A Protestant minister who converted from Islam risks the death penalty for apostasy

Tehran (AsiaNews) – Hamid Pourmand is a Protestant minister of the Assemblies of God Church. He converted from Islam several years ago. Since September he has been held in prison at an undisclosed location and under Iranian law he can be put to death for “apostasy against Islam”. He was arrested on September 9 in Karaj, a town 30 km west of the capital Tehran during a police raid against the annual General Council of the Assemblies of God Church.

Reverend Pourmand (see photo) is 47-year-old, married with two children, and a colonel in the Iranian army based in the city of Bandar-i Bushehr (380 km south of Tehran). If brought before a court martial he could face espionage charges and sentenced to death. Although laws instituted after the Islamic revolution prohibit non-Muslims from holding officer rank, he continued to serve as an officer in the Iranian army. “Hamid did not keep his conversion secret,” a friend told Compass, “but he is an honest man and people liked and respected him.”

Pourmand was arrested along with another 86 Protestant leaders; 76 were released the evening of their arrest whilst another 9 were let go three days later. But Pourmand was the only one who is still in prison. According to eyewitnesses, Iranian police had detailed information about each one of them.

Since his arrest, Pourmand has been able to talk briefly to is wife (an Assyrian Christian) by phone and tell her that he was alright. At the time of his arrest, she and their children were in Tehran visiting relatives. Upon her return home, she found that their home had been searched and family documents and photos taken.

The September raid against the council of the Assemblies of God comes in the wake of several arrests of Christians in northern Iran in May and June.

In July 1994, Mehdi Dibaj, another minister of the Assemblies of God Church who was also a convert from Islam, was killed after spending nine years in prison for refusing to abjure his Christian faith and return to Islam.

Under Iranian law, capital punishment is reserved for apostasy, murder, armed robbery, rape and drug trafficking.

Some months ago Shiite cleric Hasan Mohammadi from the Ministry of Education said in a speech to Tehran high school students that “on average every day, 50 young Iranians convert secretly to Christian denominations”.

There are about 360,000 Christians in Iran out of a population of 65 million. Of these, 25,000 are Catholics. (LF)

Thank God the Muslims that I helped convert lived here in the United States.

Every opportunity that I get to have a muslim open up to me I convert him to a Christian. Here is a copy of an insert from a diary that belongs to one of my Muslim friends.

Subject: I am not a Muslim anymore because…

I am not a Muslim anymore because from now on, until I die, my way of thinking belongs only to me. I have opened my mind and started thinking for myself. As a child, I was raised to follow a prophet called Muhammad. I was brainwashed into believing in the teachings of a corrupted prophet called Muhammad. My thinking now is that Muhammad was an evil man and there was nothing holy about him. During his life he did whatever he felt like doing, even though it was wrong.

At the age of twenty-five Muhammad became the world’s biggest male prostitute by marrying a wealthy forty-year-old widow. This was his biggest sell out. Muhammad had many wives, one of them is a six-year-old child named Aishah (Ayesha). One of Muhammad’s wives was the wife of his own son; he took her away from him. Muhammad went from marrying an old woman, to marrying a six year old child. The history on his relationships alone shows a very confused sick evil mind.

Muhammad’s teachings teach against the Jews but when Muhammad took Aishah (Ayesha) as his six-year-old bride he acted very much like the Jews: Sanhedrin 54b. A Jew may have sex with a child as long as the child is less than nine-years-old. Kethuboth 11b. When a grown-up man has intercourse with a little girl it is nothing.

Muhammad’s teachings teach against the evil Western society but the United States did not exist during the time of Muhammad. The United States during Muhammad’s time was a paradise. The American Indians were living in paradise. There is no way that, in his lifetime, in the year 600, Muhammad was referring to the United States when he mentioned the evil western society. The United States simply did not exist during Muhammad’s time.

Today, I will turn my back on Allah the most evil God of the Muslim religion. Only an evil God could have guided and inspired Muhammad who was also evil. Muhammad was very evil that is why he and his followers are always scared of the devil. They can constantly feel the devil’s hands grabbing at them. I’ve got news for the Muslims stones will not keep the devil from taking their souls, because Allah is the devil and they have already pledged their love and devotion to him.

Today, tomorrow, and the rest of my life I will refuse to continue believing in a corrupted prophet named Muhammad who was nothing but a male prostitute, a child rapist, a bigamist, a murderer, a thief, and a liar. He had a very confused sick evil mind and I don’t believe a good God had anything to do with him.

Yes, I did call Muhammad a liar. He never had anyone to back up his story that the angel Gabriel appeared to him? There was never anybody who could back up his claim, only him.

I will always wonder why the angel Gabriel did not appear to someone else, to let them know that Muhammad was indeed chosen by God. What I don’t understand is why the Muslims have never questioned this. Why year after year, they only take his word for it and follow him.

When God chose the Virgin Mary, who was pure without sin, at that point Gabriel also appeared to others and there was proof that God was involved. The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary, he also appeared to the shepherds and Joseph and the Eastern star guided the wise men to the baby Jesus (The son of God and the last true Prophet.). I do believe that Gabriel did appear to Joseph because I being a middle-eastern man do know that a middle-eastern man would not have stayed with Mary otherwise.

Anyone, like Muhammad can claim that they ascended into heaven or that they split the moon during a lunar eclipse. Notice that he messed up when he claims that he ascended into heaven and said that Moses was a tall brown curly-haired man. We all know that Moses hair turned white. Here is something to think about…

Jesus rose from the dead, Muhammad did not. Jesus was the Son of God, Muhammad was not. Jesus did many miracles, Muhammad did not. Muhammad was put in a grave. Muhammad sinned against many people. Jesus sinned against no one. Not ONE of Jesus' enemies could ever truthfully say anything bad about Him. People that Muhammad tortured could certainly talk bad about him.

The only way to ensure the Islamic faith, is through forced adherence. May God bless this minister for his witness to the "Truth".

In Geneva, church discipline was expressed, at the instigation of Calvin, in the establishment of special overseers, who, in the individual districts assigned to them, had to watch over the moral behaviour of church members. There likewise came about the creation of such social arrangements as ecclesiastically controlled inns and taverns, in which not only the consumption of food and drink but even the topics of conversation were subject to stern regulation.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Church herself isn't guilt-free in attempting to maintain faith by force. The various Protestant fiefdoms were religious dictatorships. This sort of thing is nothing new.

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