‘Edam’, execution. It is a word that seems to be used a lot in Iran’s prisons by cruel guards. A few years ago Morad Mokhtari was arrested and driven blindfolded to a prison several miles from Isphahan. On arrival he and another prisoner were walked, still blindfolded, into the prison building. As they arrived a guard shouted out, ‘What’s happening?’ Another shouted back, ‘Nothing. Two prisoners are coming in. One for execution. One for interrogation’. It was bluff: a word spoken in malice to create havoc in an innocent man’s mind. You hear Morad describe his entire ordeal here: http://www.iranhrdc.org/httpdocs/English/witnesstestimony.htm More recently three Christians were together in a cell. Unexpectedly the guards came for one of them. ‘Where, where are you taking our friend’? And then that chilling e word: ‘For execution.’ It was a lie. The friend was being released. Absolute torment screamed in the minds of the prisoners left behind, a sad comment on their faith in their country’s judicial system. They believed execution could happen without any proper legal process. There was no need for the lie. There was nothing to gain for the guards or whatever cause they thought they were helping. It was sheer malice, inflicting pain for the sake of seeing others suffer. With this E word the church finds out the reality of another E word behind this persecution of Christians in Iran: evil. Pray for Christians in prison to be protected from the E word Christians to be comforted who have suffered from the E word Guards to be disciplined for using the E word