Youcef Nadarkhani: Two things you can do to help

Cry Beloved Country
Verbatim Post

After having run through the Iranian appeals process, Youcef Nadarkhani has received a final sentence of death from the 11th Chamber of The Assize Court of the Province of Gilan, according to reports that our State Department is taking very seriously. The original execution order, handed down in September, 2010, mandated that:

. . . the above-mentioned person as an apostate will be executed by being hanged until somehow his soul is taken from him.

Though the trial court found no evidence that Nadarkhani had ever practiced Islam, he has been sentenced to death for being an apostate–that is, for renouncing Islam (can you really renounce a faith you never practiced?) and converting to Christianity.

HuffPo blogger and one-time presidential candidate Gary Hart manages to turn a post entitled “The Plight of Youcef Nadarkhani” into a warning against “the religious right” in America. “Religious orthodoxy,” according to Hart,

exhibits an almost demented insistence on conformity and intolerance toward political dissent.

We all know, of course, that “religious right” is code for “conservative Christians.” But, incredibly, it seems to go right over the top of Hart’s head that he’s using the apparently imminent execution of a conservative Christian in Iran to rail against–that’s right–conservative Christians in America.

Wow.

I suggest that you and I use Nadarkhani’s apparently immiment execution to stand, instead, each in our own small way, for religious freedom in the world.

Here are two things you can do:

1. Last week, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) introduced a resolution (H.Res. 556) in the House condemning Iran for violating Nadarkhani’s human and religious rights, and calling for his immediate release. Go here to sign a petition urging Members of Congress to pass this resolution.
2. Go here to email the Chief Justice of Iran, asking him to intervene in Nadarkhani’s case.

Both of these website ask for your name, address and email (and the first one will also ask for a contribution) but both also give you the opportunity to opt out of their mailing lists (and you don’t have to give anything!).

It’s time for every Who in Whoville to stand up and say that it’s wrong to deprive this man of his liberty or his life because of his faith.

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the incurably sick, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t sick. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

–Martin Niemöller