Freedom of Conscience
Floor Speech
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Mr. CASSIDY. Thank you, Congressman Fortenberry.
Mr. Speaker, a couple of things. First, I associate myself with the remarks made by my colleagues. I think that there is a concern regarding our religious freedoms here in the United States.
But for just a moment, I want to draw the attention of those watching and the Speaker to an issue of Pastor Saeed Abedini. He is an American, originally from Iran, who is now incarcerated for 8 years--this is his sentence in Iran--for crimes, as they defined it, that happened 13 years ago. This is a question of religious freedom which involves an American citizen who happens now to be abroad.
Pastor Abedini is 33 years old, was born in Iran, and there converted from Islam to Christianity. Here, that would not be a big deal because we have religious freedom. Theoretically, so does Iran.
In his early twenties, he helped start house churches. It was legal to do so. At some point, he moved to the United States and married his wife, who I gather her family also is originally from Iran. They have two children and they live in Idaho.
He went back to Iran to work on a nonsectarian orphanage. He was arrested by the state police and incarcerated, at first they said for activities disruptive to the state. Now they apparently are attributing it to his work in house churches around the year 2000. But he has been incarcerated in prison and is tortured. He's been taken to the hospital on a couple of occasions. The physician recommended that he be admitted to a hospital. The Iranian Government will not allow it. He went to seek medical care on another occasion. The nurse refused to touch him saying that because he was a Christian, or if he had been Baha'i, either, she would not touch him.
So here we have a fellow, an American, who is being imprisoned for activities which happened 13 years ago in a country which is a signatory to the UN Declaration of Human Rights in which someone may have religious freedom.
Now, it is upon we, as Americans, if you're a person of faith, to pray for the Abedini family. If you're a person not necessarily of faith but just believe in human rights, this is something which should be incredibly important to you. If you're just a person who has compassion for a 33-year-old man whose wife and two children are here alone as he is being imprisoned and tortured for no other crime than attempting to start an orphanage for children who might not have another option, even that would offend someone who is of no faith whatsoever.
So what can we as Americans do? One, we have to draw attention to it. We have a resolution that has been submitted that calls upon the U.S. State Department to intervene on his behalf--and, in fairness, the State Department has attempted to do so in the past, but there is some feeling they could do more--and for the Iranian Government to free him.
So one, we have this resolution before Members of Congress. If you're watching this, ask your Member of Congress to sign on to this resolution. It has bipartisan support now.
Number two, contact our State Department and ask them to redouble their efforts to free Pastor Abedini.
Number three, include him and his family in your prayers. We can only imagine if our loved ones were abroad, in prison, being tortured, without access to health care, and what that would mean for both wife, children, and also parents.
Lastly, join us all in admiration for a man in his commitment to the people whom he loves, who was willing to risk something that he knew might be a possibility as he was living out his faith, caring for those, treating those as he would have them treat him but, as an impulse of his faith, going to those who were otherwise without care.
So thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of Pastor Abedini, and I thank you for having this discussion of religious freedom here tonight.
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Mr. CASSIDY. The United States has historically been a beacon of human rights to the rest of the world, and so it is no accident that a fellow comes to the United States seeking religious freedom.
I think the undertone of what others here have spoken is the sense that some of our commitment to religious freedom is under siege by forces of secularism. Now, you can be secular if you wish; but nonetheless, the First Amendment says that the right to practice religion shall not be infringed upon. So with all of these kinds of trimming at the margins, at the edges, of someone's ability to practice her faith or his faith, one, it affects us, but, two, it also affects our standing in the rest of the world in our ability to advocate for those who do not have the same freedom as we.
If others see our example as substituting religious freedom for something which is less so, how much less will our beacon be dimmed? That will have tragedy, not only for us, but also for them.
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