An Iranian pastor who has refused to recant his Christian faith faces execution as early as Wednesday after his sentence was upheld by an Iranian court.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who maintains he has never been a Muslim as an adult, has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith in Jesus Christ, the 11th branch of Iran's Gilan Provincial Court ruled. Iran's Supreme Court had ordered the trial court to determine whether Nadarkhani had been a Muslim prior to converting to Christianity.


The judges, according to the American Center for Law & Justice, demanded that Nadarkhani, 34, recant his Christian faith before submission of evidence. Though the judgment runs against current Iranian and international laws and is not codified in Iranian penal code, the judge stated that the court must uphold the decision of the 27th Branch of the Supreme Court in Qom.

When asked to repent, Nadarkhani stated: "Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?"

"To the religion of your ancestors, Islam," the judge replied, according to the American Center for Law & Justice.

"I cannot," Nadarkhani said.

Nadarkhani is the latest Christian cleric to be imprisoned in Iran for his religious beliefs. According to Elam Ministries, a United Kingdom-based organization that serves Christian churches in Iran, there was a significant increase in the number of Christians arrested solely for practicing their faith between June 2010 and January. A total of 202 arrests occurred during that six-month period, including 33 people who remained in prison as of January, Elam reported.

An Assyrian evangelical pastor, Rev. Wilson Issavi, was imprisoned for 54 days for allegedly converting Muslims prior to his release in March 2010, Elam officials told FoxNews.com.

Nadarkhani, a pastor in the 400-member Church of Iran, has been held in that country's Gilan Province since October 2009, after he protested to local education authorities that his child was forced to read from the Koran at school. His wife, Fatemeh Pasandideh, was also arrested in June 2010 in an apparent attempt to pressure him to renounce his faith. She was released in October 2010, according to Amnesty International.

Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for apostasy last September based on religious writings by Iranian clerics, including Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite the fact that there is no offense of "apostasy" in the nation's penal code, Amnesty International reports.

In June, the Supreme Court of Iran ruled that a lower court should re-examine procedural flaws in the case, giving local judges the power to decide whether to release, execute or retry Nadarkhani. The verdict, according to Amnesty International, includes a provision for the sentence to be overturned should Nadarkhani renounce his faith.

Elise Auerbach, an Iranian analyst for Amnesty International USA, told FoxNews.com that an execution for apostasy has not been carried out in Iran since 1990. Nadarkhani's sentence is a "clear violation of international law," she said.

"The key is to keep up the pressure and to publicize the story because it obviously outrages most people," Auerbach said. "It's part of the pattern of persecution based on religion in Iran."

Kiri Kankhwende, a spokeswoman for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization that specializes in religious freedom, told FoxNews.com that Nadarkhani was asked for the fourth time to renounce his faith during a hearing early Wednesday and he denied that request.

"We're waiting to hear the final outcome," she told FoxNews.com. We're still waiting to hear what they've decided."

Kankhwende said Nadarkhani could be executed Wednesday or Thursday.

"Iran is unpredictable," she said. "We can't say when it might happen. It's a very real threat, but we can't say when exactly."

Officials at the U.S. State Department declined to comment when reached on Wednesday.Attempts to reach attorney, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, were not successful.

House Speaker John Boehner said Nadarkhani's case is "distressing for people of every country and creed," according to a statement released on Wednesday.

"While Iran's government claims to promote tolerance, it continues to imprison many of its people because of their faith," the statement read. "This goes beyond the law to an issue of fundamental respect for human dignity. I urge Iran's leaders to abandon this dark path, spare [Nadarkhani's] life, and grant him a full and unconditional release."

Father Jonathan Morris, a Roman Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of New York and an analyst for Fox News Channel, said Nadarkhani's case is "unmistakable evidence" that Iran is executing Christians simply because they refuse to become Muslims.

Morris continued: "Will President Obama, and the free world, allow the United Nations to continue in its cowardly silence on this matter?"

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/28/iranian-pastor-faces-execution-for-refusing-to-recant-christian-faith/#ixzz1ZGhKBWq5

Gosh, Muslims are just to tolorant of other people and their religions.

I think Iran gets to have any laws that it wants.

Makes no sense... we could get past all of this hate if we abolished all of these crazy old fairy tales disguised as religion.

then we can start killing people of any religion...

huh? where do you get killing someone from that?

do you really think that people are going to "willingly" let anyone abolish religion?...sorry, i just do not agree with you on that. let people worship what they want, who cares? if your not muslim, don't go to Iran...

It's not even a law in Iran AND not if it violates any human rights laws.

Actually if you want to live and wat human rights then don't go to Iran. Even Muslims arn't safe there.

iran has been violating human rights laws for years, the stoning of women, beheadings, executions without trials... who is going to enforce them?

It's NOT!? Your own report says the Irani courts upheld it. Sounds pretty legal to me.

Apparently you didn't read the whole article.

Though the judgment runs against current Iranian and international laws and is not codified in Iranian penal code

As usual, a more detailed study is needed to understand issues like this. I had to do some reading.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Iran
Presumably, Christianity is not specifically protected in Iran's Constitution.

This bears a remarkable similarity to the right -wing philosophy of the "origionalists", who tell us that Congressional power not specifically enumerated in our Constitution do not apply to the Congress.

See, we all learned something that we didn't know before.

iran is a muslim nation. imagine if the US was really the christian nation that so many god fearing folks here profess was what the founding fathers intended. therein lies the peril in which humanity must exists with religious dogma so prevelant that laws are shaped around it.

If muslims keep persecuting Christians, definitely they are afraid of something, and i say, very soon there fear will come upon them.

They are mentally unstable. It's why they can be so sucked into the Islam cult.

Iran is a different place with different laws. People who live there need to follow said laws or move!

i've often thought the same about christians or any other god fearing faithful.

How about god's fearing, because I pray to many

Even IF they follow the laws they arnt safe!

Like I said Iran is a different place. Anyone with an IQ of bird would be glad they don;t live there.