This Christmas, yuletide blessings came from a most unlikely source: Iranian leadership. Iran’s top leaders took to Twitter to acknowledge the holiday and wish the best for Christians worldwide. President Hassan Rouhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeni, and Foreign Minister Javad Sharif were among the Iranian leaders tweeting. “May Jesus Christ, Prophet of love & peace, bless us all on this day. Wishing Merry #Christmas to those celebrating, esp Iranian Christians,” read one of President Rouhani’s tweets, who also at one point tweeted at Pope Francis.
Felicitations to @Pontifex on birthday of Christ, Prophet of love, mercy & friendship. Hoping for new year filled with peace & prosperity.
— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) December 25, 2013
May Jesus Christ, Prophet of love & peace, bless us all on this day. Wishing Merry #Christmas to those celebrating, esp Iranian Christians.
— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) December 24, 2013
May the spirit of Christmas bring joy, peace, empathy and compassion to everyone throughout the coming year. Merry Christmas.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) December 24, 2013
No doubt that Jesus #Christ has no less value among Muslims than [he has] among the pious Christians. 27/12/2000
— khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) December 24, 2013
The sudden charm offensive comes as nuclear talks between Iran and Western nations went on hiatus for Christmas. But it also comes from a nation with a long history of oppressing Christians during the Christmas season.
Every Christmas, reports come in from Islamist and majority-Muslim countries, detailing the extreme and often deadly lengths governments and militants will go to to deny Christians their right to celebrate the birth of Christ. This year, 34 Iraqi Christians were murdered on Christmas Day in separate bomb attacks targeting churches and Christmas masses. Meanwhile, the Somali government has banned Christmas entirely for the first time since 1991, telling local Muslims to be on the alert for any celebrations. David Curry, president of Open Doors USA, told Fox News his organization was “deeply concerned that Christianity is being squeezed out to extinction maybe in the next decade or so in the Middle East… There’s a culture of fear that has developed there that makes it hard for people to want to go to church to express their faith, especially at the holiday season.”
Iran is no different. In 2011, Iranian security forces raided an Assemblies of God church in the town of Ahwaz and arrested every parishioner, even children attending Sunday school. After herding the congregation into two buses, they were individually “interrogated, threatened, and eventually released,” except for the pastor’s family who remained in custody. The Christian Post noted that the arrest was closely followed by Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Ali Larijani’s message to Pope Benedict congratulating Christians on the “auspicious anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.”
In his new book Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians, Raymond Ibrahim details how the raid on the Ahwaz church was only part of a greater attack on the Christian holiday:
If Islamic jihadis target churches during Christian holidays, Islamic governments exploit the law to oppress Christian worship during those same holidays. For example, in December 2011 in Iran, several reports appeared indicating “a sharp increase of activities against Christians prior to Christmas by the State Security centers of the Islamic Republic.” Local churches were “ordered to cancel Christmas and New Year’s celebrations as a show of their compliance and support” for “the two-month-long mourning activities of the Shia’ Moslems” (activities which culminate with a bloody exhibition of self-mutilation and flagellation during Ashura)… [A]s one reporter put it, “Raids and detentions during the Christmas season are not uncommon in Iran, a Shi’a-majority country that is seen as one of the worst persecutors of religious minorities.”
It’s possible that the overtures to Christians represent a hopeful step in the right direction by a new Iranian president. If so, the Iranians could put their money where their mouth is by releasing Pastor Saeed Abedini. The Iranian-born U.S. citizen is now spending his second Christmas in a row in an Iranian jail for the sole crime of spreading the Christian religion. This year, advocates for Pastor Saeed’s release report that he is spending Christmas in an even more brutal prison where fellow prisoners regularly threaten his life. Of course, the detention of Pastor Saeed is only one incident in a much larger persecution of Iranian Christians that completely undermines Iranian leadership’s supposed respect for the Christian faith.
The sudden outreach to the Christians of the world despite years of oppression is reminiscent of President Rouhani’s outreach to Jews earlier this year. After years of former President Ahmadinejad’s fervent Holocaust denial, President Rouhani told CNN in September, “Any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime the Nazis created towards the Jews, is reprehensible and condemnable.” But back in Tehran, the state-run media declared that CNN had fabricated the quote and that Rouhani never said he believed in the Holocaust. Only three weeks earlier, Iranian officials denied that President Rouhani had tweeted a Rash Hashanah message to Jews, despite clearly having done so.
There appears to be a clear trend. In its outreach to English-language and Western media, the Iranian leadership is moderate, accepting, and striving for a greater understanding among nations. But within the nation, the façade of moderation vanishes and oppression reigns supreme. State propaganda steps in to fill the gap, telling citizens which statements to actually believe. Inevitably, the “official” position of the Iranian government is never the tolerant one.
Tradition holds that one of the Wise Men who followed the Star of Bethlehem to praise Jesus was Melchior, a Persian king. The presence of the Persian and his companions is an important aspect of the infant narratives, indicating that Jesus would be a Savior for all of mankind, including the Gentiles. But there was another king in the nativity story who professed to celebrate His birth; a king whose profession of admiration and adoration was part of a ploy to destroy the new Messiah. Two thousand years later, a new leader of what was once Persia comes bearing gifts, and Christians and world leaders must determine whether he comes from the tradition of Melchior or Herod. As the United States and Iran continue to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear weapon’s program, there is more than just Christmas on the line.
Comment by Andepower on January 12, 2014 at 5:27 pm
Pain here is that the very muslims migrate to the west and claim rights of freedom to practice their religion