Posts by Russell Brown
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Don't even get me started on countries who deport gays to Iran.
Fortunately, from the RSAA's database, we don't seem to do that.
Which, of course, is a bad thing according to certain wingnut blog commenters.
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From the quotes above, it looks like he'd only have to prove he wasn't a moslem, since pretty much everyone who doesn't follow Islam is at risk.
There are something like 300,000 Christians in Iran, part of a 2% non-Muslim minority that includes 25,000 Persian Jews.
From the Wikipedia article on Christianity in Iran:
Due to the socio-economic and political pressures in the years following the Iranian Revolution, periods of outright persecution and times of more latent discrimination many Iranian Christians, both as part of the general exodus of Iranians and as response to the specific pressures, have emigrated, mostly to the USA, Canada and Western Europe. In 2000, about 0.4% of Iran's population were Christians. In 1975, Christians numbered about 1.5% of the total population. Statistically, a much larger percentage of non-Muslims have emigrated out of Iran.
Despite its long history in Iran, Christianity has often been seen by Islamic Republic as sympathetic to western ideals.[citation needed] The persecution of the Protestant churches has perhaps been more severe for this very reason. While the government guarantees the recognised Christian minorities a number of rights (production and sale of non-halal foods), guaranteed representation in parliament, special family law etc, Government intrusion, expropriation of property, forced closure and persecution, particularly in the initial years after the Iranian Revolution, have all been documented. Most prominent has been the death of Haik Hovsepian Mehr, bishop of the Jamiat-e Rabbani, in 1994. Recently the continuing imprisonment of Hamid Pourmand a lay pastor of Jammiat-e Rabboni and the murder of Ghorban Tourani, the pastor of an independent evangelical church have created international concern.
The Jamiat-e Rabbani churches and the Anglican Church are both readily accepting converts from Islam and are subsequently growing in membership. About 80% of Jamiat-e Rabbani's members are currently converts from Islam. The majority of other Christian denominations continues to shrink due to emigration.
So clearly, it's not the easiest place to be a Christian, but it's not an automatic death sentence either, even for converts.
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Ouch... Got to admit, not one of my most brilliant efforts but come on,
I thought it was a game of two halves and radio opinion commentary was the winner on the day.
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Given the centrality of religion to some refugee claims, the RSAA probably needs to go a little further, but it seems that their position of extreme scepticism is taking it way too far.
OTOH, this is the same "extreme scepticism" that led the authority to question claims about Ahmed Zaoui's background from the New Zealand security services, and to go to some lengths to demonstrate that they were not credible.
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I/S, that Salient piece is very far indeed from an accurate representation of the RSAA's 2006 finding. The authority didn't find any evidence he presented to be credible, including "patently false documents" presented to demonstrate that his life was in danger in Iran.
As I said, I don't deny the humanitarian dimension here, but I really think his supporters have made flagrantly misleading statements about the nature of the case.
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Debbie Harwood talks to David Slack about her new documentary on the women of New Zealand music, and why it needed to be made.
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I heartily concur!
Me Too. Y'all can write.
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Maybe Moore should take up blogging?
I think he should start with something less technically demanding. It appears there are blogs who'd cheerfully have him as a commenter.
Bur seriously: as I said last week, if Moore's prose reads like that after editing, what was it like when he filed it?
OTOH, there are some well-known (award-winning, even) opinion writers whose reputation is saved every damn week by their subs, so perhaps he's in good company.
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__ OMG, I have a leaving-Timaru story.__
It's good to see you are getting over your sensitivity about being from there Russell, and are now able to talk about your origins.
Don't. Just don't.
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The Rugby World Cup hasn't even started and Craig's over it already. But that doesn't mean he doesn't want the All Blacks to win.
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