Christians Under Attack

given for their arrest. Amir made a brief phone call on Friday to tell relatives he was fine, but he had no information about his wife Fereshteh. No one has heard from the 28-year-old since her arrest. The couple’s six-year-old daughter Christine is being cared for by her grandmother.

Reporting on the arrest on their “Pray for Iran” web site (www.prayerforiran.com), Elam Ministries said, “At about 7:00am local time on Tuesday September 26, 2006 several men from the Iranian secret police raided their apartment and confiscated their computers, Christian literature, and other items they thought may be of interest to them.

“Thankfully Amir had a chance to quickly phone his mother to ask her to come and take their six year old daughter, Christine. By the time she arrived, Amir and Fereshteh had already been forced into the police car.

“When Amir’s mother went into the apartment to get Christine, there were still two men there searching the apartment. She asked them why this was happening and were they were taking Amir and Fereshteh to. She was told they were being taken to a certain police station, which later turned out not to be the case. They were in fact taken to a secret police station belonging to the notorious Revolutionary Guard.

“Amir's parents have made repeated attempts to find out why their son and Fereshteh have been detained, but so far have not received any reply, other than being told that the interrogation is still continuing. On September 28, the authorities informed Amir's parents that the couple was to appear before a revolutionary court at a certain time and location, but when they went to witness the trial, Amir and Fereshteh were not there and they were told to come back on Saturday for a possible trial then.”

Fereshteh’s father martyred

When Fereshteh was six years old – as her daughter is now -- her father Mehdi Dibaj was arrested and charged with apostasy. He then spent more than nine years under sentence of death until international pressure secured his release from prison. Mehdi Dibaj was on the way to his daughter Fereshteh’s 16th birthday party a few months after his release, when he was abducted and killed.

While her father was in prison, persecution and threats to her life forced Fereshteh’s mother to convert to Islam.

Persecution and martyrdom are well known to Amir and Fereshteh. They lead an independent house church in Mashad -- a popular Muslim pilgrimage destination, considered to be Iran's holiest city. The pastor of their church, Revd. Hussein Soodmand, was hanged in December 1990 as a convert from Islam who refused to recant.

Fereshteh’s brother, Issa Dibaj, who lives and works in England, said yesterday, “Please feel free to spread this news as I think it would be good for the Iranian government to know that the rest of the world knows about this and cares.”

Mehdi Dibaj remembered

Issa remembers his father as “a very gentle man” – “loved by all the prisoners and the guards”. His evident gentleness was noticed by one of his fellow inmates, Bahman Aghai Diba, who wrote in the on-line Persian Journal1, of his prison encounter with Mehdi in Iran’s notorious Evin prison: “The old man had a calm face. He kept smiling mildly and looked around with appreciation…

“He was not one of my cellmates, and I noticed him because he was walking as a person who was very satisfied and content. He was telling things slowly to himself that I could not understand at first. Later I came to know that he was reciting Christian hymns in Farsi and English. I asked him "why are you so joyful?" He said I am praying to God that has made this beautiful day possible for me. Look around you; isn't it beautiful? The flowers, the sight of mountains and the huge trees are around us, and I am in the company of nice people. I am thankful to God.

“Of course, I did not care about his Christianity, as I did not care about my Islam. However, in the middle of terrible conditions that existed there …it was interesting for me that a person can have such a spirit.”

“For many years we were just waiting for him to be put on trial,” Issa explained. “Because his crime was apostasy the sentence already laid down under Islamic sharia law is death. But the government didn’t want to kill him because that would give them bad publicity, so every time his case was due to be dealt with, he had to sign an appeal letter and they postponed it. Finally he said ‘No, this time I won’t appeal. Either release me or kill me. It would be an honor for me to die for Christ.’”

The case finally went to court in December 1993. Mehdi Dibaj was found guilty and sentenced to death. The court verdict read: “... he has chosen the religion of Christianity... because of his non-repentance and his insistence on his non-Islamic belief... he is sentenced to execution.”

In his defense, Mehdi said, “I am a Christian, a sinner who believes Jesus has died for my sins on the cross and who by His resurrection and victory over death, has made me righteous in the presence of the Holy God….

“…They say, ‘You were a Muslim and you have become a Christian.’ No, for many years I had no religion. After searching and studying I accepted God's call and I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to receive eternal life. People choose their religion, but a Christian is chosen by Christ. He says, ‘You have not chosen me but I have chosen you.’ From when? Before the foundation of the world.

“People say, ‘You were a Muslim from your birth.’ God says, ‘You were a Christian from the beginning.’ He states that He chose us thousands of years ago, even before the creation of the universe, so that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we may be His! A Christian means one who belongs to Jesus Christ.

“The eternal God, who sees the end from the beginning and who has chosen me to belong to Him, knew from everlasting whose heart would be drawn to Him and who would be willing to sell their faith and eternity for a pot of porridge.

“I would rather have the whole world against me, but know the Almighty God is with me; be called an apostate, but know I have the approval of the God of glory…”

Issa said, “When my father received the execution letter he gave a copy of it to an Armenian prison guard who passed it to Bishop Haik, the Bishop of our church. Within days, the news that an Iranian was about to be executed because of his faith was all over the world. Lord Alton, Baroness Cox and many others were among those campaigning for his release. The government was not expecting this reaction so they released him.”

During his imprisonment Mehdi’s wife’s life had been threatened and she had been forced to convert to Islam. Issa was studying at Tehran University at the time of his father’s release, and his brother and two sisters were also studying in different Iranian cities, so Mehdi began planning to return to Afghanistan as a missionary.

But those bent on violence were not finished with him. Three days after Mehdi’s release from prison, Assemblies of God Bishop Haik Hovsepian-Mehr was killed. His phone had been tapped and government officials knew he was behind the international protests over Mehdi’s death sentence.

According to government officials in Iran, Bishop Haik’s body was found by the police in one of the suburbs of Tehran. He had been stabbed several times in the chest.

At the beginning of July 1994 Tateos Michaelian, Bishop Haik's successor as chairman of Iran’s Council of Protestant Ministers, was also killed. According to official reports his body was found inside a freezer in a private house. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

Days later, on 5 July, when he was on his way to his daughter Fereshteh’s 16th birthday party, Mehdi Dibaj was murdered. He was stabbed three times in the heart.

The Iranian government claimed that the three deaths were the work of extremists, but when the regime changed proof came to light that government officers had carried out the killings. Mahmoud Saeedi was the director of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) at the time. He was removed from office in 1999 following mounting pressure as it became clear that his department oversaw the murders of Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr, Bishop Tateos Michaelian, and Revd Mehdi Dibaj. Now, under the latest regime in Iran, Mahmoud Saeedi has become the Iranian deputy Minister of Interior.

The challenge of forgiveness

Going with his younger brother to identify his father’s body had a profound effect on Issa Dibaj, who was 19 at the time.

“We had to be careful not to let hatred get the upper hand – forgiveness was a challenge. The turning point for me was when my brother and I went to the morgue to identify his body. It was the first time that I had come face to face with the reality of death. It brought me to my senses and I knew I had to take my own relationship with God a lot more seriously. After all, one day I, too, will die and have to be personally accountable to God. Also, my Christian faith was something for which my father’s blood had been shed.”

Issa came to terms with his father’s death, forgiving his executioners “by thinking Jesus died for them also – Jesus forgave them, so who am I not to forgive them.”

Issa later came to the UK to complete a PhD. He and his wife now live in England where he is involved in Bible translation work. Issa shows no trace of bitterness about his father’s death and has high hopes for the Church in Iran where, he says, the government is afraid of Christians: “The average Iranian is fascinated by this message of love. They look at their own religion and see nothing but fighting and hatred. Then they see Christians who love each other, who are so joyful; they see the difference immediately and they want to know how to become like that. The government doesn’t like this