Evangelicals to UN: Indict Ahmadinejad

Prominent evangelical organization to deliver petition to UN saying Iranian president incites genocide.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Ahmadinejad 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
Ahmadinejad 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
A prominent Jerusalem-based evangelical organization will deliver a petition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week signed by tens of thousands of Christians from around the world demanding that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be indicted for incitement to genocide against Israel. The petition, which was initiated by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and signed by more than 55,000 people from 128 countries, comes ahead of the Iranian leader's planned visit to New York, where he is scheduled address the opening of the UN General Assembly next week. "The silence of most Christian clergy in the face of Germany's horrific bid to annihilate European Jewry left a deep stain on the churches. Yet from it has arisen a sense among multitudes of Christians today that we have an inescapable moral duty to earnestly speak out whenever another genocidal campaign threatens the Jewish people," said Rev. Malcolm Hedding, the organization's executive director. "Unfortunately, we are concerned that just such a genocidal campaign is taking shape in the form of Iran's repeated threats to eliminate the Jewish state, and its quest for nuclear means to carry out these threats," Hedding said. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called to "wipe Israel off the map" and has dismissed the Holocaust as a "myth." The petition, titled 'Stop a Nuclear Iran,' states that the Iranian threats against Israel constitute a "clear violation" of the UN Charter, and the international convention for preventing and punishing the crime of genocide. It also expresses "extreme disappointment" at the "resounding" failure of the UN and its organs to take any serious measures to redress the Islamic Republic's "hostile campaign of public incitement to genocide." "This campaign not only endangers Israel, but is also a threat to the peace and security of the world community," the petition reads. Hedding also blasted leaders in the Mennonite and Quaker movements that will be hosting Ahmadinejad at a "dialogue" reception during his US visit, saying that would be eternally associated with appeasement to wickedness. "The Bible nowhere advocates this type of engagement and in facts warns against it," Hedding said. "Jesus did not talk with Herod because he represented a system that was corrupt and evil." "These Christian leaders will forever be associated with the appeasement of wickedness."