Apostasy

According to the lawyer for Mojtaba Sami’nejad, a jailed Iranian blogger, Mojtaba is charged with Apostasy, a charge that carries a death sentence under the religious law in Iran, a law that reminds us of the terror of Inquisitions of centuries ago, and should have no place in 21st century.

Although in Koran, there is a direct statement that says there is no compulsion in accepting the religion, it has not prevented the religious authorities to create strange and contradictory laws regarding Apostasy. They call for a death sentence for a man, and a life sentence for a woman if convicted of Apostasy. Their strange law also prevents those born or raised in Muslim families to "repent" to avoid the harsh sentence.

Unfortunately, U.S. government’s involvement in protesting against human right abuses such as this one is self serving and is done not for the sake of human rights, but to further the Bush Administration’s agenda of total domination over Middle-East and its Black Gold of oil, and it usually has an opposite effect. But the protest of international community, including U.S. citizens and non-governmental organizations can have a positive effect in preventing Islamic regime in Iran impose harsh sentences on Iranian dissidents and prisoners of conscience such as Mojtaba Sami’nejad.

Please help publicize this case in any way you can. There is also this report from International Pen organization with more detail about this case and other similar cases. You can also sign this internet petition to protest against this human right abuse in Iran.