Open Doors: U.S. should be demanding religious freedom
Thursday, June 3, 2021 |
Charlie Butts (OneNewsNow.com)
Spanish
The United States could aid persecuted Christians in Iran if our leaders get serious, says a persecution watchdog.
Reacting to the news that U.S. diplomats are in Vienna renegotiating the controversial Iran nuclear deal, David Curry of Open Doors USA says religious freedom deserves to be part of that discussion, too.
Open Doors lists Iran within the top 10 of nations with the worst record of persecution of Christians, who deserve the legal right to read a Bible and attend church without arrest and torture, he says.
A Christian man in Pakistan was allegedly poisoned and killed by a group of radical Muslims for defending his sister from harassment, which has sparked demands for justice.
Christians attend a Good Friday prayer at the Saint Anthony Church in Lahore, Pakistan, April 3, 2015. | Reuters/Mohsin Raza
A Pakistani Christian couple who ve been imprisoned for six years and sentenced to death on false blasphemy charges of sending a text message insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad continue to have their conviction appeal delayed.
Shagufta Kausar and her husband, Shafqat Emmanuel, who is partially paralyzed, were accused by a local imam of committing blasphemy by sending him an offensive text message in 2013.
Maulvi Mohammed Hussain, a leader at a mosque in the town of Gojra in Punjab province, claimed that Emmanuel used his wife s cellphone to send an anti-Islamic text message. He later claimed other messages followed.
A Pakistani court acquitted a Christian couple of their blasphemy charges after being “left to die” on death row for nearly eight years over false allegations that they insulted the Islamic prophet Muhammad through text messages.