Injustice to Christian Compatriots for Maintaining the Tribune of Truth
Sohila.Kh. FCN News Agency: At a time when the United Nations has condemned Iran for the twenty-ninth time in its resolutions since 1985 for blatant human rights violations, Archbishop Sibuh Sarkissian, the Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Tehran, expresses views in a press interview that contradict the reality of Iranian society.
The Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Tehran has emphasized in this interview: “Undoubtedly, the Islamic Republic of Iran is considered an exemplary country in which people, regardless of their ethnicity and race, enjoy equal rights, and skin color, race, and language do not cause the superiority of any group.”
While according to Iranian law, apostasy from Islam is considered apostasy and can result in the death penalty as “fighting God and corruption on earth,” which includes the situation of Christian converts and other religious minorities in Iran.
However, under these circumstances, Sibuh Sarkissian considers the presence of two representatives from the Armenian community, one from the Assyrian and Chaldean minority, one from the Zoroastrians, and one as a representative of Zoroastrians in the Islamic Consultative Assembly as an expression of respect for the rights of religious minorities in Iran, without mentioning the imprisonment and detention of Christian converts and Bahá’ís.
While the conviction of 18 Christian converts to 23 years and nine months in prison in 2015, the detention of more than 92 Christians for holding religious ceremonies on January 1, 2015, are merely a handful of the injustices this religious minority community faces in the country.
The United Nations has also expressed serious concern in its resolution about “severe restrictions” on freedom of religion and thought in Iran, and in particular about the continued persecution of Bahá’ís in the country.
The United Nations prepared and approved this resolution based on the report of Ahmad Shaheed, the Special Rapporteur on human rights.
Ahmad Shaheed, in his latest report submitted to the Third Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations in November, stated that there has been no sign of progress in the field of respect for human rights in Iran.
In a general assessment, he emphasized that gender discrimination alongside widespread and systematic violations of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights affect Iranian citizens.
Iran’s non-cooperation with human rights observers, blatant violations of the right to freedom of expression and access to information, the presence of 600 anti-government Iranian journalists in prisons, along with gender, religious, and ethnic discrimination, gender inequality, violence against women, and discrimination against religious and denominational minorities are other examples of human rights violations in Ahmad Shaheed’s report.
Ahmad Shaheed in this report has accused Iran of continued violations of the rights of Bahá’ís, Christians, Dervishes, and ethnic minorities such as Arabs in Khuzestan, Kurds, people of Sistan and Baluchestan, and also Afghan refugees.
Given these facts, those who easily occupy tribunes are expected not to sacrifice truth to maintain their position and perhaps unity, and not to sell cheaply the rights of the Iranian nation.
In Romans, in the chapter “God’s Righteous Judgment,” it is written: “God will repay each person according to what they have done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for the selfish and those who reject the truth and are wicked, he will pour out his wrath and anger.
