Saeed Abedini on YouTube

This is a playlist of videos from various sources chronicling in part the journey of Saeed Abedini and that of his wife Naghmeh and their supporters working to regain his freedom.

"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterton

The secret of being happy

"Maybe you ask what is the secret of being so happy in such a hard situation? Forgiveness and a change of attitude."

- Saeed Abedini

 

 

 

 

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A fish out of water

Eric Metaxas

"We have so much religious freedom here that we're like a fish who doesn't know what water is."

~ Eric Metaxas

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Where is the media?

The supporters of Saeed Abedini have rejoiced this past week in what we have viewed as a milestone in this effort when US Secretary of State John Kerry issued an official statement calling on Iran to release Mr. Abedini:

“I am deeply concerned about the fate of U.S. citizen Saeed Abedini, who has been detained for nearly six months and was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs. I am disturbed by reports that Mr. Abedini has suffered physical and psychological abuse in prison, and that his condition has become increasingly dire. Such mistreatment violates international norms as well as Iran’s own laws.

 "I am also troubled by the lack of due process in Mr. Abedini’s case and Iran’s continued refusal to allow consular access by Swiss authorities, the U.S. protecting power in Iran. I welcome reports that Mr. Abedini was examined by a physician and expect Iranian authorities to honor their commitment to allow Mr. Abedini to receive treatment for these injuries from a specialist outside the prison. The best outcome for Mr. Abedini is that he be immediately released."

Mr. Kerry’s statement came the day after US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe’s statement to the UN Human Rights Counsel in Geneva on March 21:

“Iranian officials continue to restrict these communities’ freedom to practice their religious beliefs free from harassment, threat, or intimidation. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini’s continuing harsh treatment at the hands of Iranian authorities exemplifies this trend. We repeat our call for the Government of Iran to release Mr. Abedini, and others who are unjustly imprisoned, and to cease immediately its persecution of all religious minority communities. The United States also repeats its call for the Government of Iran to provide without delay the urgent medical attention Mr. Abedini needs.”

These statements followed months of efforts by Naghmeh Abedini, her counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and many thousands of supporters to call attention to Mr. Abedini’s arrest, conviction and incarceration in Iran’s notorious Evin prison for, by all counts, converting to Christianity in 2001 and practicing his faith in Iran until it was outlawed in 2005.

The reason we have been so overjoyed by these statements is because until now the US government has been essentially silent when it came to Saeed.  We have been puzzled by this silence. Why would the government of the United States for all intents abandon one of our own?  In a nation where we so strongly believe in freedom to practice ones religious beliefs we’ve enshrined it in our Constitution, why would we turn our official head to the denial of those rights of a citizen by another nation?

Perhaps the reason is found in the dearth of coverage by the national media.  One could argue that it’s a “chicken or egg” argument.  But with the current administration’s sensitivity to the media, if a story isn’t covered by the major national news outlets sympathic to its viewpoint no doubt those responsible for driving policy see no need to expend effort in that direction.

Conversely, if a news outlet that is viewed as unsympathic expends resources in covering that same story it can be argued that would give reason for the administration to further ignore the story from a policy perspective.

So in pursuing this train of thought I did a quick search to see what I could discover.  First I went to the web site of Saeed and Naghmeh Abedini’s lead counsel, the ACLJ.  In Google anyone can search a single website to see what has been written and posted about a particular subject by simply appending at the end of your search terms “site:” followed by the URL of the website.

As would be expected there was a treasure trove of search results on the ACLJ website totaling 1600 postings and references to Saeed Abedini dating back to August 2012. So even a lazy news organization or reporter would have plenty of reference material to begin writing.

Then I searched the major national news outlets to see how they fared in covering the arrest and incarceration of Mr. Abedini.  The results are as follows:

National Public Radio (NPR): 0

New York Times: 2

CBSNews: 4

ABCNews: 5

NBC News: 8

CNN News: 9

Yahoo News: 47

FoxNews: 140

 There have to date been more than 550,000 signatures on the petition #SaveSaeed at the ACLJ website calling for Iran to release Mr. Abedini.  Tens of thousands more have written their representatives and administration officials calling for action in the Abedini case.

It is most interesting that the calls for Mr. Abedini’s release by US government officials came just a week after the US House of Representatives Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held hearings featuring Mrs. Abedini, her counsel and others highlighting Mr. Abedini’s arrest and imprisonment.  A hearing the State Department refused to attend.

I thoughts perhaps this is in response to media accounts of the Commission hearings but a search revealed that all so called “mainstream” media organizations also ignored this hearing. Maybe they were following the lead of their patrons in the administration.

So it appears that the Obama administrations recent calls for Iran to release Saeed Abedini is fully in response to the petitions, letters, phone calls and interviews by his family and supporters.  It is not because they wish to protect the fundamental rights of a US citizen or desire to appear altruistic in the media.

Though statements by Secretary Kerry and Ambassador Donahoe are important first steps, perhaps there would be a more robust effort expended if the head of the administration would speak out.  Despite his penchant to do so on a variety of small, local domestic issues as yet he has been silent regarding Saeed Abedini and the protection of his constitutionally guaranteed rights.

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The Opposite

Elie Wiesel 1928-

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” ― Elie Wiesel

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He is risen!

To a Christian, Easter Sunday means everything, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”~Bernhard Langer

“The first thing that stuck in the minds of the disciples was not the empty tomb, but rather the empty grave clothes – undisturbed in form and position.”~Josh McDowell