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Iran is reported to have launched a new crackdown against Iranian Christians this month following the re-arrest of two men.
According to a Feb. 10 report on the website of the U.K.-based NGO Article18, which seeks to protect religious freedom in Iran, “Two Christians in their 60s who were released after a combined six years in prison on charges related to their leadership of house-churches have been re-arrested.”
Iranian regime intelligence agents re-arrested the two Christians, Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Joseph Shahbazian, and incarcerated both men in Tehran’s brutal Evin Prison. Gol-Tapeh is reportedly on a hunger strike over “unlawful re-arrest,” noted Article 18, which advocates on behalf of persecuted Iranian Christians.
The most recent U.S. State Department report on religious freedom in Iran (2023) states, “The government continued to regulate Christian religious practices. Christian worship in Farsi was forbidden and official reports and state-run media continued to characterize private Christian churches in homes as ‘illegal networks’ and ‘Zionist propaganda institutions.”’
The number of Christians in Iran is difficult to pinpoint because of the widespread repression of the faith. According to the State Department report, the Iranian regime’s Statistical Center claims there are 117,700 Christians of recognized denominations as of the 2016 census.
Iranian women prisoners sit inside their cell in Tehran’s Evin prison, June 13, 2006. (Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl )
Boston University’s 2020 World Religion Database notes there are roughly 579,000 Christians in Iran, while Article 18 estimates there are 500,000 to 800,000. Open Doors reports the number at 1.24 million.
The Trump administration re-imposed, in early February, its maximum economic pressure campaign on Iran’s regime to reverse Tehran’s drive to build a nuclear weapon and stop its spread of Islamist terrorism.
Vojoudi, an associate fellow at the U.S.-based Gold Institute for International Strategy, told Fox News Digital, “Now is the time for European nations and the United States to take meaningful action, not only by holding the Islamic Republic accountable for its support of terrorism and extremist groups, but also by prosecuting it on the international stage for violating one of the most fundamental human rights: the freedom of religion.
“This is critical not only for the safety of Christian converts but also to reaffirm the values of freedom and human dignity that these nations claim to uphold.”
Multiple Fox News Digital press queries to Iran’s foreign ministry and its U.N. mission in New York were not returned. Fox News Digital asked if the government would release Iranians imprisoned for merely practicing their Christian faith.