By Benjamin Weinthal
Published May 18, 2014
Excerpts from FoxNews.com article

Iranian-born Muslims who converted to Christianity are finding new spiritual life into communities across Germany, where they are fleeing to an increasing numbers to escape persecution back home.
Men and women, who have been sentenced to the lash or worse for apostasy – converting from Islam – are forming a thriving community of Christian ex-pats in German cities and towns. The Iranian immigrants seek asylum, or simply pay up to $30,000 to enter the country illegally with a fake passport, a new name and plans to start their lives over in new churches.
A telling example of Iran’s heavy-handed crackdown on Christians is the case of a 40-something years old Iranian woman named Afsaneh. A spiritual display brought down the full force of Tehran’s hard-line regime.
“I was so excited about Christmas that I put up a tree in my home and work,” Afsaneh told The Guardian.
However, she along with her cousin would pay a steep price for their embrace of the Christian faith in the Sharia-dominated Islamic Republic. Iranian authorities imprisoned both converts and imposed more than 70 lashes on Afsaneh and her cousin for merely practicing Christianity.
After securing refuge in Germany, Afsaneh said she resents her homeland’s lack of freedom.
“I want Iran to have respect for my perspective, about what religion I choose, “she said. “Not just to tell me that I have to be a Muslim”.
The number of Iranian Christians fleeing to Germany has grown to nearly 4,500 in 2012 from less than 1,000 four years earlier, according to The Guardian. Although Germany is not the only destination for Iranian Christians fleeing from persecution, its strong economy makes it more desirable than other choices, such as The Netherlands, Sweden and Austria.
Iranian immigrants have helped double the size of the congregation at House of God’s Help church in Berlin, church deaconess Rosemarie Götz told the Christian Broadcasting Network.
“It came like an unexpected summer rain,” Götz said. “Suddenly new people started coming every week and asked to be baptized…”
Hamid, a-37 year-old Iranian, fled the Islamic Republic year ago and is seeking asylum in Deininghausen, Germany. His case has garnered media attention because the German authorities want to send him back to Italy—his first country of origin into the European Union. The Free Evangelical Community in Deininghausen is working to secure him asylum.
His troubles in Iran began when authorities found a bible in his desk. Fearing he and his family were at great risk, Hamid, his wife Maryam and their five-year-old son, Ayra, paid a smuggler nearly $25,000 to flee Iran…
An Iranian minister based in Berlin and affiliated with the American Presbyterian mission agency, a burgeoning Iranian Christian community has found life free from religious persecution. He has baptized hundreds of Iranians, according to a report in The Guardian. The report noted that Iranian converts to Christianity in the East German city of Leipzig at St Luke’s Church now form one-third of the congregation.
According to a recent UN report by Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, at least 49 Christians were being held in Iranian jails of January 2014. In 2013, Iran’s regime arrested at least 42 Christians, of whom 35 were convicted for peaceful religious activities in house churches.

Benjamin Weinthal is a Berlin-based fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.