<\/p>\n
ANALYSIS<\/strong><\/p>\n Edmund Burke famously said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”<\/p>\n For over fifty years, I have worked on human rights\u2014from building cases in the former Yugoslavia to witnessing the dirty war in Argentina and apartheid in South Africa. I have learned to read the language of dying regimes. They do not announce their fear in press conferences; they write it on the gallows.<\/p>\n In a joint statement this week, 30 archbishops, bishops, and rabbis stressed:<\/p>\n “Iranian authorities have exploited the climate of war as a cover for intensifying repression and suppressing growing dissent inside the country, with dozens executed following unfair trials and coerced confessions. The head of the judiciary has publicly called for expedited rulings and, by setting aside legal safeguards and due process, has accelerated the issuance and implementation of death sentences.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n A significant number of those executed have been targeted because of their affiliation with the opposition organization, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK). Many other detainees associated with this organization remain on death row. The victims were young protesters arrested during the January uprising.”<\/em><\/p>\n Twelve others are on death row because of their affiliation with the PMOI.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some of the victims were as young as 18 years old, with others in their late 50s and 60s.<\/p>\n Families are often informed only after the executions, summoned to cemeteries where the bodies await them. In many cases involving PMOI members, even the bodies are withheld, denying families the basic human dignity of burial. In at least one case, when sisters insisted on learning the location of their brother’s grave, they themselves were arrested and remain imprisoned.<\/p>\n Many victims have been subjected to severe physical and psychological torture to extract forced confessions. These are not the procedures of a state governed by law; they are the hallmarks of an inquisition driven by fear.<\/p>\n And when it comes to the Christian minority, Iran ranks among the world’s worst persecutors.<\/p>\n House churches are raided. Worshippers are arrested during prayer. Pastors are sentenced for possessing Bibles. Converts face long prison terms\u2014and in some cases, execution. The pattern is clear: faith itself is treated as a threat.<\/p>\n On several occasions, Christian leaders have paid with their lives. Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr, superintendent of the Assemblies of God churches in Iran and chairman of the Council of Protestant Ministers, publicly opposed the persecution of Christians. He disappeared on January 19, 1994, and his mutilated body was later found in a freezer. Iranian authorities were widely believed to be responsible.<\/p>\n One day before his abduction, he wrote a letter describing the danger facing Christians in Iran: “I know it is playing with fire, but I am ready to die for the cause of the church so that others may worship their Lord peacefully and without fear.” His words, later published in The Times of London under the title “Martyred for His Faith,” stand today as both a warning and a testimony.<\/p>\n In the Christian tradition, the suffering of the innocent is never silent. The voices of the victims echo beyond the gallows, bearing witness to injustice and calling the world to conscience. On June 20, in Paris, more than 100,000 Iranians and their supporters will gather in an international protest against the executions and to voice support for a democratic republic. Policymakers and parliamentarians from both sides of the Atlantic will stand with them.<\/p>\n They will express support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a coalition of opposition movements that rejects both the former Pahlavi dictatorship and the current theocracy. The PMOI, as its main component, maintains an extensive network inside Iran, working toward change driven by the Iranian people and their organized resistance.<\/p>\n NCRI’s President-elect Maryam Rajavi has articulated a Ten-Point Plan for a democratic transition. Endorsed by a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, it calls for the separation of religion and state, gender equality, a non-nuclear Iran, and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion. Under her vision, faith is neither a privilege nor a disadvantage; all believers are free to worship without fear.<\/p>\n On February 28, at the onset of hostilities between the United States and Iran, the NCRI announced the establishment of a provisional government based on this democratic framework. To remain silent in the face of such suffering is not neutrality; it is complicity.<\/p>\n We must stand with the Iranian people and support their struggle to usher in a new era, one in which Christians, Muslims, and all citizens can live in freedom and dignity.<\/p>\n Ambassador Ken Blackwell is a former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission, former Mayor of Cincinnati, and a senior adviser to the Trump Transition Teams of 2016 and 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ANALYSIS Edmund Burke famously said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” For over fifty years, I have worked on human rights\u2014from building cases in the former Yugoslavia to witnessing the dirty war in Argentina and apartheid in South Africa. I have learned to read the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[5065,110,4707,117,6498],"class_list":["post-29563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-blood","tag-calls","tag-irans","tag-justice","tag-martyrs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Iranian people are demanding freedom. The world witnessed their courage during the nationwide uprising earlier this year, when thousands were killed and tens of thousands arrested simply for seeking their fundamental rights.<\/p>\n
We must listen to and echo the message that will emerge from Paris on June 20. This is one of those rare moments when moral responsibility and strategic interest align.<\/p>\n