Christians Prepare to Face Increasing Persecution in India

In national elections due in the next few months, observers warn that if a Hindu Nationalist government comes to power attacks on Christians in India will increase.

There has been a spate of attacks on Christians and Muslims in India in the last year. Mapping of the attacks on Christians and Muslims show that the worst affected areas are Gujarat and Orissa, where the upper-caste Brahmins hold significant economic power.

They use this power to enforce their ideology which is to reduce the "Dalits" - or lowest caste - and Christians and Muslims to be second class citizens.

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In Kandhamal, Odisha, in 2008 attacks were carried out on "tribal" Christians and the agencies that helped them, with 38 Christians killed, 18,000 injured and 50,000 displaced.
World Vision, a Christian relief agency, was forced out of the area.

Before that, in 2002, some 2,000 Muslims were killed over three days in Gujarat. The chief minister, Narendra Modi, described himself as a Hindu nationalist and was accused of condoning the attacks. He is the prime ministerial for the BJP party.

A seminar held this week in Delhi by the Centre for Religious Freedom to develop a Religious Freedom Support Group was encouraged to form groups that would respond to attacks at six levels:

1) Spiritual support providing spiritual and crisis counselling and prayer support
2) Media and information
3) Legal rights- providing details of making legal complaints nationally and to international for a
4) Developing good relationships with the police for protection and action
5) Developing good relations with community leaders so that churches can be seen as a benefit to their communities 6) Direct relief – providing contacts for relief support and places of refuge

Seminar participants were encouraged to see that issues of religious freedom could not be separated from issues of social justice and economic empowerment, something which appears to go against the default position of many pastors in India.

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Edmonton Police Blunder on Hijab

By Farzana Hassan, Toronto Sun

We seek to be “inclusive” of all cultures in Canada — even the ones that shun Canadian values and conspire to undermine its democracy and diversity.

The Edmonton police service has announced its decision to design a hijab, the Muslim head covering, as part of a Muslim woman’s police uniform.

Did someone actually move this in a meeting? Was it really seconded?
This will be a slicker version of the hijab, with snaps to undo it quickly, as if this is the only problem the hijab poses.

The real problem is not with the garb itself but what it represents. This accommodating move is designed to attract more Muslim women to the police force, but it conveys the impression the Edmonton police wish to attract only hijabi women.

They seem to think all Muslim women who join the force will want to wear the hijab.
It makes you wonder why the hijab has become so intricately linked to Muslim women that both must now apparently be acknowledged in the same breath?

Automatically associating the hijab with Muslim women stereotypes them.
It implies, at the very least, that only those who wear the hijab are authentic Muslims.
The Qu’ran does not mandate the hijab, so wearing it is an odd criterion for authenticity.
This unwittingly endorses a cultural practice that is actually steeped in patriarchy.

For those of that ilk, this latest round of exalting the hijab by giving it a prominent place in a Canadian police service counts as a victory.

The proposal has been made as a “gesture of inclusion,” says Scott McKeen, an Edmonton councillor, in response to the aspirations of a community who “can feel a little skittish at times” about Islamophobia.

Sadly, this attitude, however well-intentioned, plays into the hands of those Muslims who hold moderates in contempt.

The hijab brigade is busily trying to sell the idea the hijab is “liberating”.
This partly accounts for the hosannas greeting the decision of the Edmonton police service.
How lovely it is that Muslim women can “do everything” while being suitably attired!
They can be effective law enforcement agents and their hijabs need not hinder their movements.
Many hijab supporters would love to project that view and, by doing so, shrug off all criticism that the hijab is patriarchal.

Continued, here.

Mark Driscoll on Piers Morgan, Tolerance, and Why Morality is Like Banking, Not Winetasting

"I brought him [Morgan] a nice study Bible and he thanked me, saying I was the first person ever to give him such a gift. The show was edited fairly, though I was bummed they took out the segment where I told him that one day he would be sitting across the desk from Jesus Christ to answer God's questions and that he was not ready for that day." -Mark Driscoll

(Seattle, WA)—Referring to an earlier interview he did with Piers Morgan in which the CNN television host pressed Pastor Mark Driscoll on the subject of tolerance, Driscoll has addressed the subject in a way that will surely resonate with many Christians.

He recalls asking Morgan what his definition of tolerance was. Morgan replied that he thought it was tolerating people "who may have a lifestyle or a belief that you don't agree with."

Driscoll's answer was, "Yes, we have to [tolerate]. When Jesus says, 'Love your neighbor,' He knows you're not going to agree with all your neighbors, but He wants you to love them, to seek good for them, to care for them."

Expounding on the issue, Driscoll continues, "Our conflict was around the old definition of tolerance (which I hold) and the new definition of tolerance (which he, Morgan, holds).

"The old view of tolerance assumed that (1) there is objective truth that can be known/ 2) various people, groups and perspectives each think they know what that objective truth is and (3) as people/groups disagree, dialogue and debate their conflicting views of the truth, everyone involved will have an opportunity to learn, grow, change and possibly arrive together at the truth.

"The new tolerance is different from the old tolerance. The new view of tolerance assumes that (1) there is no objective truth that can be known; (2) various people, groups and perspectives do not have the truth but only what they believe to be the truth and (3) various people, groups and perspectives should not argue and debate their disagreements because there is no truth to be discovered, and to assume otherwise only leads to needless conflicts and prejudices.

"Today morality is more like wine tasting than banking," concludes Driscoll. "In banking, there is a right and wrong answer…but we don't see morality like banking anymore. Instead, we see it more like wine tasting. In wine tasting, everyone has their favorite blends and no one is necessarily right or wrong—it all depends on individual palates.

The problem is, the God of the Bible sees morality like banking, not wine tasting. This is why Jesus referred to sins as "debts" in the world's most famous prayer (Matt. 6:12).

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Terrorization of Egyptian Christians Intensify; Pray

There is a perception that Christians can be attacked with impunity. "If you hurt a Christian, no one is going to do anything to you. No one is ever brought to justice in any sectarian violence against Christians… There has to be a stop to this." -Mina Thabet

(Cairo, Egypt)—Three months after the Egyptian Army liberated Delga from militant Muslims, Islamists and criminals are terrorizing Christians in other towns across Egypt, human rights activists said. (Photo: Watani Weekly)

According to the Middle East Correspondent of Morning Star News, Islamists in the towns are again charging Jizya, a Koranic fine on non-Muslims also known as the "submission" or "humiliation" tax, after a lull following the retaking of Delga on Sept. 16, said human rights activists within the country. In several towns across Egypt, Muslim extremists and criminals have set up a cottage industry persecuting Christians for profit, the activists said.

"Extortionists using the threat of kidnapping, torture and murder are seizing money, land and other property from Christian's throughout the southern part of the country but mainly in Minya and Assiut governorates," said the story.

Mina Thabet, founding member of the Maspero Youth Union said, "What you are dealing with now is some criminals attacking Christians – Christians who own shops and things like that. He added that in the case of militant Islamists, persecuting Christians is seen "as a religious duty."

Continued, here.

Coins Depicting Jesus Uncovered?

Referring to discovered coins that may depict Jesus, Dr. Tim White of Northwest University says, "The 3D imaging analysis of early coins with possible pictures of Jesus is very intriguing." 

(Gonzales, TX)—In what appears to be a very significant discovery of Art and Art History from the 1st century A.D., historian, historical archaeologist, and imaging inventor Ronald Stewart, ThD, PhD is stating that he has possibly uncovered hand-struck coins minted sometime between 33-47 A.D. which have images and depictions of Jesus Christ—many which correlate to well-known Biblical events. Research is ongoing, but these initial findings would be a major development throughout art history, Christianity, Near Eastern history, and numismatics.

Prior to this unique discovery, the earliest known depiction of the face or likeness of Jesus Christ was in 235 A.D., in what is known as "The Healing of the Paralytic." This has long been a concern for believers (and others), insofar as there were no (extant) drawings, painting, or other images of Jesus for the 200 years immediately after Christ's death.
Likewise, the earliest image of Jesus on a coin showed up in a Byzantine gold coin estimated to be from 692 A.D.

Examples of readily-identified Biblical stories of Christ which Stewart has seen on these coins include: Jesus healing the blind man, Jesus raising Jarius' daughter from the dead, and Jesus being bound and dragged on His way to Pontius Pilate.
In order to arrive at his conclusion, Stewart has relied on his own advanced imaging technology called Infinite Microscopic to Macroscopic Imaging, a system that has been used and improved upon for the past 25 years. This imaging system has been used by the federal government, select State and county agencies, private museums in the USA and the UK, and other researchers and archeologists over the past several years.

"I am excited by this work. This is exactly the kind of in-depth research of which Christians need to stay apprized. The 3D imaging analysis of early coins with possible pictures of Jesus is very intriguing," says Dr. Tim White-adjunct professor at Northwest University and senior pastor of Washington Cathedral.

Dr. Stewart plans on displaying the coins at some pending exhibits throughout the USA in 2014.

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Prime Minister Netanyahu: Iran Agreement a 'Historic Mistake'

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting by mounting a sharp attack on the agreement reached Saturday night between Iran and Western powers over the nuclear issue.

Netanyahu stated, "For the first time, the world's leading powers have agreed to uranium enrichment in Iran while ignoring the UN Security Council decisions that they themselves led. Sanctions that required many years to put in place contain the best chance for a peaceful solution. These sanctions have been given up in exchange for cosmetic Iranian concessions that can be cancelled in weeks."
"Implications of this agreement threaten many countries - including, of course, Israel. Israel is not bound by this agreement," Netanyahu affirmed. "What we achieved last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement; it is a historic mistake."

He continued, "Today the world has become a more dangerous place, because the most dangerous regime in the world took another step towards achieving the most dangerous weapon in the world."

Read more, here.

‘Nigerian Islamists Force Christian Women to Convert’

BERLIN – The Al-Qaida-linked Islamic group Boko Haram unleashed a new tactic in its war to obliterate Christianity in northern Nigeria: convert or die.

Two gunmen from Boko Haram kidnapped Hajja, a 19- year-old Christian in July as she picked corn near her village in the Gwoza hills, a remote part of northeastern Nigeria where a six-month-old government offensive is struggling to contain an insurgency by Boko Haram.

“If I cried, they beat me. If I spoke, they beat me. They told me I must become a Muslim but I refused again and again,” Hajja told Reuters in an interview.

The Islamists threatened her with a knife pressed to her throat and said her options were to convert to Islam or die.

Aaron Jensen, a spokesman for the United States government’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, “We have seen reports of forced conversion and enslavement.

The United States strongly condemns any acts of forced conversion or enslavement if true. These alleged actions violate fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom of conscience.”

Boko Haram is generally translated as “Western education is sinful.” In a telephone interview with the Post about Boko Haram and radical Islamist groups, David Cook, a professor of religious studies at the Houston-based Rice University, said Boko Haram’s methods are “part of a pattern you can find in a lot of groups, Salafi Jihadists, for example, in Syria.”

Cook, a leading expert on Boko Haram, estimates core membership to be a few thousand to perhaps as many as 5,000.

Tiffany Lynch, senior policy analyst at the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, told the Post by email that “Boko Haram’s stated goal is the implementation of Shari’a nationwide and in 2012 called on all Christians to leave northern Nigeria. With this goal, Boko Haram attacks churches during worship services to maximize its killing, kills individual Christians, forces Christians to convert to Islam or die, kills persons engaged in what it believes is ‘un-Islamic’ behavior, and kills Muslim critics.”

Read more, here.

The Danger of Turning Religion Into an Idol

Trevor is a good pastor friend. While having lunch with him one day, I could tell he was overwhelmed. When I inquired about his tired appearance, he replied, “I’ve been busy working for God for nearly four decades, and I’m exhausted.” Tears started welling up in the corner of Trevor’s eyes. “Pete, do you ever wonder how much is enough? How good is good enough?”
I just listened.

“Most of my ministry has been spent living in fear that I’m not good enough for God," he continued. "From day to day I question whether or not He really loves me. And if I’m honest, most of my ministry has been fueled by this fear. And the harder I try, the more I feel like I’m failing.”

My friend is hardly alone in his struggle. Many of us in ministry wrestle with trying to please God with our good deeds. I call this the “spiritual treadmill,” a condition that causes us to work harder and harder and never feel like we’re really making any progress toward pleasing God.

Make no mistake: The spiritual treadmill is a trap. It’s a lifestyle that leads us into believing freedom will exist at the next level. It causes us to think if we could do just a little more for God, then we’d know He loves and accepts us. But once we reach our goal, the spiritual bar gets raised. We end up falling short and feel the need to make up for our failures.

This striving is nothing new to our generation.

Continued, here.

Turkish Military Linked to Christian Murders

Nearly six years into the court trial over the murder of three Christians in southeastern Turkey, documents have emerged confirming that secret military units were involved in those assassinations and others.

Malatya’s 3rd Criminal Court is forcing prosecutors and the military to turn over previously secret documents, throwing light on a shadowy network believed to be behind several decades of assassination and coup plots in Turkey.

The court is conducting the trial of five men accused of stabbing, torturing and then slashing the throats of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske in the Malatya office of Zirve Christian Publishing on April 18, 2007.

Earlier this month, the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office handed over to the Malatya court confidential intelligence files seized from the General Staff’s Tactical Mobilization Group archives, known as the “Cosmic Room” in the Turkish media.

According to the most recent indictment in the Zirve case, the documents confirm the existence and illegal activities of secret military units involved in extrajudicial surveillance and assassinations of members of Turkey’s Christian minority communities.

“These documents have made it easier for us to see the big picture of what kind of an organization this is,” Zirve plaintiff lawyer Erdal Dogan told Taraf newspaper on Sept. 16.

Continued, here.

Number of Christian Martyrs Continues to Cause Debate

The debate over the precise number of Christians martyred each year continues.
In May, a Vatican spokesman told the United Nations Human Rights Council that as many as 100,000 Christians are martyred each year.

That figure stems from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, recognised as “home to the world’s leading scholars of Christian demographics” according to Judd Birdsall, formerly of the US State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, and currently a PhD student at Cambridge University.

While CSGC researchers estimated that around one million Christians were martyred in the first 10 years of the 21st Century, leading to an average of around 100,000 a year, Birdsall said he “found this figure puzzling”. While he said he admires CSGC’s “rigorous and interesting” work, his colleagues’ annual reports for the State Department contained “accounts of dozens, sometimes hundreds, of martyrs.

Some Christian organizations place the number as high as 1,000. Why the discrepancy?”  
One such organization is Open Doors International, which works in more than 25 countries to support Christians who face many levels of “persecution” - from extreme harassment and discrimination to torture and death.

Continued, here

Saudi Arabia: Torturing of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians

Images of defenseless Ethiopian Christians at the hands of Saudi Arabian Muslims cause deep sadness and anger.

Murders, gang rapes, beatings, mass arrests and brutal behavior of the security forces are some of the evils that are taking place there.

See the video below depicting these barbarous and brutal activities:

Former Muslims Use Online Opportunities to Preach Christ

WINNIPEG, MB—Paul Omari used to be a devout Muslim, passionate about teaching and converting Christians to the Islamic faith. But since he and his wife, Najat, became Christians 10 years ago, their focus has changed. Today, they reach out to the Arab world to do the opposite: tell Muslims about Jesus Christ.

"We have a heart to reach Muslim people," Paul says. "I want to share the gospel with my people to tell them what I've found."

To do that, the Omaris—who attend Gateway Church in Winnipeg—lead the Arabic and Muslim ministry of TruthMedia, a division of Power to Change Ministries

The Omaris use Internet technologies like Skype, Facebook, emails, interactive websites and chat rooms to reach out to Muslims around the world. Interested Muslims can receive presentations about the gospel in the privacy of their own homes, away from any public monitoring which could get them in trouble.

"In most Muslim countries, sharing the gospel will bring you trouble—it will bring you to court and maybe you will be killed by Islamic extremists," says Paul, who was born in Morocco, North Africa and studied in France to be a computer engineer.

Paul and Najat evangelize to Muslims, disciple new Christians, provide them with resources such as PDFs of the Bible, and connect believers in Muslim countries to underground churches they can be baptized and discipled in.

Continued, here.

Rejoice in the Lord Always

When members of your immediate family are under attack, you feel the pain.

The Devil knows this and that is why like a roaring lion, he is waiting to spot the weakest member of the herd to attack.

I am pleased to announce that this is what is happening with me. Pleased you may say and the answer is yes.

Yes, I am on the Enemy’s radar and I think it may be due partly to the fact that the readership of this blog has been going up.

Lives are changed as people all over the world come to realize that we live in perilous times and our only hope is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Thus, keep on reading but most important keep on praying for the salvation of many and for all of us who belong to God to receive divine strength and wisdom to withstand the Enemy. And when things look bleak and we are down, remember this:

 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
Yet, I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. ( HAB 3:17-18 )

El Greco

Christians Face Extinction in Middle East, Warns UK Minister

 

A UK Foreign Office Minister has warned that Christians in some parts of the world face extinction because of violence against them.

Ahead of a speech on Friday, Nov. 15 at Georgetown University in Washington, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi told the BBC that this “persecution” has become a global crisis.

“I’m concerned, as are members of the public from the large amount of correspondence that we receive, that the birthplace of Christianity – the parts of the world where Christianity first spread – is now seeing large sections of the Christian community leaving and those that are remaining are feeling persecuted,” she said.

“There are huge advantages to having pluralistic societies – everything from the economy to the way in which people develop educationally – and therefore we all have an interest in making sure that Christian communities do continue to feel like they belong and are not persecuted in the places where this religion was born.”

Baroness Warsi said the situation was bleak for many religious minorities, but particularly for Christians.

“It is [particularly bad for Christians],” she said. “One in ten Christians live in a minority situation and large numbers of those who live in a minority situation around the world are persecuted. And I think tragically what’s happening is that they are being seen as newcomers, being portrayed as ‘another’ within that society, even though they have existed there for many, many centuries.
“What we are seeing sadly is a sense of collective punishment, which is meted out by local groups – sometimes states, sometimes extremists. [Christians are] seen as legitimate targets for what they perceive as actions of their core religions, and this concept of collective punishment, about them being seen as agents of maybe the West or other places of the world or agents of regimes is wrong, and therefore we need to speak out and raise this with the countries where this is happening.”

Born in England to Pakistani immigrants, Warsi was elevated to the House of Lords in 2007 at the age of 36, making her the youngest peer in parliament at the time. In 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed her as minister without portfolio, and in 2012 she was named minister of faith and communities.

She is the highest-ranking Muslim in Britain's government.

In her Georgetown speech, Warsi said leaders of all faiths and governments in the West can fight the "new sectarianism that is breaking out across continents" in four ways:

• Emphasising the moments in history when people of one faith came to the aid of the people of a different faith. As Muslims sheltered Jews during the Holocaust, and Jews helped Bosnian Muslims rebuild their lives after the Balkans War, Warsi said "history is one of our most powerful tools in promoting religious freedom. It proves that there is nothing inevitable about sectarian conflict around the world. And I reject that there is a Muslim world and a Christian world."

• Insisting that "the presence of other faiths doesn’t come at the expense of your own". "Sending my own daughter to a Christian convent school didn’t make her less of a Muslim", she said. "For me, rejection of another faith just reveals a weakness in your own".

• Promoting the link between religious freedom and economic health. "Persecution is bad for business", she said. Research "has proven the link between religious freedom and a society’s ability to flourish".

• Encouraging leaders of the major faiths to defend the others. "Our response to this global crisis must not itself be sectarian", Warsi said. "It must not be a case of Christians defending Christians, Muslims defending Muslims, or indeed faith groups defending faith groups".

Earlier on Friday, during a question-and-answer session at the Council on Foreign Relations, Warsi said the rise of sectarian violence has driven a wedge between　the major religions, creating space for extremist elements.

"The challenge appears to be that certain bits of the world want to talk about Islamophobia in the West and other bits of the world want to talk about freedom of expression and persecution of Christians, so it is very polarising, and it's about trying to find that middle way," she told the audience at the Council on Foreign Relations event.

Part of the response to sectarian violence, she said, requires　religious authorities to refute　extremists when they point to their religion to justify persecution.

"Take away from the extremists their moral high ground", she said."Do not allow them the faith. And anything that allows them to take the faith as their mantle, I think, empowers them. And we've got to take that away from them."

Beyond speaking out, Baroness Warsi urged politicians to keep their word by ensuring that their national constitutions are met and that international human rights laws are followed.

“There is much more that we can do [beyond speaking out],” she said. “There is an international consensus in the form of a human rights council resolution on the treatment of minorities and tolerance towards other faiths, but we need to build political will behind that.
“We have international articles which are the most translated on freedom of religion but they’re not implemented, so it’s not just about having laws, it’s about politicians having the political will to implement these laws.”

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Kuwait Tweeter Gets 5 Year Prison Sentence for 'Insulting the Prophet'

A Kuwaiti activist has been sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of insulting the Prophet Mohammed. Musaab Shamsah was charged after posting a message on Twitter deemed offensive to relatives of the Prophet.

Monday’s court decision is the Gulf States’ crackdown on internet activism, freedom of speech and government criticism across a broad range of social media. Shamsah plans to appeal the ruling. 
Shamsah wrote on Twitter that Hassan and Hussein, who were the sons of Mohammad’s cousin, Ali, were more honest than the Prophet Mohammed himself, comparing him unfavorably to the two.

Kuwait is ruled by a Sunni majority, with the Shiite minority standing at between 30 and 40 percent. The US government's International Religious Freedom report for 2012 found that even then: “There were reports of abuses of religious freedom, including reports of imprisonment and detention. Government restrictions primarily affected non-Sunni citizens and residents… there were reports of religious bias and discrimination against religious groups in the issuances of legal verdicts.”
 
The country is known for its unforgiving stance on online messages deemed offensive. In June a teacher was consigned to jail for an 11 year term for tweeting against the country’s ‘immune and inviolable’ monarch, Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah, and calling for his ousting .

In January, a Kuwaiti court sentenced a youth activist who insulted the Emir – without mentioning him – on Twitter to two years behind bars.

Continued, here.

Pastor Saeed's Life in Danger in Iran Prison

There's been a very troubling development in the case of American Pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in Iran because of his Christian faith.

According to a release from Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Abedini's family members in Iran say he has been moved from Evin Prison in Tehran to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj. That's an even more dangerous prison where he faces life-threatening conditions and treatment.

A member of Abedini's family in Iran arriving at Evin Prison for a regular weekly visit was told that Abedini has been moved to this prison outside of Tehran - about an hour-and-a-half drive away.

The family member traveled to Rajai Shahr Prison and was told that Abedini is imprisoned there and not allowed any visitors.

The ACLJ said the unexplained and abrupt transfer comes as turmoil and anti-American feeling intensifies inside Iran.

Anti-American sentiment has been on full display as hardline opponents of Iran's President Rouhani's historic outreach to the United States took to the streets to mark the anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1979.

In protests, crowds chanted "death to America." That's in direct opposition to Rouhani's promise of moderation.

The ACLJ has confirmed that Abedini is now in one of the most dangerous wards of Rajai Shahr Prison. There prisoners are held who are incarcerated for murder and rape.

In 2005, the ACLJ said, Loes Bijnen, a Dutch Diplomat from the embassy in Tehran, described Rajai Shahr prison.

"Rajai Shahr is the place where political prisoners who are seen as a nuisance, are stowed away. Going to Karaj is a severe punishment. Once in there one stops to be a human being. One is put out of sight, even of human rights activists and the press. In Rajaï Shahr, political prisoners have to share cells with dangerous criminals like murderers, rapists and drug addicts who don't hesitate to attack their cell mates. They have nothing to lose: many of them are condemned to death anyway. Murders or unexplained deaths are a regular occurrence."

The ACLJ said transfer to this prison is a deeply disturbing development and can only be viewed as a move that puts Abedini's life directly at risk.

President Obama called Iranian President Rhouani in September - urging him to release Abedini.

The ACLJ said this new development requires President Obama's intervention. "He must speak out now - directly and forcefully - to save Pastor Saeed's life. Pastor Saeed's life is in grave danger."

There's wide bipartisan support for a critical resolution in the U.S. Senate calling for Abedini's release.

For more information visit www.aclj.org

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