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Iranian Convert Kidnapped, Stabbed to Death |
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Friday, 02 December 2005 |
 The Christian Post- An Iranian convert to Christianity was
kidnapped last week from his home in northeastern Iran and stabbed to
death, reported an Indian Christian religious freedom association.
The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) released an article on
Nov. 29 stating that Ghorban Tori, 50, who was pastoring an independent
house church of Christian converts had been kidnapped, stabbed, and his
body thrown in front of his home a few hours later. The house church is
located in Gonbad-e-Kavus, a town just east of the Caspian Sea along
the Turkmenistan border.
The religious freedom group also wrote that according to one informed
Iranian source, during the past eight days, representatives from the
Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) have arrested and severely
tortured 10 other Christians in several cities, including in Tehran –
the capital of Iran. All those arrested have been released.
GCIC further wrote that local secret police within hours of Tori’s
death arrived at the martyred pastor’s home searching for Bibles and
other banned Christian books in the Farsi language. The police also
raided the homes of all the other Christian believers in the city.
Tori, a former Muslim of Turkmen descent, converted to Christianity
more than 10 years ago while he was in Turkmenistan. In 1998 he
returned to his native country Iran where he began to share his new
Christian faith with friends and relatives forming a small fellowship
within two years.
According to GCIC, the Turkmen pastor’s new faith was not well received
by many, with at least one relative attacking him and scarring his face
while Islamic extremists sent him several death threats, demanding he
stop sharing his faith.
Tori is the fifth Protestant pastor assassinated in Iran by
unidentified attackers in the past 11 years reported GCIC. Three of the
five were former Muslims who were subjected to the death penalty under
Iranian law for having committed apostasy.
The house church pastor’s death came just days following Iran’s new
“hard-line” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called an open meeting with
the nation’s 30 provincial governors. During the session, an Iranian
source told Compass Direct news service that Ahmadinejad declared that
the government needed to stop the growing house church movement in Iran.
"I will stop Christianity in this country," Ahmadinejad reportedly vowed.
"This was apparently a green light from the president of Iran to go out and start killing Christians," the source said.
Since Tori’s murder, reports inform that MOIS officials have visited
known Christian leaders and instructed them to warn acquaintances in
the unofficial, Protestant house fellowships that "the government knows
what you are doing, and we will come for you soon."
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