IRAN: NEW CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS
Tehran, 4 Jan. (AKI) - The Iranian Evangelical Church has denounced a crackdown by authorities on its members. Under a new government measure, pastors with the official churches will have to provide a list of names of all those who take part in functions to the intelligence ministry. Pastors will also need an authorisation from security forces to celebrate mass. Christians are less than 1 percent of Iran's population of over 68 million.
However, unofficial data shows that the number of converts from Islam to the Evangelical Church is on the rise. Contrary to Catholics and Gregorian Orthodox Christians who discourage conversions for fear of reprisals on their members, Evangelical Christians are in fact extremely active in Iranian society and their number is believed to be growing.
In Iran, Evangelical Christians are often not authorised by authorities to practice their religion and most of their churches are clandestine. The faithful are often forced to celebrate mass in private homes, which is illegal in Iran.
Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president in June 2005 there has been a significant crackdown on Christians and in particular on members of the Evangelical Church. At least 50 members of the church have been jailed since then and are still being detained without trial.
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1) IRAN: NEW CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS
Thursday, January 04, 2007
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