February 21, 2025
The British-based human rights organization Article 18 says Christian converts in Iran were sentenced last year to six times more prison time than in 2023, suggesting an intensified crackdown by the regime on converts.. Article 18 is a London based human rights groups organized to protect Iranian Christians, especially recent converts to Christianity.
Article 18 is named after the article of the UN 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
Iranian courts sentenced 96 Christians to a combined 263 years in prison in 2024 on faith related charges, compared to 22 Christians sentenced in 2023 to a combined 43.5 years, Article 18 said in the report released January 20 in collaboration with Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and Middle East Concern. Article 18 said Iran’s Christians suffered lengthy prison sentences, hefty financial fines and the confiscation of property.
Combined sentences also included 37 years of exile and nearly $800,000 in fines, the highest annual financial penalty to date, Article 18 reported. At year’s end in 2024, at least 18 Christians were still serving prison time, the report said.
During the year, at least 139 Christians were arrested, 80 were detained, 661 were directly affected by the sentences, and 25 endured imprisonment. Individual sentences were a lot longer, the report said, with five Christians receiving 10-year prison terms and another a 15- year sentence on charges related to their faith.
“Authorities have even told some Christian detainees that ‘foreign hostile states’ including ‘Zionist groups’ are actively supporting Christian organizations in Iran, rationalizing the severe measures taken against church finances as a matter of ‘national security,’” Article 18 reported. Iran’s Revolutionary Courts have criminalized tithes, donations and offerings given to support Christian church activities, although such gifts are not criminalized in churches that exclusively serve Armenian and Assyrian-speaking members, the report said.
Armenian Christian churches and Assyrian churches are recognized by the state and membership in them is not punished. Those are ethnic-based churches that do not seek converts among Iranian Muslims. But evangelical Christian groups, mainly based in the United States and Britain, have been actively seeking converts and have drawn the ire of the regime.
A number of Iranians have reportedly been abandoning Shia Islam since the revolution as a form of protest against the regime. A poll taken a few years ago by the Netherlands-based Iranian pollster Gamaan found only 32 percent of those polled identifying themselves as Shia, a stunning number given that Shias were believed to represent about 90 percent of the population before the revolution.
The Gamaan poll found 31 percent claiming no religion or atheism and 19 percent claiming such faiths as “spiritualism,” “sophism” and “humanism.” Of the traditional minorities in Iran, 0.1 percent reported being Jewish, 1.5 percent claimed Christianity, 5.0 percent Sunnism and an astounding 7.7 percent reported being Zoroastrians.
Some analysts suspect that many Iranian nationalists are reporting themselves as Zoroastrians as a political and cultural statement. The Zoroastrian organization in Iran does not claim even onetenth of 1 percent of the population is Zoroastrian. R
Israel mulls air attack on Iran’s nuke sites
Israel is contemplating an air attack on some of Iran’s nuclear sites this year, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal both reported February 13. Some news outlets picking up the Post’s and the Journal’s stories falsely said Israel had already definitely decided on an attack. Neither newspaper said that. The Journal said Israel was “considering” an attack and the Post said Israel was “likely to attempt a strike” before midsummer.
Both newspapers said their information came from a series of US intelligence reports written since December while the Biden Administration was still in office. Both also said the plans required the support of the United States—indicating that the Trump Administration has the power to stop the attacks from taking place. The Post said Israel wanted the US to provide aerial refueling plus intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
The US intelligence reports assessed that the planned attack would only set Iran’s nuclear program back by a matter of months, and perhaps only weeks—and might encourage Iran to go forward with plans to build nuclear weapons that have been frozen since 2003. Before the news reports were published, Trump told Fox News, “Everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and the bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen.”
But Trump did not say he would tell Israel he disapproved. Both the Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites in Iran are underground. The Trump Administration has notified Congress that it will sell Israel BLU109 bunker-busting bombs that Israel could use to attack those sites.