Friday will be two years since Pastor Saeed Abedini was thrown into that hellhole of an Iranian prison. In case you don't know who he is, well, he is an American citizen who traveled to Iran to preach the New Testament and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Imagine if the American government put Muslims or Jews or Christians into prison for preaching their religious beliefs to their congregations. Pastor Abedini was preaching Christianity to the very small minority of Christians still living in Iran. He was not prosthelesyzing, trying to convert people to his faith.
This is the problem with a theocracy. Its "leaders" are clergy in a faith, in this case, Islam. Therefore, the people must follow the leaders and the religion under pain of imprisonment, physical harm and even death. Even as one who is not religious, I can state this is not the intent of God or Allah or Yahweh or any other name people give to the One they worship.
Even Israel, which was founded as a homeland for Jews throughout the world to feel free to live, does NOT require that its residents follow Judaism as a precept to live there. There are many denominations of Christians, Muslims and other religious groups living there, free to practice their faiths without interference from the government.
Prior to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 by the current regime, Iranians had one of the most open and tolerant governments of religious liberty in the Muslim world. Now it is the most repressive.
Saeed Abedini was born in Iran as a Muslim but converted to Christianity after he met and married his Iranian-American Christian wife. He subsequently converted to Christianity, became ordained a Pastor and was granted American citizenship.
The American Center for Law and Justice or ACLJ has actively worked to secure Pastor Abedini's freedom almost since his arrest. The entity has petitioned the Obama Administration which has done NOTHING to help free Saeed. The Administration had its best chance in December and January to have him freed when it negotiated that stupid nuclear arms/sanctions deal.
I wrote about this on May 22 in a commentary called The Sad Case of Pastor Saeed Abedini where I overviewed the whole case. To date, Barry and his goons have decided to let a good man rot in jail while negotiating with terrorists to free a traitor in exchange for terrorists.
Got that?
I think we have the power to help the ACLJ and other entities overpower Barry to finally stand up for this American and for Andrew Tahmooressi, as well as William Miller and all the other Americans languishing in prisons around the world for nothing more than being Americans. THAT is the crime they committed, being born here or choosing to become Americans.
Who is with me on this? It is time to begin the flood of emails, telegrams and other correspondence and calls until Barry finally gets the message.
Or is he too stupid to understand his first priority is to stand up for Americans wherever they may be or whoever they are?
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