By BosNewsLife Americas Service with reporting by BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos

Arizona Pastor Michael Salman starts prison sentence for holding Bible study at home.

WASHINGTON, USA (BosNewsLife)– An American pastor remained jailed in “prison camp-like conditions” Sunday, August 5, for holding an unauthorized Bible study meeting at his home in the U.S. state of Arizona amid concerns about a possible “North Korean-style” crackdown in the country, his lawyer and activists said.

Pastor Michael Salman of the state capital Phoenix is serving his 60-day sentence in Tent City Jail, a prison compound in Maricopa County, Arizona, equated by his defense lawyer as similar to the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

“This is where you would put Osama bin Laden, not Michael Salman,” said Rutherford Institute founder and attorney John Whitehead in remarks distributed by advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC).

“The temperature there has been around 140 degrees, and there is no air conditioning. They’re [living] in tents. They have stun fences…barbed wire…large German shepherds walking the perimeter, armed guards  and facial recognition software so that the prisoners are studied all the time,” he added.

Salman was sentenced to 60 days in jail, three years probation and received a $12,180 fine for “the crime” of unauthorized worship, his wife, Suzanne, told reporters earlier.

CHURCH ZONE

Suzanne Salman claimed the city told them that he was essentially arrested because the Bible study was at a private house “and that essentially, it’s a church.”

Since they weren’t “zoned for church” they were told they were breaking the rules.

“It defies logic, honestly. I don’t understand … that something so small got so large like this,” she explained. “People do it all over the United States all the time.”

Whitehead added that Pastor Salman has reported being imprisoned with “really hardened criminals” and that they were unsure why the pastor had been specifically sent to Tent City.

In late June, the jail was the focus of thousands of protesters who gathered outside the Maricopa County Sherriff’s office to express their disapproval of the allegedly prison camp-like conditions, ICC told BosNewsLife.

MORE DETENTIONS?

Whitehead warned that the same “zoning laws” used in Arizona to imprison Michael Salman for holding home Bible studies “will probably be passed across the United States.”

He argued that the laws, which were written by the International Code Council, are very specific about controlling religious groups.

“If you have a small gathering in your home for any kind of religious meeting, you’re going to be harassed by the government to somehow square with the zoning regulations for a formal institution,” stressed Whitehead, whose advocacy group defends constitutional rights.

“We’re getting people who now are getting phone calls from zoning agents because they have five or six people meeting in their home.”

The lawyer’s Rutherford Institute is petitioning the Arizona Supreme Court to intervene in Pastor Salman’s case, challenging his imprisonment as a violation of the First Amendment of the United States, which guarantees freedom of religion.

NORTH KOREA

ICC’s Regional Manager, Ryan Morgan, said in a statement that the arrest of Pastor Michael Salman and his subsequent detention in “a military-like compound” for holding Bible studies in his home “would not be much of a surprise if it had taken place in an authoritarian police state like North Korea.”

Yet, “The fact that it happened in the same state as the Grand Canyon should be a resounding wake up call to every American who holds the right to worship freely close to their heart.”

He noted that, “Around the world, governments are using all sorts of laws to control and suppress religious gatherings. We cannot stand idly by as the United States does the same.”

Morgan said that the ICC urgently calls on the Arizona Supreme Court “to intervene in the case of Michael Salman for his immediate release.”

Christian rights groups, including Open Doors, have been warning that persecution is not only limited to non-Western countries. They have warned especially devoted Christians in the West to also prepare for cases of persecution amid concerns of attempts by governments to control Christian worship.

8 COMMENTS

  1. This author writes like an excited 15 year old. He uses inflamatory language to bolster an unexciting story. This Pastor was given multiple warnings and decided to take a stand against the city code. Tent city is not a prisoncamp, it is an outdoor extension of a city jail and the “hardened criminals are not housed there” This Pastor has even been afforded the right to observe his sabbath, a right many prisoners do not get to enjoy. Nobody has ever even heard of this ICC and an International group would have no authority over religious practices in The United States…Check your facts before writing a story and try to include all of the info

  2. THIS IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE LIKE THE LEFT BEHIND BOOKS AND WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES. WE ARE IN THE LAST DAYS AND IT IS TO GET WORSE. IT STARTED WITH OBAMA GOING TO RUSSIA, CLINTON GOING TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND CARTER GOING TO CHINA. THEY ALL BROUGHT BACK TO CONGRESS EVERYTHING THEY NEEDED TO GET THEIR “CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY” UNDER THEIR CONTROL. WE SHOULDN’T FORGET THE JEZABEL THAT SITS IN POWER–PELOISE. SO CHRISTIANS GET READY FOR A BUMPY RIDE CAUSE ITS JUST GETTING STARTED. AND ANYONE IN GOVERMENT—-COME AND GET ME CAUSE I WILL NOT STOP LETTING PEOPLE KNOW JUST WHAT THEY WILL EXPECT.

  3. this is absolutely unacceptable … i cannot believe Sheriff Joe Arpaio would carry out a sentence so blatantly unconstitutional … there is no doubt in my mind that had Pastor Salman been a muslim, this persecution would not have happened under this administration … the right to worship freely is given us by THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY …

  4. Dear Brian,

    I am sure that pastors in autocratic nations were also “given multiple warnings” and still took a stand against the city code before being detained, because they want to worship and study the Bible. It’s just not something people expect to happen in the United States of America.

    Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife.

  5. It is funny how none of the so-called Christians cared much about the conditions of the prison until one of them ended up in it. Yet the prison has been that way for years.

    If this man choose to violate the law, he can accept the punishment. The Bible says “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”

    What would Jesus do?

  6. Dear Anon,

    Am not sure if no Christian cared for the prison. As far as I know there are church groups working in American prisons, and am sure in this one as well. We know what Jesus did: He died at the cross and rose up from the death. He fulfilled the Law, so we don’t have to. Your quote was about paying taxes, but could well be applied to other areas of life. The pastor is in prison; he didn’t run away for those still making laws. Yet he is free inside. The question remains however, whether his imprisonment marks a new era in the United States.

    Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife

  7. Dear Bos,

    Was with you up until you seemed to imply when you said, “He fulfilled the Law, so we don’t have to.”, that Jesus died so that Christians can now live lives in rebellion (sin) before the Father by rejecting His commandments (Law). Fulfilled does not mean abbrogate or do away with but rather to fill to the brim with the true meaning, intent, and perfect application of the law of G-d, the Torah (first 5 books of the bible). The Holy Spirit that now lives in every believer creates in us a sincere desire to obey G-d. Not for salvation, which Jesus did for us because only he could and desired to do so, but out of our love for the Father who first loved us and sent His son to die for us.

    If I misunderstood your intent, I apoligize in advance.

    Blessings,

    Rafael

  8. Dear Rafael,

    I respect your point of view, but the Bible clearly tells us that those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, or Yeshua Ha-Mashiach, who rose up from the death, are no longer under the Law. We are a new creation in Him.

    Please check Romans 6:14 (New Living Translation)
    “Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.”

    Or Romans 6:16 in King James Version: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

    And in Romans 8:3-4 we can read King James Version: “3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

    Romans 8:3-4 in the New Living Translation (NLT) says it more simple:
    3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[a]
    So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

    God bless you,

    Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife

Leave a Reply to Stefan Bos Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here