Iran (MNN) — Iran's president claimed his country is a genuine cradle of liberty. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in New York for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly.
Ahmadinejad insisted that political opponents are free to demonstrate, refusing to acknowledge that opposition groups and Christians have been driven underground by a vicious government crackdown.
"When we discuss the subject of freedoms and liberty it has to be done on a comparative basis and to keep in mind that democracy, at the end of the day, means the rule of the majority, so the minority cannot rule," Ahmadinejad said.
President of Open Doors USA Carl Moeller says, "Any person that's had any exposure to the realities of life in Iran would disagree with President Ahmadinejad."
Moeller says Ahmadinejad is the master of the big lie. "He's a holocaust denier, for example. And it's easy to deny something as long as you don't have to [back it up with] evidence. In this case, it's easy to say Iran is a free country because everybody who would dissent knows clearly that if they dissent, they would be sent to prison."
Iran is one of the most repressive places to be a Christian. It ranks second on Open Doors' World Watch list of countries which persecute Christians. "We've talked, on this program, about those who have spent months in prison simply for converting to Christianity and suffered huge abuse because of it," says Moeller.
Despite this oppression, Moeller says many Iranians are turning to Christ. They're responding to Christian radio and satellite television broadcasts. Some are reading about Christ on the Internet. Some young people are starting churches as a result.
Moeller says most Iranians are aware of it. "90 percent of Iranians are aware that Muslims are turning to faith in Jesus Christ and have first-hand knowledge of that. It's an incredible statistic. And we see that the increase in persecution is a direct relationship with the growth of the church in Iran."
Open Doors is encouraging you to use your voice to support the persecuted church through prayer, and protest to United Nations and national government officials. Moeller's also asking you to help financially support their secret work in the region.
