Join the campaign against Islamic terror
24 December 2011
The Scottish Christian Party has added its voice to the campaign to deliver Youcef Nadarkhani from the death penalty in Iran.
Nadarkhani received a death sentence for apostasy (abandoning Islam - which he says he never followed), and he is currently on trial in Rasht. He has appeared in court three times this week and was asked each day to renounce his faith to secure an annulment of the apostasy charge and a lifting of the death sentence. He refused each time.
The SCP has added its voice to the Christian Solidarity Worldwide campaign to have him released.
In an email to the Iranian Embassy in the UK, Dr Donald Boyd, the leader of the Scottish Christian Party, wrote:
“I am writing to ask you to prevent the death sentence on Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani.
I am led to believe that he never embraced Islam so that he cannot be guilty of apostacy from Islam.
Injustice will be punished by God, and officials have a double responsibility before God to use their authority in a God-honouring and God-glorifying manner.
Islam honours the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
However Jesus warned against the false religious zeal which prompted those who thought that they were serving God by killing Christians: “The time will come when whoever kills you will think that he is serving God”: Jesus Christ (The Gospel according to John, chapter 16, verse 2).
I hope you will honour these words”
Dr Boyd encouraged people to use the form on the CSW website which can be filled in very quickly and easily with one’s own message.
Related Stories
- Christian Solidarity Worldwide website form for easy submission.
- SCP submission to Iranian Embassy in UK.
- Update 27/12/2011: it appears that Youcef Nadarkhani belongs to a non-Trinitarian religious group, but this does not alter the injustice of Islamic terror. Barnabas, Open Doors as well as CSW is campaigning for his release, and each of these refer to him as a Christian pastor. Barnabas report that the American Center for Law and Justice has been heavily involved with the case.
Latest timeline
Click here for the Timeline from CSW.
22 December 2011 - CSW press release confirms that “Nadarkhani continues to face a death sentence for apostasy.”
22 December 2011 - Barnabas comment: “Other commentators have suggested that the Iranian authorities are hoping that the international community and human rights groups, who have been campaigning for Nadarkhani’s release, will forget about the case.” Open Doors quotes one source saying: “some Iranian Christians believe that, in the face of international outrage over the case, the government would announce a verdict near the Christmas holidays so it would receive less attention.”
October 2011 - A final written verdict by the court was expected on Monday 10 October, but after several weeks of intense international scrutiny, Youcef Nadarkhani’s death sentence for apostasy has been referred to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Hoseyni Khamenei, the highest political and religious authority in the country. Referral of court cases to the Supreme Leader is rare, and will almost certainly cause a further delay to the issuing of the written verdict from the trial.
As we wait for the formal verdict to come through, Nadarkhani’s life is in the balance. CSW advise that no conclusions should be drawn on this case until this verdict is received.
