IN THE modern world, it seems absurd that you could be put to death for your faith, right? Such a barbaric practice took place in the Middle Ages, but surely not now. Yet that is exactly what is happening right now in Rasht, Iran. A 34-year-old Christian pastor by the name of Yousef Nadarkhani may be facing death by hanging if he does not renounce his faith.
He was arrested in October 2009 while registering his church in an attempt to offer an alternative to the Islamic educative monopoly present in Iran. Nadarkhani wanted the option to have his two boys educated without the state's mandatory instruction in Islam. For challenging the government's absolute control, Nadarkhani was imprisoned.
More recently, in September 2010, Nadarkhani's original charge of protesting was changed to those of evangelization of Muslims and also apostasy, a turning from the faith. Both are crimes punishable by death in Iran if so decreed by a religious fatwa. While fatwas, unlike the constitution of Iran, are not binding, the courts may draw on them when making a decision, as they did in Nadarkhani's case. The claim of apostasy arose because of Nadarkhani's Muslim parentage and his later conversion to Christianity at the age of nineteen. The 11th branch of Iran's Gilan Provincial Court states that because of his Muslim parentage, he was a member of the Islamic faith before he turned to Christianity, and is accordingly guilty of the crime of apostasy.
Last week, the court gave Nadarkhani a chance to renounce his faith in Jesus Christ, and in doing so, spare his own life. Nadarkhani refused. He was offered two subsequent chances later in the week, on Sept. 27 and 28.
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