October-18-2013
Pastor Saeed Abedini has become a central theme of attacks by the American Christian right on the Islamic Republic and on President Obama.
Abedini, a naturalized American imprisoned for just over a year in Iran, was raised by two of the speakers last week at the Value Voters Summit, an annual gathering of American Christians who want to see Christian values made the centerpiece of American politics.
In a speech to the group Friday, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul declared he would work tirelessly to free Abedini. Paul exclaimed that Americans, including himself and the federal government, should do their utmost to see that Abedini is freed.
“In Iran, American Pastor Saeed Abedini is detained indefinitely, facing physical and psychological torture. They ask him to renounce his faith,” said Paul. ”I’ve introduced a resolution to the Senate that says and calls for and says we should do everything within our power, within our voice, from the White House, from the State Department, from our government to release Saeed Abedini.”
Paul tied Abedini’s plight to the situation for Christians throughout the Middle East, as he said Islamic extremists step up their attacks on Christian communities.
“Across the globe, Christians are under attack, almost as if we lived in the Middle Ages or if we lived under early Pagan Roman rule…. It’s almost as if that is happening again throughout the Middle East,” said Paul.
“This administration does nothing to stop it. And it can be argued that they’re giving aid and comfort to those who tolerate these crimes.”
The theme that the Obama Administration was at fault was a common theme at the Value Voters Summit.
Another speaker was even blunter than Paul. That was Todd Starnes of Fox News.
Starnes told the group: “Our President, who travels across the globe apologizing for the United States of America, yet he cannot utter the words ‘Saeed Abedini’ from his lips. What is our President doing about it? Why isn’t he picking up the phone, talking to his new BFF [Best Friends Forever], the Iranian president? Yet at this very moment an American pastor sits in a Muslim country’s jail and we do nothing about it.”
It has become the norm for the right wing to say Obama refuses to do anything on behalf of Abedini, although the White House said Obama appealed for the release of Abedini and the two other Americans detained in Iran during his 15-minute telephone conversation with President Rohani last month.
Starnes remark was a curiosity since he demanded Obama pick up the phone and call Rohani on behalf of Abedini when the president had just done that two weeks earlier.
In his speech, Paul spoke of the “war on Christianity” happening in many Muslim countries, driven by what he described as a significant minority.
The senator from Kentucky called for the United States to cease sending international aid to nations like Egypt and Pakistan until religious liberty for Christians is secured.
“We send billions of dollars to Egypt, to Pakistan. We’ve helped put new Islamic regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Obama now sends arms to Islamic rebels in Syria,” Paul said. However, the Administration does not aid Islamic rebel groups, only a secular group.
Paul continued, “In Egypt, the mob attacked our embassy, climbed on top of our embassy and burned our flag. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough. I say not one penny more to any country that would burn the American flag. We must work to ensure that our country, our policies, our tax dollars are on the side of ending this violence rather than encouraging those who perpetrate it.”
But it was the Egyptian government that attacked the embassy and burned the US flag.
