H JM Raz

@H_JM_Raz

Humanitarian US & World News Political News Opinion News Government & Politics #Election2016 United States Cabinet Gov Officials & Agencies Nonprofits

Anaheim, CA

Joined September 2016

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8 Followers

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H_JM_Raz retweeted

Reza Pahlavi

@PahlaviReza

8 months ago

As I extend my best wishes to all those celebrating Christmas, I am writing to Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) asking him to be a voice for the Christians of my country, Iran. Your Holiness, in this season of peace, my people are suffering persecution. I ask you to hear their voice. ------------- "Your Holiness, As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas, I write to you with respect and gratitude for your consistent witness that human dignity is a gift from God, preceding every government and outlasting every tyranny. In my capacity as an advocate for the Iranian people, I would like to draw your attention to the quiet but relentless persecution of Christian converts by the Islamic Republic in Iran, including baptized Christians seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. The Islamic Republic’s “security” services and Revolutionary Courts increasingly treat peaceful belief and worship as criminal acts, punishing with lashes, lengthy prison sentences, internal exile, and even execution those who pursue the Faith. The regime imprisons those who receive the Holy Communion for “drinking alcohol,” raids house-churches, and is cracking down on ordinary religious expression online with accusations of vague “threats to national security.” In 2024 alone, Christian converts in Iran received a combined 263 years in prison and 37 years in internal exile for “crimes” directly related to the practice of their faith. This is a nearly sixfold increase in sentencing length compared to 2023. According to a report recently released by the National Union for Democracy in Iran (@NUFDIran), the trend continued in 2025. In one incident this year, three Christian converts, among them a pregnant woman, were collectively sentenced to more than forty years in prison on charges described as “propaganda activities contrary to Islamic law.” In another incident this year, similarly tied to religious expression on social media, five Christians received combined sentences totaling more than fifty years. The Islamic Republic outlaws conversion to the Christian, or any other faith, and punishes those who seek to worship God in a new way by charging them with “warring against God”. Under the current regime, this “crime” carries the death sentence. This is nothing new. An unknown number of Iranian pastors, both converts convicted of apostasy and those from the Armenian Christian community the regime claims to respect, have been put to death for their Christian faith. Among those, who we remember especially during the Christmas season are Reverend Mehdi Dibaj, Bishop Haik Hovespian Mehr, Reverend Tateos Michaelian, and Reverend Hossein Soodmand. For those who survive, especially the baptized, it punishes them. This, beyond the forms of worship previously mentioned, includes persecution for simple acts of gathering to pray, learning the Faith, sharing Scripture either physically or digitally, and celebrating Christmas among friends. This Christmas season, as the world remembers the proclamation of peace on earth and goodwill toward men, I ask for the Holy See’s help in bringing the plight of Iran’s persecuted Christians into clearer international view. Speaking publicly to and on behalf of Iran’s converts, especially during this sacred season, would go a long way in letting those Iranians suffering in silence know they are present in the prayers of the Church. Please consider raising the plight of Christians in Iran with international authorities through diplomatic channels, urging the release of imprisoned converts. In your May address to the diplomatic corps, you noted that authentic peace requires full respect for religious freedom, and that religion can serve peace only where such freedom is honored. Iran under the Islamic Republic is a case study in the opposite. A future, free Iran will be a united home for all its citizens. A nation where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Baha’is, Zoroastrians and those of all or no faiths live equally under the rule of law. The Islamic Republic’s current persecution of converts is not only an assault on Christians, it is an assault on the very idea that the human person stands before God with a conscience no state may command. May the light of Christmas strengthen all those in Iran who seek to follow that conscience, and may it hasten the day when no Iranian must fear imprisonment or violence for the act of worship. With respect and my best wishes for Christmas, Reza Pahlavi"

PahlaviReza's tweet photo. As I extend my best wishes to all those celebrating Christmas, I am writing to Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) asking him to be a voice for the Christians of my country, Iran.

Your Holiness, in this season of peace, my people are suffering persecution.

I ask you to hear their voice.

-------------

"Your Holiness,

As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas, I write to you with respect and gratitude for your consistent witness that human dignity is a gift from God, preceding every government and outlasting every tyranny.

In my capacity as an advocate for the Iranian people, I would like to draw your attention to the quiet but relentless persecution of Christian converts by the Islamic Republic in Iran, including baptized Christians seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. The Islamic Republic’s “security” services and Revolutionary Courts increasingly treat peaceful belief and worship as criminal acts, punishing with lashes, lengthy prison sentences, internal exile, and even execution those who pursue the Faith. The regime imprisons those who receive the Holy Communion for “drinking alcohol,” raids house-churches, and is cracking down on ordinary religious expression online with accusations of vague “threats to national security.”

In 2024 alone, Christian converts in Iran received a combined 263 years in prison and 37 years in internal exile for “crimes” directly related to the practice of their faith. This is a nearly sixfold increase in sentencing length compared to 2023. According to a report recently released by the National Union for Democracy in Iran (@NUFDIran), the trend continued in 2025. In one incident this year, three Christian converts, among them a pregnant woman, were collectively sentenced to more than forty years in prison on charges described as “propaganda activities contrary to Islamic law.” In another incident this year, similarly tied to religious expression on social media, five Christians received combined sentences totaling more than fifty years.

The Islamic Republic outlaws conversion to the Christian, or any other faith, and punishes those who seek to worship God in a new way by charging them with “warring against God”. Under the current regime, this “crime” carries the death sentence. This is nothing new. An unknown number of Iranian pastors, both converts convicted of apostasy and those from the Armenian Christian community the regime claims to respect, have been put to death for their Christian faith. Among those, who we remember especially during the Christmas season are Reverend Mehdi Dibaj, Bishop Haik Hovespian Mehr, Reverend Tateos Michaelian, and Reverend Hossein Soodmand. For those who survive, especially the baptized, it punishes them. This, beyond the forms of worship previously mentioned, includes persecution for simple acts of gathering to pray, learning the Faith, sharing Scripture either physically or digitally, and celebrating Christmas among friends.

This Christmas season, as the world remembers the proclamation of peace on earth and goodwill toward men, I ask for the Holy See’s help in bringing the plight of Iran’s persecuted Christians into clearer international view. Speaking publicly to and on behalf of Iran’s converts, especially during this sacred season, would go a long way in letting those Iranians suffering in silence know they are present in the prayers of the Church. Please consider raising the plight of Christians in Iran with international authorities through diplomatic channels, urging the release of imprisoned converts. In your May address to the diplomatic corps, you noted that authentic peace requires full respect for religious freedom, and that religion can serve peace only where such freedom is honored. Iran under the Islamic Republic is a case study in the opposite.

A future, free Iran will be a united home for all its citizens. A nation where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Baha’is, Zoroastrians and those of all or no faiths live equally under the rule of law. The Islamic Republic’s current persecution of converts is not only an assault on Christians, it is an assault on the very idea that the human person stands before God with a conscience no state may command. May the light of Christmas strengthen all those in Iran who seek to follow that conscience, and may it hasten the day when no Iranian must fear imprisonment or violence for the act of worship.

With respect and my best wishes for Christmas,

Reza Pahlavi"

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