When President Obama came into office, we were assured that our relationship with Islamic nations would improve. Islam is really a religion of peace. He said the following in his remarks to the Muslim world, delivered on June 4, 2009 in Egypt.

“I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. . . . And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

So where is he as a Christian pastor is about to be executed in Iran because he is a Christian? Where are the media? When three American hikers were tried and imprisoned, they became causes célèbres in the media until they were just recently released.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani remains behind bars in Rasht, a province in north western Iran, awaiting what is called a re-examination. “The courts determined that he was a national apostate,” Jason DeMars of Present Truth Ministries, reports. “So even though he never practiced Islam during his life, he was born to two parents who practiced Islam, and therefore, he has to recant.”

According to law, an apostate is to be given three chances to renounce before he is executed. Meanwhile, the debacle has placed Nadarkhani’s attorney in danger, partly for doing a good job for his client. DeMars is convinced that only prayer and fasting will save either of the men. “At this point in time, we’re looking to God. Everything humanly has been exhausted.” Something human can be done. President Obama could intervene and appeal to what he said in Egypt to his Muslim audience: “And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”