Pope Encourages Religous Freedom in Iran

I posted on this a couple days ago...here is a video.

More Like Punishment by Religion...

We're talking about freedom of religion on our blog. Or, the opposite too I guess.

I just read this article in The New York Times about the exact opposite happening: punishment by religion. In Iran, a women convicted of adultery may be stoned to death. Stoned. And it's a shocking thing to media systems both there and here. It's shocking in Iran, because they are actually talking about it in the media-- a clip of the woman calling herself a sinner was shown on state-owned television. It's shocking in the United States, because of the severity of the punishment of adultery, and because her son specifically told people who knew about the situation to lie to foreign western media, to make it less of a deal.

So this brings up two good aspects:

• Because of the government's and her own strict following of the Muslim faith, this Iranian woman may be stoned to death (the punishment is under review by the court-- but she may still be executed in a different way), because she was convicted of having an illicit relationship. Is this religious freedom?
• It was controversial in Iran, because this story was broadcast on television. The woman's lawyer told her son to lie to western media, saying it would be prudent. Is this media freedom?
• 

Iran has a "Stop Stoning Forever" Campaign

Pope Delivers Message to Ahmadinejad

In a recent letter to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Pope encouraged religious freedom in Iran. In the letter, the Pope referred to religious freedom as a human rights issue.
Here is an excerpt from the letter:
"When the promotion of the dignity of the human person is the primary inspiration of political and social activity that is committed to search for the common good, solid and enduring foundations are created for building peace and harmony between peoples."