Ghorban Dordi Tourani (1952 – 22 November 2005), also called Ghorban Tori (قربان دردى تورانى in Persian), was an Iranian convert to Christianity and a lay minister. He lived and worked in Gonbad Kavous, Golestan, Iran.
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Tourani, an Iranian Turkmen, was brought up as Sunni Muslim, but converted to the Christian faith in the mid-1990s during a stay in Turkmenistan. After his return to Iran he rapidly established a Christian ministry and a house church amongst his compatriots in his predominantly Islamic home town.
Following multiple threats of death he was abducted and murdered on 22 November 2005.
His murder followed the even more widely publicised arrest and trial[1][2] of the Iranian Christian convert and lay minister Hamid Pourmand for apostasy by the Iranian authorities. His death, the first murder of a pastor after several years, was a major point of escalation in the renewed persecution of Christian converts from Islam in Iran and the small but growing house church movement.[3][4][5]
References
edit- ^ "Center for Religious Freedom". Archived from the original on 10 December 2005. Retrieved 13 December 2005.
- ^ "Iran: Prisoner of Conscience Appeal Case: Hamid Pourmand: Imprisonment due to religious belief". Archived from the original on 26 December 2005. Retrieved 13 December 2005.
- ^ "Iran: Christlicher Konvertit ermordet". Kath.net. 30 November 2005. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- ^ "IRVAJ English -". Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
- ^ "Dagen.se". Archived from the original on 24 October 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2005.
External links
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