Posted By The Circuit Rider
FREE ZONE MEDIA CENTER WFZR/TV
Former Revolutionary Guard member describes
the crackdown on Christians in Iran
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The Iranian
government is said to be launching a new wave of persecution against Christians.
CBN
-- According to the Daily Caller, the regime has ordered Iranian
intelligence to infiltrate church groups in major Iranian cities.
Agents are identifying pastors and other
Christians, targeting them for arrest and torture in prison.
Former member of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guards, Reza Kahlili, verified the crackdown. He said Iran's ayatollahs are
frustrated with the large number of Muslims who are now embracing Christianity.
Kahlili is author of A Time to Betray. He
wore a disguise to protect his identity as he talked to CBN News. Below you read
the transcription of the interview:
Q: Reza Thanks for joining us. What
can you tell us about this latest crackdown? How extensive is it?
A: It’s been an order to
the Iranian intelligence apparatus specifically the guard’s intelligence to
monitor the activities of Iranians for converting to Christianity, to suppress
them, make arrests, terrify them and finally to torture them. And according to a
source within the guard’s intelligence, they have tens of thousands of files for
Iranians for converting to Christianity. This is a big concern for the
government. They don’t know how to handle it. In one city, just the city of
Shiraz with over one million population, according to the source, they have
thirty thousand files of Iranians who they have confirmed that they have
converted to Christianity. But the source says that tens of thousands more are
unknown to the intelligence apparatus.
Q: How is this recent effort different from the ongoing
attacks that Christians have faced from the Iranian government over the years?
Well, let me make one thing clear. Before
the Islamic revolution, many in Iran, the youth, the elderly, though they did
not adhere to the Islamic rules or practice Islam, they respected Islam. But
today, that respect is visibly gone and they oppose the religion and what it
prescribes. They are very outspoken about it. People are joining the move to
convert to the Christianity.
Q: Give us some examples;
can you say specifically what is happening against the Christians there?
A: Well, according to
this source, who himself was in the intelligence unit, and he saw and he
witnessed some of the tortures being done. What they do they raid homes where
teachings are taking place, they arrest them, they are taken and sometimes they
beat their wives in front of their eyes to break them down, to force them to
come before television and make false confessions. The source says that one of
those arrested, a male, after three months in total darkness, and then he was
all of a sudden brought to the courtyard, where he immediately lost his
eye-sights. So, it is unimaginable what they do with the Christian converts.
Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader ordered the guards to burn ten thousand of
confiscated Bibles, saying that it is not a holy book and therefore, it is legal
to burn them in order to stop the conversion.
- Regime’s authorities anxious
Mohabat News believes, the above interview indicates the anxiety of the
Iranian security organization and government officials about the increasing
growth of Christianity among the people of Iran. The issue has become so serious
that some prominent clerics complained about this increasing tendency toward
Christianity and warned their fellow Mullahs about the significant trend of the
youth toward Christianity in Qom which is recognized as the spiritual capital of
the Islamic Republic.
This anxiety, as well as the enormous
growth of house churches, impacted Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, to
the extent that in his nine day trip to Qom on October 19, 2010, he reluctantly
acknowledged this growth and spoke about the regime’s decision to deal with
false mysticisms and house churches./ Farsi
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