A judge in Iran sentenced a Christian man to punishment by ordering that his lips be burnt with a lit cigarette because he ate food in the daytime during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims practice abstinence through the day. The brutal and savage sentence was carried out in a public square in Kermanshah where five other men were flogged with 70 lashes each for refusing to fast during the same period.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political alliance that serves as opposition to the government, condemned the act as savage and urged western countries to take immediate action.

“The silence of the world community, especially of western countries, vis-à-vis these medieval punishments under the excuse of having nuclear talks with Iran has intensified the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran. This will ultimately embolden the Iranian regime to continue its nuclear projects more than before,” it said in a statement.

Earlier this year, the United Nations blasted Iran for persecuting Christians on grounds of practicing their faith. Iran also designated evangelical Christians and house churches as “threats to national security.” But, in fact, Christians were not the only ones to feel threatened and persecuted. Reportedly, Jews, Bahai’s, Dervish Muslims and Zoroastrians also feel the same way.

An estimated 250,000 people in Iran’s 76 million population are Christians, all of whom are likely to be tortured, imprisoned or even sentenced to death for not observing Islamic festivities or not abiding by Muslim dress codes. According to the Brussels-based group Human Rights Without Frontiers, Iran is one of the top five countries in the world to have the maximum number of belief prisoners or freedom of religion prisoners.