Spare Yousef Nadarkhani

For the second time on this forum, I am compelled to implore a Muslim country to not put a Christian to death for following his conscience. This time it is the Islamic Republic of Iran that threatens the life of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani not for any crime beyond refusing to repudiate his Christian belief. Once before, I had to beg for an endangered believer, on February Seventh of this year when I pleaded on behalf of Said Musa who thankfully was not murdered under the color of Islamic religious authority but allowed to leave Afghanistan. Iran has just garnered some degree of good will by allowing two American hikers who had lost their way and been detained for more than two years by the Islamic Republic to bond out and leave the country. Iran could earn even more respect from the family of nations by showing mercy one more time and allowing the Reverend Nadarkhani to live, even if he is exiled- with he and his family banished from Iran. The one act that is sure to heighten tension and further isolate Iran would be the execution (which would be no more than state-sanctioned murder of this husband and father, this guiltless man).