Wife and warrior Naghmeh Abidini testified at a Congressional hearing last Friday to raise national awareness for her husband, Pastor Saeed Abedini, and to urge the State Department and President Obama’s Administration to take long-overdue action. Saeed is an Iranian-born U.S. citizen who was arrested in Iran last July and imprisoned in the notoriously brutal Evin prison.  The Islamic Regime of Iran claims that Pastor Saeed is a national security threat, and yet, even they have stated that the real reason for his imprisonment is his Christian faith.  Saeed converted from Islam to Christianity in 2000 and subsequently started an underground church movement.  He and his wife have been living in America as U.S. citizens and have traveled back to Iran many times.  This past July, Saeed made another trip to Iran in order to gain final approval for the orphanage he is building.  This project had the full approval of the Iranian government, and he has complied with all of their past demands with regards to his activities in the country.  However, he was arrested in July 2012 and, at the beginning of this year, he was sentenced to eight years in Evin prison.

The U.S. State Department and the Obama Administration have been glaringly absent in this case.  In fact, they have done more in the past for non-U.S. citizens imprisoned in Iran than they have been willing to do on behalf of Pastor Saeed.  They were notified about the hearing, but their response was that they had no one available to attend. Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer during the hearing, Naghmeh said, “Silence in the face of evil, in itself is evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak; not to act is to act.”  The State Department’s shameful lack of acknowledgement of this issue, especially their refusal to send a representative to the hearing, is absolutely appalling.  Congress has acted on this issue, but it is the State Department and the Obama Administration’s responsibility to lead this case and demand Saeed’s release.  While White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has made mild comments in response to media questioning on this issue, President Obama has remained entirely silent. Likewise, the only comments that have been made by the State Department have been in response to questions from the media or from Members of Congress.

During the recent U.N. meetings, the E.U. spoke out specifically on behalf of Pastor Saeed, and yet, when it came time for the U.S. delegation to speak, they made no mention of his name.  “Imagine you’re a U.S. citizen detained for your faith abroad, and the E.U. is speaking out, but your own country is remaining silent,” said Jordan Sekulow, attorney with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and Nagmeh’s legal counsel.

However, thanks to the tireless efforts of Naghmeh, the relentless work of the ACLJ, the extensive and regular coverage by Fox News, the over 100 Congressmen who signed a letter to the State Department, especially the specific leadership of Congressman Trent Franks (R-Arizona) on the Hill with this issue, Congressman Frank Wolf’s (R-Virginia) leading of the Congressional hearing, and the 538,000 Americans who have signed the petition and called their representatives, a State Department representative did finally agree to meet with Naghmeh to discuss her husband’s imprisonment and torture.

Congress has done what it needs to do. Americans are doing their part, as the petition for Saeed’s release increases by about 15,000 signatures a day; it is now at nearly 600,000.   Many public figures, including several Christian recording artists and politicians, have spread the news about this issue to their audiences. Now is the time for the State Department and the Obama Administration to get their act in gear or face the growing outrage of the rapidly increasing number of Americans who are following this case.  Naghmeh and her ACLJ attorney, Jordan Sekulow, appeared on Fox News this morning setting this Friday as a deadline for the State Department to make a clear statement demanding Saeed Abedini’s release.

Please join CWA and continue to pray for the immediate release of Pastor Saeed Abidini. If you were not able to watch the Congressional hearing and Naghmeh’s moving testimony, you can watch it here.

Chelsen Vicari, CWA’s Communications Strategist, contributed to this article.

As an NBA Hall-of-Famer and a one-time professional wrestler, Dennis Rodman has built a reputation as a great American athlete.  But after making some shockingly uninformed comments about dictator Kim Jong Un after his recent visit to North Korea, it doesn’t appear Rodman is on pace to rack up any points for his political astuteness.

“I love the guy. He’s awesome. He’s so honest,” raved Rodman of the North Korean dictator in an interview following a trip intended to spread goodwill through the two men’s shared interest in basketball.  Rodman was seemingly unfazed by the gross human rights violations perpetuated by the young leader, including intense religious persecution and the imprisonment of thousands of political dissidents.

In response to concerns over the leader’s continued commitment to produce a nuclear weapon capable of striking the United States, Rodman insisted that Kim Jong Un “didn’t want war,” and only continued the illicit program in honor of his father’s legacy. “He loves power; he loves control, because of his dad and stuff like that. He’s a great guy; he’s just a great guy if you sit down and talk to him,” proclaimed Rodman.

Troubling though these statements are, Rodman is only one in a long strain of public figures to poorly judge a dictator’s character. Popular authors and academics Sydney and Beatrice Webb, for example, became avid enthusiasts and friends of Josef Stalin, even penning a book on the “success” of the Soviet Union. “There is, in fact, a consensus of opinion, among those who have watched Stalin’s action in administration, that this is not at all characteristic of a dictator. … Stalin is now universally considered to have justified his leadership by success,” wrote the Webbs, denying the atrocities of a man responsible for killing millions of his own people.

Obviously, Rodman isn’t the first well-known person to view an evil dictator through rose-colored glasses.  Many have been taken in by charismatic leaders with a seemingly appealing persona but who are inwardly evil.  Rodman is only the freshest example of how anyone can be blinded by the aura of personality, ignoring the plain facts at hand.

Evil is deceptive and can be especially dangerous when those directly encountering it are not ready or do not want to resist the deception.  It may seem strange when those like Rodman appear to walk so readily into the lies, but Scripture predicts that more and more of us will be enthusiastically led astray by smooth talkers.  “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (1 Tim. 4:3).

Those who would lead us astray are becoming harder to spot and easier to follow every day. As Christians, we must respond by praying for guidance, staying immersed in God’s Word and preparing to resist the frauds constantly luring our attention away from the truth.

Malala Yousafzai, whose brave stand for her right to an education has galvanized women around the globe.

Did you hear the one about the Muslim man who cut off his wife’s nose to spite her face? It’s not a joke.  In America, Christian women have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and they have the right to vote.  In Pakistan, where the prevailing religion is “peaceful” Islam, women and little 14-year-old girls like Malala Yousafzai can be brutally beaten, maimed, or murdered for expressing opinions contrary to the tenets of the Taliban, an Islamic militant group that seems to operate unchecked by the corrupt Pakistani government.At the tender age of 11, little Malala began criticizing the Taliban’s treatment of girls’ schools in her area.  Her advocacy for women’s equality earned her a reputation around Pakistan, and she became the first recipient of Pakistan’s National Peace Award for Youth, according to Aljazeera News.  Yet it also earned her the unbearable scorn and hatred of Taliban members, some of whom decided to hunt her down three years later and shoot her in the neck and head as she climbed off her school bus.

After an intense public outcry erupted among Pakistani women and the international community, Taliban spokesman Ehsan ullah Ehsan showed the world the true face of Islam when he stated, “Although she was young and a girl and Taliban does not believe in attacking women but whomsoever leads any campaign against Islam and Shariah is ordered to be killed by Shariah.  It is not merely allowed to kill such a person but it is obligatory in Islam.”

Ehsanullah Ehsan, Taliban spokesman.

Consider for a moment the potency of Eshan’s words.  They perfectly illustrate the fact that not all religions are created equal.  Those who maliciously label Christians as hate-filled bigots need to take a step back and reread Ehsan’s words.  Not only does our Judeo-Christian heritage outright forbid us to kill our enemies; it explicitly requires us to respond with love to them.  We don’t have to agree with what they say, but we live in a country whose Christian foundations protect opposing beliefs and welcome civil debate.Thank God we are free to speak our minds, work outside of the home, vote, and hold public office.  American women fought hard against oppressive social norms and earned those rights.  Malala and her mother, sisters, and girlfriends in Pakistan are not so blessed.  Malala questioned the station of women under Islam’s oppressive thumb, and the Taliban tried to put her six feet under the ground.

Pray for Malala as she currently recovers in a London hospital.

And ladies, don’t take your right to be heard — or your right to vote — for granted, lest we embrace those so-called “peaceful” religions, whose “obligation” is to kill any and every infidel who calls out Islam for the false and hate-filled religion that it is.

Americans around the country sat glued to their TV sets and computer screens on July 22 as news of a twin terror attack on Norway rocked our collective world and dredged up phantom pains from our own 9/11. News of the bomb blast in Oslo had barely begun to register when it was reported that a killer, dressed as a life-protecting policeman, was indiscriminately shooting people at an island youth camp run by the ruling Labour Party. All told, 86 people lost their lives that day.

I released the following statement as CEO of Concerned Women for America (CWA):

“As an organization founded on prayer, we call on Christians around the nation to pray for the people of Norway. Evil has reared its ugly head again in history, and we join others in condemning it and the violence it has wrought. The fact that the shooter used hatred of Muslims as his excuse is as insane as those within the Islamic faith who call for jihad against Christians and Jews. As a Christian, let me say clearly that Jesus taught that we must love even our enemies. Hate and violence is incompatible with being a follower of Jesus. Again, we condemn violence for any reason and call for healing for those suffering at the hand of evil.”

While the media tries its best to paint this deeply troubled man, Anders Behring Breivik, as a rightwing, Christian extremist, our own state director for CWA of North Dakota, Janne Myrdal — herself a Norwegian immigrant — has read his manifesto and tells the Plains Daily a different story. We offer it here for your edification.

Norwegian Breivik’s Manifesto Eerily Reminiscent of Hitler’s

“It is sad to see the American media at large and the New York Times playing politics with this, because the Norwegian media and the people of Norway are not playing politics at all,” said Janne Myrdal. “As a matter of fact, they are coming together asking for a more open society, more freedom, more liberty for individuals, in spite of perhaps wanting revenge, but that’s just the Norwegian people.”

Myrdal is a Norwegian native who immigrated to North Dakota and who still maintains close ties with friends and family, in addition to being the State Director of North Dakota’s Concerned Women for America chapter. She shared her insights with listeners on the Scott Hennen show this afternoon.

The recent shootings in Norway have shaken many across the globe who know the small Scandinavian country to be a peaceful, quiet nation, including North Dakotans, many of whom are of Norwegian descent.

Anders Behring Breivik, the man charged with the shootings that resulted in more than 70 deaths, wrote a manifesto prior to his rampage, which some media sources are saying displays the dangerous ideology of extremist right wing, Christian fundamentalists.

However, Myrdal has read his manifesto in the original language* and says that Breivik writes that he seriously doubts the existence of God, and that while he believes in the church as a Nordic strength, that science should supersede the church. “It is very frightening how like 1933-1939 it sounds, like somebody else who wanted to take the church and turn it into an instrument of their racist and evil agenda.”

“He was going after one particular political party, which leans very left,” Myrdal shared. “He had a target and sadly he is winning right now in the media opinion, because they are just tickling his feathers and keep saying that he is a right-wing fanatic. … The whole fact that they claim him to be a right-wing, fanatical Christian and Israel-loving person is just plain bull.”

There is no death penalty in Norway, and the longest sentence Breivik could receive is 21 years. There are currently suspects in Britain and Poland being detained in possible connection to the shootings. Breivik has claimed that he had two other terrorist cells working with him.

*The version of the Breivik Manifesto released by the media was in English.  Breivik’s previous writings and his diary are in Norwegian.  These are the writings Janne has read.

This article published by the Plains Daily on July 25, 2011. Find it here.

Today we learned that an elite team of Navy Seals took care of an outstanding debt for the American people.  Osama bin Laden is dead.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our military for keeping us safe day in and day out.  It is because of them that our country rejoices today in the assassination of the world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11th tragedy in which thousands of Americans lost their lives.  Nothing will ever replace those lost that day but, hopefully, Osama bin Laden’s death can bring some sort of closure to the victims’ families.

Because of the persistence of our military, our intelligence community, and especially our interrogating officers at Gitmo, Osama bin Laden was finally brought to justice.  These brave men and women who defend us every day should be honored and given our unending gratitude.

But we must always continue to be vigilant against evil and our enemies in radical Islam who continue to want to suppress our wonderful country and freedoms we hold so dear.