Why the silence?

Given the resources of the BBC, why do we hear nothing of the upsurge of persecution against Christians in Iran? Could it be that the Beeb has its gaze fixed on things that go pop or pop music? Shall we assume that some brutality is simply not that newsworthy in this jolly season? Or worse?

Here is an unedited email received from a close friend who knows a great deal about this subject. Perhaps the BBC could look into it when time allows. I make no apologies for the Christian content. (Full disclosure: I’m a Christian minister.)

Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 1:52 PM To: Recipient list suppressed: Subject: falling sparrows

Compare these two events:

1) Dozens of volunteers spent several weeks setting up 4 million dominos in preparation for the Dutch world record domino-toppling attempt. A sparrow flew into the hall and knocked over 23,000 and seemed likely to topple many more. So someone shot it – with an air rifle. There was an immediate outrage – a ‘tribute web site’ was set up by animal rights activists – over 20,000 people visited the site. The world record attempt was due to be televised, but after the ‘murder’ even TV staff started to receive threats. The person who shot the sparrow was charged with shooting an endangered species and fined £100 – read all about it here:

“The bird was kept in a government freezer after its killing became a criminal matter. It will be placed on top of a box of dominoes in an exhibition on sparrows next year.”

2) “Iranian Christians are mourning the death of Ghorban Dordi Tourani, an Iranian believer assassinated two weeks ago by an unnamed group of fanatical Muslims and the first Turkmen in Iran known to have been martyred for his Christian faith.

A house church leader in northeastern Iran, Tourani was arrested from his home in Gonbad-e-Kavus on November 22. A few hours later, the 53-year-old convert to Christianity had been stabbed to death, his beaten, bleeding body thrown in front of his home.

I cannot find any mention of this story on the BBC web site. To my knowledge, no memorial site has been set up, thousands of people have NOT protested, and apart from selected Christian news sites, the wider Church doesn’t seem to know of the renewed persecution in Iran.

The only ultimate consolation is that the same God who is aware of falling sparrows, also said, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints…” (Psalm 116:15)

Do, please, pray for Iran and for the Iranian Church.

Credit: Kairos News

Regardless of the religious views of the persecuted people in question, this should be reported. Why the silence?