The governor of Iran’s Tehran province has announced the arrests of a number of Christian missionaries through the nation’s state news agency on Tuesday.
It is not entirely clear at this point how many were arrested, where they were from–whether Iranian nationals or from another country–or what organization they represented.
The governor, Morteza Tamaddon, says that they were the leaders of a movement, and promised to move against more members of this “movement,” which he calls “deviated” and “corrupt,” in the near future.
“Just like the Taliban… who have inserted themselves into Islam like a parasite, they have crafted a movement with Britain’s backing in the name of Christianity,” Tamaddon said, as quoted in the Agence France-Presse story linked above. He also categorized them as a “conspiracy” and identified them as one of many “fake, deviated and corrupt cults” which “have sharpened their teeth for our beliefs.”
UPDATE (4:37 P.M.): According to Sahamnews.org identifies one of the men as Leonard Keshishian, co-author of the book When Heaven Is Silent: Live By Faith, Not By Sight.
Also, elam.com puts the number of Christians arrested at 25.
