ICC Note:

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is releasing their Religious Prisoner of Conscience Project with the intention of bringing attention to people who have been imprisoned for their faith. Iran is the country in the Middle East with the most cases violating these religious freedoms and, in response, USCIRF has dedicated one-third of this project to this country. Reports suggest that the general population of Iran is friendly towards Christianity, but the government continually persecutes this vulnerable minority.

4/7/2017 Iran (Mission Network News) – On Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is launching their Religious Prisoner of Conscience Project.

It’s meant to highlight the people who’ve been jailed for exercising their freedom of religion, the conditions in the country that led to their imprisonment, and what’s being done on their behalf.

One-third of the USCIRF advocacy cases under this project are from Iran.  Interestingly, Iran was again the country in which Middle East Concern, a separate advocacy ministry, had the most cases (56).  Some of the names overlap across the board for advocacy and watchdog groups.  MEC’s Miles Windsor agreed, although he declined to comment on some specific cases, noting, “I think there’s an awful lot of people in Iran who don’t necessarily want to publicize their situation for fear of further issues from the state, in terms of persecution.”

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