Iranian Convert Kidnapped, Stabbed to Death
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.
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.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
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."
