Too Many to Jail by Mark Bradley

Author:Mark Bradley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Lion Books
Published: 2014-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

In October 2011 the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made a public speech about influences that he believed were causing young Muslims to fall away from the “pure” Islamic faith, including Salman Rushdie, Hollywood films, and philosophies or religions such as Sufi Islam, nihilism, and the Baha’i faith. Khamenei also warned about the deception of the “enemy” through the expanding “network of house churches”.

Christmas can be a generous time in Iran. Christians tend to gather in larger groups to celebrate which makes arresting them easier for the authorities. The yearly crackdown has become ironically known as “the Christmas gift”.

In September 2013, the newly elected President Rouhani went to New York to attend a meeting of the UN General Assembly. It was in Iran’s interests to present a good image at the UNGA. This may explain why there were no arrests in the September to November period, and why a couple of Christian prisoners were also released in this window of time.

Just from June until September over 100 Christians endured arbitrary arrest.327 And then over Christmas and the New Year the machinery went into top gear: eighty-five Christians in twelve cities were arrested, and officials attempted to seize another fifteen, but they were not in their homes.328 From 2011 to 2013 there have been at least seventy more arrests.329 At the time of writing at least sixty known Christians are in prison.330

These figures are a part of the story of Iran’s new Christians. As a whole they represent a determined effort by the government of a major regional power to use its formidable security apparatus to eliminate house-church Christianity. There was nothing sporadic about the arrests over the Christmas of 2010. They were coordinated and planned. Officials have held meetings, looked at maps, agreed on timings, and assigned personnel all with one aim: to crush Christianity.

Each raid and arrest also has its own story. For many it was the awfulness of arrest and being taken, usually blindfolded, to a police station for questioning, or being held in a home while the police, with threats, urge them to sign a form promising not to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ among Muslims. When the police detain a large group they usually release most of the members after questioning, but the leaders are detained. This is what happened in Tehran on 29 August 2013. There was a raid on a house group with fifteen members:

The agents video-taped us all, then divided us into three groups and held us in separate rooms. They then placed prepared interrogation forms in front of us and, without allowing us to read them, ordered us to sign the blank papers… and then sign the back. The agents’ behaviour was very threatening and insulting.331

The group members were allowed to then leave. The leaders of the group, Amir Ebrahami and Kamiyar Barzegar and his wife, were not. They were arrested.

For Iranians who are used to a reasonably comfortable lifestyle and being treated decently, prison is a grim shock.332 An atmosphere of fear is created on arrival.

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