American Saeed Abedini’s eight year prison sentence in Iran will not be shortened. News outlets are reporting that the Tehran Court of Appeals has refused to back down.
For those unfamiliar with this story, Saeed is an Iranian-American pastor whose wife and children are waiting for him in Idaho. He is being held in Iranian prison on the premise of endangering national security– he was doing humanitarian work there as a Christian. He is being tortured and is in ill health. Without intervention the Iranians will kill him, which they are already doing slowly.
I was alarmed by his report that one day he started to say hello to a haggard old man when he realized he was looking at himself in a mirror. This is a young man who is being put through hell simply for believing in Jesus Christ and doing his work.
Franklin Graham says that Saeed’s wife Naghmeh feels abandoned by the U.S. government, particularly Obama, who just can’t seem to bother himself with demanding that Iran let an American citizen go. Not only is this a human rights issue, but it’s also a violation of international law. Iran’s continual refusal to release this man is basically an obscene one-fingered gesture towards all Americans.
Write your elected representative, reblog this, email the story to your pastor and church, sign the petition, PRAY– whatever we need to do to raise awareness of our fellow American’s plight– let’s do it and bring this brother home. Everybody can do SOMETHING.
September 26th there will be prayer vigils for Saeed all over the country. Western Washingtonians will be meeting at our state capitol building in Olympia at noon that day.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
37-40 “Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’
-Matthew 25:34-40
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Yellow Save Saeed t-shirts in size large are still available as of 8/28/13.
Wristbands are available here.
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Seriously, what do you think?