing a religion outside the dictated Islamic faith.

The Iranian crackdowns have coincided with a sweep of unrelated attacks against other Christian communities in the Middle East, including Egypt and Iraq, which also began around Christmas time.

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  • Tom S

    Blessed Virgin Mary, implore your Divine Son to the protection of Christians in Iran and the Middle East.

  • George

    The author is misinformed. The number of Armenians in Iran was never 3,000,000. It may have been as much 200,000 or 300,000 at most. Because of emigration, the current figure is estimated to be between 40,000 and 80,000 but no accurate figure are available. Also, Armenians still do have representatives in the Iranian parliament (the Majls) as before. Armenians have two representative and the Jews and Zoroastrians have one each.

    While the article does touch on it, the key point is that only evangelical Christians who try to convert Muslims to Christianity are being targeted. Since Iran subscribes to the idiotic Sharia laws like a number of other Islamic countries, apostasy (giving up one's religion) for Muslims is punishable by death. Thus, these self-serving and misguided Christians are essentially trying to kill the converts. Armenian and Assyrian Christians who generally do not try to convert Muslims, in general, face no discriminations.

    • cjk

      "Thus, these self-serving and misguided Christians are essentially trying to kill the converts."
      Well any credibility you gained by rightly pointing out the population error in the article was lost by such an outrageous statement.

    • Renate

      becoming a true believer in Jashua means that the believer has heaven to look forward to and seeing Jashua face to face. So the sting of death has been taking away. These "self serving" Christians aren't misquided. They prayerfully give their fellow man the Greatest Truth there is. I think the Persian who accepts this truth does so knowing full well of the consequences. You don't need to feel sorry for them. They, after accepting Jashua, know full well of the danger but still accept gladly because as Muslims, they had no such assurance nor hope. What is "self serving" about spreading the Greatest Good News. Most Christians in the Middle East do not have an easy life , yet they continue to tell others of the saving love of Jashua, because they are compelled to do so not for any "self-serving" gain.

      • Renate

        I meant Jeshua

    • Mustafa

      Dear George; Have you been in Iran for a period of time? You see Hsia’s morning crowded in Paris or NY, Iranian Local TV broadcast them as a victory of Shi’ism, but in Iran, New Christians, Muslim converts must go UNDER GROUND Churches, pray in fear, fear in relationship with new comers (to be spy from secret police)… and one day, suddenly the door will break, and Iranian police with all equipments and weapons will entered from walls and all around and arrest everyone like murderers! You know their representatives in the Iranian parliament, they are not real, they are from Regime’s, just a propaganda, ask real Christians in Iran!

  • USMCSniper

    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic theocratic monarchy in which Islam is the official religion. Although no law requires citizens or passport holders to be Muslim, almost all citizens are Muslims. Proselytizing by non-Muslims is illegal, and conversion by Muslims to another religion (apostasy) carries the death penalty, although there have been no confirmed reports of executions for apostasy in recent years. Religious freedom is virtually non-existent. The Government does not provide legal recognition or protection for freedom of religion, and it is severely restricted in practice. As a matter of policy, the Government guarantees and protects the right to private worship for all, including non-Muslims who gather in homes for religious practice; however, this right is not always respected in practice and is not defined in law.[2] Moreover, the preaching and public practice of non-Muslim religions is prohibited. The Saudi Mutaween or Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (i.e., the religious police) enforces the prohibition on the public practice of non-Muslim religions. Sharia Law applies to all people inside Saudi Arabia, regardless of religion.

  • Sherie

    I am an Iranian Christian (convert) – nice article. However, please refrain from using the Arabic word (Farsi) for Persian, and just call it Persian. Thank you.

    • George

      "Farsi" is, in fact, the Persian word for the Persian language. So, you are not really Persian if you don't know this fact.

      • Matt

        If you extrapolate this further, "P" does not even exist in Arabic:-)

      • fmobler

        Not quite George. The P and F phonemes are a bit confusing. It is true that many modern Persians pronounce it as "farsi" but definitely the pronunciation "parsi" is also common in many dialects. You might be a little more generous and assume Sherie speaks one of these. In any case, "farsi" — according to a historical linguist friend I asked today — is almost certainly an arabization of earlier pronunciations. That is, the dialects that still pronounce it as "parsi" seem to be those dialects that have been less influenced by Arabic in other ways as well.

        • George

          You are nitpicking. "Farsi" is the standard term for the native language in Iran. "Parsi" is used to designate the Persians who emigrated to India. This is such an obvious distinction that no further discussion is necessary. Sherie is clearly an impostor.

          • Seyed

            George,

            I am sorry to point this out to you. Parsi was the real language of Persians.
            It comes from the ancient race Pars. Unfortunately after the Arab Invasion , the whole language and writing changed dramatically, and the presnt language spoken today is not the real Parsi . Arabs couldn't pronounce "P"
            and that's how the word farsi was introduced and stuck to this date.

            Nick

          • George

            What are you talking about? The basic question is whether the language of Iran is called "Farsi" in Iran at this moment of time. Who cares about the history? Actually, in English, I have no problem if the language is called Persian. But, Farsi has also become common and I see no problem in using it. English is a dynamic language and it evolve through usage.

          • fmobler

            Indeed George. The question is what the language is called today. But that question does not have one answer. Farsi/Parsi currently has regional dialects in which the first letter is pronounced a lot more like an English p that like an English f. It also happens that some native speakers (rightly or wrongly) attribute the p pronunciation to Arab colonialism. Whether you and I think that is a serious claim is irrelevant. Some native speakers of the language think it is.

            You accused Sherie of being an impostor based on her trying to make a political point of the pronunciation. The accusation is not warranted based on the way things are right now in Persia/Iran.

            People (not impostors) who feel that their native culture has been debased by invaders all over the world often try to make their point with linguistic fights. This attention to details may seem trivial to the outsider, but they do not signal a fake. For the entire Franco period in Spain, people who insisted on writing and speaking Catalan were ridiculed and even censored. Franco called them "impostors" too — people hiding behind false claims of unimportant linguistic differences. But then, as you say, how cares about history?

    • Darius

      You need to know that Persian is not native to Iran. It is what the Greeks called the Iranians since ancient times (referred to the people that lived in the Persis region).
      SO to think Persian is Iranian, shows your own lack of understanding.
      That is why Reza Shah asked the world to Call Iran,

  • http://www.visitbethshalom.org Myles Weiss

    Thank God for the heroic Christians of Iran. They are the hope of the nation.
    After the phony elections I wrote a song for the women of Persia…they are like Esther standing up for the people in the court of the king. Ironically, my given name is Mordechai!
    View it at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olEFP-ez0e4

  • jtbaumgart

    Just a point in passing, this article seems word for word copy from International Christian Concern's website.

  • Al Bema

    is there any website about Christians in Iran?