The Baha’i International Community issued a report Friday entitled “Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Baha’is.”
The report “documents and analyzes more than 400 media items over a 16-month period.” The result, the Baha’is say, is an “insidious state-sponsored effort” to discredit the Baha’is with “false accusations, inflammatory terminology, and repugnant imagery.”
Iranians officials at the United Nations and in Tehran could not be reached for comment.
Among “recurring themes” in media coverage about Baha’is, the report said, is that they are “anti-Islamic,” a “deviant” and “cult-like” sect, agents of Zionism, spies for Israel and the West, morally corrupt and an influence in the shah’s government, toppled in 1979.
New themes have emerged in recent months, the report says.
The report says the Baha’is have instigated opposition to the regime, influenced “anti-regime” Iranian human rights activists, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, controls or influences foreign broadcasters, such as the BBC and Voice of America, and helped plan and participated in the 2009 Ashura protests against the presidential elections earlier that year.
The group also said the media “uses brainwashing to entice Muslims away from their faith,” and “security attractive young women to lure converts.”
“This anti-Baha’i propaganda is shocking in its volume and vehemence, its scope and sophistication,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.
“It’s all cynically calculated to stir up antagonism against a peaceful religious community whose members are striving to contribute to the well-being of their society,” she said. “The parallels between the campaign of anti-Baha’i propaganda in Iran today and other state-sponsored, anti-religious campaigns of the past are undeniable. History shows us that such campaigns are among the foremost predictors of actual violence against religious minorities -or, in the worst case, precursors of genocide.”
The Baha’i faith, founded during the 19th century in Iran and now with 5 million to 6 million adherents worldwide, is a monotheistic religion that focuses on the spiritual unity of humanity.
But Iran’s Shiite Muslim ruling ayatollahs regard the faith as blasphemous because its founder, Bahaullah, declared himself to be a prophet of God. Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed was the last prophet of God.
The group said the anti-Baha’i messages are “originates with and are sanctioned by the country’s highest levels of leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”
Iran, however, claims that international media are an arm of a Baha’i conspiracy.
Those claims are “both ludicrous and funny, if it wasn’t so sad,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Middle East and North Africa program.
“Any international media outlet that carries news that is not identical to the Iranian government’s line is accused of being an agent of fill in the blank: The Baha’is, the Americans, the Mossad.”
The U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom — an independent, bipartisan federal agency — regularly documents the Iranian regime’s actions toward the Baha’is.
A USCIRF official said the Iranian government’s media campaign to denigrate and vilify the Baha’i community is part of its long-standing policy to not only incite violence against Baha’is but also to seek a slow death of the community’s very existence in the country.
“The longer you wear down a community by demonizing them, intimidating them, depriving them, and arresting and imprisoning them – the hope is that you achieve your goal of total eradication,” said Dwight Bashir, deputy director for policy and research at USCIRF.
The Baha’i report cities more than 200 “specious and misleading articles” by the semi-official Kayhan newspaper. USCIRF also singles out Kayhan.
“Among those responsible for this media initiative has been Hossein Shariatmadari, managing editor of the government-controlled Kayhan newspaper, who was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei himself,” Bashir said.
“Kayhan’s articles about the Baha’i community have been a combination of vitriol and falsified information that has served to justify many of the egregious actions taken by the government against members of the community. As a consequence, USCIRF has urged the U.S. government to add Shariatmadari to its sanctions list of Iranian officials responsible for severe violations of human rights, including religious freedom,” said Bashir.
Faraz Sanei, Iran researcher with the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said rights groups have long documented the government’s “systematic campaign, both in law and practice, to target Baha’is and “deprive them of of their ability to freely manifest the beliefs and teachings of their faith.”
Sanei said the “report provides valuable insight into the mechanics of a less documented and more insidious element of this campaign – anti-Baha’i propaganda propagated by official and semi-official media outlets, and the degree to which hate speech further exposes an already vulnerable minority group to discrimination and attacks by private actors.”

—

source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/22/world/meast/iran-bahais-report/index.html

Heiner Bielefeldt – the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief – briefs correspondents on the issue at UN Headquarters on Thursday 20 October. The Iranian government has a "clearly articulated policy of extreme hostility" towards its 300,000-strong Baha'i minority, said Dr. Bielefeldt. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

[BWNS 23 Oct. 2011] UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s persecution of Baha’is is among the most “extreme manifestations of religious intolerance and persecution” in the world today, according to a UN expert.

The remarks of Heiner Bielefeldt – Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief – came during a press conference here in response to a question about a new report [click here to see the report form IPW's repository] that documents the Iranian government’s media campaign to demonize Baha’is.

“The Iranian government has a policy of systematic persecution…” said Dr. Bielefeldt, “with the view of even destroying that religion worldwide…It’s a very clear, clearly articulated policy of extreme hostility.”

Asked whether he had received any response from Iran to his statements on the issue, Dr. Bielefeldt replied, “The typical response is the following: Bahaism is not a religion, it’s a cult, it’s an evil cult.”

The report, "Inciting Hatred – Iran's Media Campaign to Demonize Baha'is," was launched on Friday 21 October at the New York offices of the Baha'i International Community (BIC). Pictured here are, left, Bani Dugal, the BIC's Principal Representative to the United Nations; and, right, Diane Ala'i, BIC Representative to the UN in Geneva. The report reflects the Iranian government's "irrational fear" and "great contempt" of its Baha'i community, said Ms. Ala'i.

“They distinguish…between genuine religions – in their understanding the divinely revealed religions Judaism, Christianity and, of course, Islam – and the rest,” he said. “So this is a problem.

“I mean they really excommunicate, systematically, the Baha’is from the application of freedom of religion or belief by simply denying their faith to have the status of a religion. And this is something states cannot do.”

Freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental human right, he said at the press conference on Thursday.

“The starting point must be the self-understanding of human beings. Their deep convictions…That is what counts,” he said.

Inciting Hatred

One aspect of the Iranian government’s campaign against Baha’is is documented in the report, Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Baha’is, which provides evidence of a state-sponsored strategy to vilify the Baha’i community.

The report, launched on 21 October, highlights false accusations of Baha’is being involved in a variety of subversive practices including being anti-Islamic, morally corrupt, and agents for foreign powers.

Responding to the findings, Faraz Sanei – Iran researcher with the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch – told CNN that rights groups have long documented Iran’s actions against Baha’is, designed to “deprive them of their ability to freely manifest the beliefs and teachings of their faith.”

The report, said Dr. Sanei, provides “valuable insight into the mechanics of a less documented and more insidious element of this campaign – anti-Baha’i propaganda propagated by official and semi-official media outlets, and the degree to which hate speech further exposes an already vulnerable minority group to discrimination and attacks by private actors.”

At the report’s launch, Bani Dugal – Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations – noted that Baha’is in Iran “are particularly vulnerable to campaigns such as this because they don’t have any right to reply.”

Special Section – Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Bahá’ís

A Special Section of the Baha’i International Community United Nations Office website presents the full report, Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Bahá’ís in English and Persian, as well as an online only 197-page appendix that summarizes each of the 400-plus documents or articles that were collected during the period of this survey, from 17 December 2009 to 16 May 2011.

—-

Source: http://news.bahai.org/story/862

The report – titled "Inciting Hatred: Iran's Media Campaign to Demonize Baha'is" – documents and analyzes more than 400 press and media items between late 2009 and early 2011, which clearly expose Iran's state-sponsored effort to vilify its largest non-Muslim religious minority.

[BWNS, 21 Oct. 2011] NEW YORK — In a wide-ranging media campaign that has gone largely unnoticed outside of Iran, hatred and discrimination are being systematically stirred up against the country’s 300,000-member Baha’i minority.

In a report released today, the Baha’i International Community documents and analyzes more than 400 press and media items over a 16-month period, that typify an insidious state-sponsored effort to demonize and vilify Baha’is, using false accusations, inflammatory terminology, and repugnant imagery.

Read the full report here (PDF) [click here for the PDF from Iran Press Watch repository]

“This anti-Baha’i propaganda is shocking in its volume and vehemence, its scope and sophistication,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“It’s all cynically calculated to stir up antagonism against a peaceful religious community whose members are striving to contribute to the well-being of their society,” she said.

Titled Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Baha’is, the report’s main conclusions are:

• anti-Baha’i propaganda originates with – and is sanctioned by – the country’s highest levels of leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who gave a highly discriminatory speech in the holy city of Qom a year ago;

• the campaign spurns international human rights law and norms, including a precedent-setting resolution passed earlier this year at the United Nations Human Rights Council that specifically condemns and combats the negative stereotyping and incitement to hatred of religious minorities;

• Baha’is are branded as “outsiders” in their own land and as enemies of Islam in a manner that is clearly calculated to provoke the religious sensibilities of Iranian Shiite Muslims;

• the campaign aims to deflect attention away from calls for democracy in Iran by using Baha’is as an all-purpose “scapegoat” – and, in so doing, to smear those who oppose the government as well as human rights campaigners as Baha’is, “as if that were the most heinous crime.”

• the authorities disseminate ludicrous conspiracy theories including that foreign broadcasters, in particular the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Voice of America (VOA), are controlled by or under the influence of Baha’is because they report stories about human rights violations in Iran;

“The diverse content of these attacks demonstrates tremendous effort and commitment of resources by the Islamic Republic,” says the report.

“Many attacks are built on gross distortions of Baha’i history; some attempt a strategy of guilt by association through lumping Baha’is together with completely unrelated groups – such as ‘Satanists’ or the Shah’s secret police; still others deploy a tactic of connecting Baha’is with ‘opponents’ of the regime, which allows the Government to discredit both the Baha’is and its opponents in a single transaction. The campaign makes extensive use of the World Wide Web, and often uses graphic images that portray Baha’is as fiendish ghouls or agents of Israel.”

Bani Dugal said the demonization of Iran’s Baha’i community is a matter that deserves the attention of governments, international legal institutions, and fair-minded people everywhere.

“The campaign not only clearly violates international human rights law,” she said, “it also utterly contradicts Iran’s long-standing claim at the UN and elsewhere that it is working to support measures to outlaw or condemn hate speech directed against religions or religious followers.”

“The parallels between the campaign of anti-Baha’i propaganda in Iran today and other state-sponsored, anti-religious campaigns of the past are undeniable. History shows us that such campaigns are among the foremost predictors of actual violence against religious minorities – or, in the worst case, precursors of genocide.

“It is time for Iran to be told that such egregious violations of international law and norms cannot be tolerated,” said Ms. Dugal.

Special Section – Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Bahá’ís

A Special Section of the Baha’i International Community United Nations Office website presents the full report, Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Bahá’ís in English and Persian, as well as an online only 197-page appendix that summarizes each of the 400-plus documents or articles that were collected during the period of this survey, from 17 December 2009 to 16 May 2011.

—

Source: http://news.bahai.org/story/861

The Baha’i International Community has reacted with shock and dismay at the news.

“We can confirm that the seven have been told by prison authorities that the ruling of the appeal court has been rescinded,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“But nothing has been seen in writing by the prisoners or their attorneys, so we cannot know precisely on what grounds the reduced jail terms have now been set aside.

“It seems, however, that there was a challenge by the Prosecutor General who can appeal any court judgment he believes contradicts Shariah law,” said Ms. Dugal.

Only last month, the international community was told that the 10-year prison terms were confirmed when the Iranian Embassy in Brussels presented a document to a European Parliament briefing, in which it is clearly stated that the court initially issued 20 year sentences for “espionage, acting against National Security and forming an illegal cult.” However, the document then went on to say that the verdict was later reviewed and “decreased to 10 years’ imprisonment.”

Notwithstanding repeated requests, no one has ever received an official copy of the original verdict or the ruling on appeal, said Ms. Dugal.

“This has all the appearance of a ploy, calculated to enable the authorities to manipulate the outcome to suit their own ends. Any fair minded observer can see the duplicity, crass cynicism and vile motives of the Iranian authorities in their prosecution of this case.

“From the initial, illegal, 30-month detention of the seven – through the gross irregularities of their trial – to the judiciary’s refusal to issue any official verdict to the defendants or their lawyers, the actions of the authorities have demonstrated at every turn that the decision to impose harsh sentences was predetermined,” said Ms. Dugal.

“Loyal, law-abiding citizens”

The seven, who were all members of a national-level ad hoc group that attended to the needs of Iran’s Baha’i community, were incarcerated in Gohardasht prison – about 50 kilometers west of Tehran – in August last year, following a brief trial after which they were each sentenced to 20 years in jail.

One month later, the appeal court revoked three charges that accused the seven of engaging in acts of espionage, collaboration with the State of Israel, and the provision of classified documents to foreign nationals with the intention of undermining state security.

“At the same time, the judiciary – determined to find the Baha’is guilty of something – said that their service to the Baha’i community was basically illegal and fixed their sentences at 10 years,” said Ms. Dugal.

The refusal of the authorities to provide prison officials with the necessary documentation regarding the case has also precluded the prisoners from securing temporary leave on compassionate grounds or to obtain much needed medical attention and care, she added.

“The judiciary sanctimoniously claims to be serving the cause of justice while persistently trampling upon the rights of loyal, law-abiding citizens,” she said.

International condemnation

The imprisonment of the Baha’i leaders has provoked a worldwide chorus of condemnation from governments – including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The European Union and the President of the European Parliament have also joined the protest, along with numerous human rights organizations and other groups, religious leaders, and countless individuals.

“It seems that the wide-ranging international pressure did impel the Iranian judiciary to reduce the original prison sentences,” said Ms. Dugal. “Now, however, they must have concluded that they can simply return to the original plan.

“But voices raised during this last month alone should tell them otherwise,” she noted.

Last week, the UN Human Rights Council voted to appoint a special investigator to monitor Iran’s compliance with international human rights standards.

The resolution followed the release of a report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, expressing concern about reports of the persecution of minorities in Iran, which specifically highlighted the case of its Baha’i community and the imprisonment of the seven Baha’i leaders.

In his message of 20 March 2011 for the traditional Persian New Year, U.S. President Barack Obama highlighted human rights abuses in Iran saying, “The world has watched these unjust actions with alarm…We have seen…the Bahai community and Sufi Muslims punished for their faith…”

Members of all political parties in the Netherlands parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs addressed a letter on 17 March to the Iranian Parliament, expressing “deep concern about reports on violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief” in Iran and calling for the immediate release of the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders. Three days earlier, in India, more than 90 prominent citizens renewed their call in an open letter for the release of the seven.

“The persecution of Baha’is has been particularly pronounced,” said an article in the Wall Street Journal on 15 March, penned by Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi who shared a cell in Evin Prison with the two women Baha’i leaders. “After Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, many Baha’is were executed and several disappeared. Some have seen their cemeteries desecrated or had their homes burned to the ground.”

Bani Dugal reiterated the fact that the treatment of the seven is taking place against a backdrop of state-sanctioned incitement to hatred against Baha’is.

“Arson attacks on their places of business, attempts to force them out of their homes, along with a litany of other violations of their rights, have become all too familiar and continue to grow daily. Some 79 Bahais are today in prison in Iran.”

“The Iranian government must know that its actions towards the Baha’is – and all others who suffer oppression at its hands – have only served to sully its reputation further.

“We will not cease in our call to governments, organizations and fair-minded people everywhere, to take whatever steps they can to register the strongest possible protest against Iran’s actions,” said Ms. Dugal.

Special Report – “The Trial of the Seven Baha’i Leaders”

The Baha’i World News Service has published a Special Report which includes articles and background information about the seven Iranian Baha’i leaders – their lives, their imprisonment, trial and sentencing – and the allegations made against them. It also offers further resources about the persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community.

The International Reaction page of the Baha’i World News service is regularly updated with responses from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and prominent individuals. The Media Reports page presents a digest of media coverage from around the world.

—
Source: http://news.bahai.org/story/814

Michael J. Totten

December 9, 2010 – by Michael J. Totten

Iran’s most repressed religious minority is also its largest. Members of the community are routinely imprisoned, frequently executed, banned from universities, and ruthlessly repressed economically. Tens of thousands have been murdered by one regime after another. The current government—the Khomeinist “Islamic Republic”—goes farther than any other by vowing to crush these people wherever they live and erase them from the face of the earth.

There are only six or seven million in the entire world, and their spiritual home is in Israel. I am not, however, referring here to the Jews, but to the Bahais.

The Bahai gardens in Haifa, Israel

[In the picture used on the right, the Shrine of the Bab is coverd for maintenance work. please see this picture for the Baha'i Gardens with the golden dome of the Shrine of the Bab]

Their world headquarters is in Israel, and they came during Ottoman times from Persian lands. The nation-state of one of the world’s oldest religions now hosts the holiest site of one of the newest, and the nation where the Bahai Faith was born vows to destroy the nation where the Bahai Faith had to migrate.

The strikingly different treatments of these people by Iran and by Israel infuses the looming showdown between the Middle East’s two most powerful countries with even more moral clarity than it already had.

The U.S. State Department rates Iran one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world, particularly for its repression against the Bahais. “Bahai religious groups reported arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention,” says its most recent annual report, “expulsions from universities, and confiscation of property. During the reporting period government-controlled broadcast and print media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, particularly the Bahais.” Even the United National General Assembly recently condemned the Iranian government on similar grounds.

Around 300,000 Bahais are still in Iran, ten times the number of Christians and Jews there. Two million or so live in India. There are many more in South America and Africa. Only 150,000 or so live in the U.S., but the faith has been growing in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Most worship in their houses, but there are community centers in places where enough Bahais are concentrated. There’s a house of worship on each continent. North America’s is in Chicago. South America’s is in Chile. Asia’s is in Delhi.

The Bahai house of worship in Chicago, Illinois

But the world spiritual center for the Bahai faith–its “Jerusalem,” so to speak–is in Israel on the slope of Mount Carmel in Haifa. Rob Weinberg gave me a tour. He’s a Bahai from the UK and has been serving there since late fall in 2009. And he told me the story of how his faith began in Persia in the middle of the 19th century.

“It was a time of great expectation,” he said, “when the Muslims were awaiting the coming of a promised great teacher. Also, in the Christian world, in the West, there were expectations about the return of Christ. There was a great deal of ferment.”

Rob Weinberg

In 1844 a young man named Mirza Ali Muhammad, a merchant in the city of the Iranian city of Shiraz, said he was the herald of a new revelation from God. He announced the coming of the new great teacher.

“He called himself the Báb,” Weinberg said, “which means ‘the gate’ in Arabic, and his teachings began to spread throughout Persia. Thousands upon thousands of people responded and were very attracted to the teaching. He said a new day had come, a day when religions would become united, when people would recognize their oneness, when the equality of men and women would be established.”

One of his first followers was a poet who removed her veil in public, something unheard of in that day, though it was perfectly normal before the Khomeinists took over in 1979. “There were reports of a man cutting his throat,” Weinberg said, “because he was so shocked at the audacity of this act.”

This new religion alarmed the authorities as it spread. Shia Muslims were abandoning Islam and becoming Bábis, followers of the Báb. Pogroms followed, and 20,000 were executed, many in horrible ways. They were executed not because they were criminals, nor for political reasons. They were executed because they were heretics. The Báb himself was publicly executed in 1850 in Tabriz.

Tabriz is an Azeri city. In Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan—the now-sovereign Azeri land detached long ago from the Persian Empire by Czarist Russia—is a statue of a liberated woman discarding her veil. It was erected almost a century ago, and the liberation has held.

The statue of the liberated woman, Baku, Azerbaijan

I spent a week in Azerbaijan and saw only three or four veiled women during my entire stay. Hardly any man there finds unveiled women shocking or scandalous, certainly not enough to cut his own throat over it. There are no more veiled women in Azerbaijan than there are in Seattle. The government, though, isn’t run by totalitarian mullahs. The local Bahais, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians are left alone.

“The main message from the Báb,” Weinberg said, “was that there was about to be a great teacher. Among the Báb’s most prominent followers was a nobleman whose name was Mirza Hussein Ali. His was the son of a courtier in the Shah’s court, and in 1852 he was imprisoned for being a follower of the Báb. He was in an underground dungeon in Tehran, the place where the worst criminals were thrown and left to die. And there he had an extraordinary revelation where he realized he was the one that the Báb had foretold. And for the next forty years, the Báb’s teachings came through him. He was channeling all these ideas about world order, global civilization, equality, the unity of mankind, how to organize human affairs–things to do with personal spirituality, but also justice, social organization, and so on.”

He took the name Bahaullah, which means glory of God. And because of his high rank in the Shah’s court, he was banished rather than executed. He lived in Baghdad for ten years before moving on to Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria. And in 1868 he was banished to Acre, the now-Israeli city of Akko, and imprisoned there.

“]

[Baha'u'llah was exiled by the Persian and Ottoman empires

Haifa, Israel, with Akko (Acre) in the background

“They kept him in the citadel for two and a half years,” Weinberg said, “but as people started to realize that the Bahai were good, honest, peace-loving people, restrictions on them were lifted and they were free to travel in the area. Bahaullah passed away in 1892.”

Acre, or Akko, is just north of Haifa. The cities are within each others’ sight lines. Bahaullah could see Haifa and Mount Carmel across the bay from the prison, and he traveled there after he was released.

Ottoman-era prison in Akko (Acre), Israel

He wanted Mount Carmel to become the spiritual seat and administrative center for the Bahai Faith, and he wanted the Báb’s remains secretly smuggled out of Persia and buried in a shrine on the side of the mountain. That’s exactly what happened sixty years later, and Mount Carmel has been the center of the Bahai world ever since.

The first building constructed there was for the archives. “It’s a copy of the Parthenon in Athens,” Weinberg said. “The idea was to find an architectural style that would be beautiful for thousands of years. They assumed that since the Parthenon has been considered beautiful for thousands of years, it would likely be considered beautiful for thousands more.”

The Bahai archive building

.

The Bahai archive building

The Bahai Faith is a modern religion with neither clergy nor rituals. It is administered by officials elected every five years. They believe in non-violence and the brotherhood of mankind. You’d have to be a real bastard to be seriously offended by them, and some kind of a fascist to think they deserve to be persecuted.

“The fundamental teaching of the Bahai Faith is that there is one god and that he is completely unknowable,” Weinberg said. “We are limited in our understanding, so throughout our history humanity has been guided by it’s a succession of great teachers. When we look through history we have, every thousand years or so, extraordinary figures like Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, Krishna, and so on. They bring a message, they bring teachings, and their teachings become universal and give rise to new civilizations. So there is essentially one religion. There aren’t all these religions in competition with each other for everyone’s soul. There is one religion, and it has been progressively revealed to humanity throughout history through these great teachers.”

If you want to convert, it isn’t difficult.

“If you want to become a Bahai,” he said, “all you’re doing in a sense is making an internal recognition that there is one god, there is one human race, there is really only one religion that has been taught through the ages by different teachers, and that Bahaullah is the latest of these great teachers. There’s no ritual or baptism or anything like that.”

“]

[Interior of the Office of Public Information, Baha'i World Centre, Haifa

“Ever since the time of the Báb,” he said, “the Bahais in Iran have been persecuted.”

“Even under the secular shahs?” I said.

“Less so then, but, yes,” he said. “At different points in history the shahs wanted to appease the mullahs, so from time to time he would allow them to do stuff to the Bahais.”

“‘Stuff’ meaning what, exactly?” I said.

“Their cemeteries were demolished. Gangs were let loose on Bahais in the streets. People were killed. Bahais have always been slandered. Bahai school kids have been told they’re unclean.’

“It sounds like Bahais have been treated worse than Jews in Iran,” I said.

“In Iran,” he said, “I would say so, yes.”

“Is that because Christians and Jews are considered People of the Book by Muslims while Bahais are not?”

“Bahais are also People of the Book,” he said, “because we consider the Bahai revelation following the same line as the Abrahamic faiths.”

“But Bahais aren’t named by Islam as People of the Book,” I said.

“Because we came after the Koran,” he said. “We came after Mohammad. The traditional interpretation says he was the last prophet, that there can’t be any after him. So when the Báb and Bahaullah come along and say they’re being divinely inspired and guided it becomes a big theological issue. Since 1979 it has been the official government policy to blacklist and persecute the Bahais. Over 200 Bahais were executed under Khomeini in the early years after the revolution.”

Iran’s Khomeinists treat everyone badly, even liberal and moderate Shia clerics who refuse to toe the regime line, but only Jews and Bahais are singled out for destruction outside Iran.

“In 1991 the Supreme Leader Khamenei,” Weinberg said, “who is still the supreme leader, commissioned a memorandum which deals with the Bahai question. It says Bahais must be blocked from progressing in careers and social life. Employees who reveal that they’re Bahais should be dismissed from their jobs. School children should be dismissed from schools. Bahais should be banned from universities. They should be kept at the lowest levels of subsistence and earning. And more ominously, it also says Bahais should be rooted out around the world, that their culture should be destroyed. It’s a formal government policy to eliminate every trace of the Bahai Faith and the Bahai community everywhere in the world.”

“Not just in Iran,” I said.

“Not just in Iran,” he said. “This document says the Bahai community should be destroyed around the world. They’ve been trying to enact this policy, and in the early days of the revolution they were executing Bahais and imprisoning them. Bahais were disappearing, never to be seen again. There was a huge outcry. The Bahai Faith has spread all over the world. There are Bahais in every country, and various governments around the world will stand up and speak out for the human rights of the Bahais. There was such an outcry that Iran realized it couldn’t get away with it. So instead they’ve been applying a slow strangulation which is still going on today. Cemeteries are still being destroyed. People are still losing their jobs. Students still are not allowed to study. Bahais are picked up, arrested, and imprisoned, and only released on bail if they put up the deeds to their properties.”

Israel’s relationship with the Bahais could not be more different. Few Bahais live there, but that’s not because of pogroms, state-sponsored repression, or bigoted attitudes from Israelis or Arabs. The Bahais just decided–before the modern Israeli state even existed–not to promote themselves there.

Haifa's German Colony from the Bahai gardens. The shrine of the Báb (lower right) was covered when I was there.

“This goes back to the time of Bahaullah himself,” Weinberg said. “He said the faith shouldn’t be taught in this area.”

“Why is that?” I said.

“I think there’s wisdom in it,” he said and laughed.

“It was a political decision?” I said.

“I can’t speak for Bahaullah,” he said and laughed again.

“You have a lot better sense of what he was thinking than I do,” I said.

Here's a public domain photograph of the Báb's shrine

“He was probably aware of the sensitivity of this land,” he said, “the political factions, religious tensions, and all the rest of it. I think that out of respect and out of safety it was considered the wisest thing to just have our holy places and world center here without making any attempt to teach or promote the faith here. If people want to know about it they can come here. They can see the gardens. They can go on the Internet. They can read books. They can go to the library. But there is no Bahai community as such in Israel. We do, however, have a relationship with the city of Haifa, the municipality. All our buildings and developments are done properly and legally with the city.”

The Bahai center

“Is there any tension?” I said.

“Not that I’m aware of,” he said and laughed a third time. The idea of tension between Bahais and Israelis is a little ridiculous, but I had to ask just to be sure.

“Was there any tension with the British or Ottoman authorities after this place was established?” I said.

“The Bahais were initially prisoners, of course, under the Ottoman authorities,” he said. “Bahaullah’s son was still a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire until the Young Turks revolution set political and religious prisoners free in 1908. Between 1914 and 1918 their lives were in danger because the Ottoman pasha in Palestine threatened to have Bahaullah’s son executed, but the Ottomans were driven out by the British. After the First World War during the British Mandate, Bahaullah’s son knew there was going to be a famine, so he encouraged Bahai landowners around the Galilee to store grain. He fed a lot of people in this area during the First World War, and when the British came in they gave him a knighthood for his service to the people of Palestine. So the Bahai’s relationship with the British was fine. And the Bahai’s relationship with the State of Israel is fine, as well.”

We walked the grounds of the gardens. It’s an extraordinary place, and I said so.

The Bahai gardens from below

“It is very beautiful,” he said. “People ask questions about what’s symbolic, but it’s really just about beauty. It’s about creating a beautiful environment so that the pilgrims who come can prepare themselves for the shrine. The number nine is repeated in some of the designs. In the original Arabic numerology, Baha equals nine, and it means glory.”

The Bahai gardens

I was tempted to ask him what he thought his Israeli hosts should do about the Iranian regime that threatens them both, but it did not seem appropriate.

“We’re not political,” he said. “We don’t get involved with political discussions or disputes. Bahais everywhere in the world obey the laws of the land in which they live, so naturally we’ve never had any problems with the British or the Israelis.”

The Iranian government’s stated goal of destroying the Bahai Faith everywhere in the world is, of course, impossible, but an apocalyptic war with Israel would, conveniently from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s point of view, destroy the holiest sites of both the Jews and the Bahais. I don’t expect anything of the sort will ever actually happen, but it would be a mistake, I believe, to assume that it can’t. A repressive regime with eliminationist ambitions toward even one, let alone two, religious communities would be ferociously dangerous indeed if it possessed the weapons of genocide.

“All of these things are intertwined,” said Shastri Purushotma, the human rights representative for the U.S. Bahai community. “You can’t separate out human rights and the nuclear issue, because the way a country treats his own people is an indication of how they will treat their neighbors.”

******

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Source: http://pajamasmedia.com/michaeltotten/2010/12/09/iran’s-other-war/

(Wall Street Journal – 17 Dec 2010) Seven former leaders of the Bahai community in Iran are in their first year of a decade of unjust incarceration. They were arrested in mid-2008, held without charge for months and denied proper access to lawyers or regular visitation from their families. When finally charged with outrageously unsubstantiated crimes—especially the capital crime of “spreading corruption on earth”—the seven Bahais categorically denied each offense. They were convicted this past August and their lawyer, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, said that the charges were without “cause or evidence.”

Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Vahid Tizfahm—these … [continue here]

—
source: The Wall Street Journal

The Iran Human Rights Review is a new Foreign Policy Centre project that seeks to be an important resource for policymakers and activists that combines information and analysis with recommendations for action.

This inaugural edition of the review focuses on the critical issue of religion in relation to human rights in Iran. It contains short essays from some of the world’s leading experts on Iranian human rights: Dr Shirin Ebadi, Dr Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, Dr Shireen Hunter, Dr Abdol-Karim Lahidji, Hamid Hamidi, Dr Hossein Ladjevardi, Dr Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, and John Weston MP. Cherie Blair has kindly provided a preface.

—

Source: http://fpc.org.uk/publications/ihrrreligion

download the pdf from FPC, or here: Iran Human Rights Review: Religion

]]> http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/7006/feed 3 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6816 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6816#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:16:50 +0000 editor http://www.iranpresswatch.org/?p=6816 September 10th, 2010 / 16 Shahrivar, 1389

.

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HRANA News – Following provocative speeches against Baha’is which recently took place in some mosques in Semnan, a new wave of attacks and pressure against the Baha’is of Semnan has started.

As reported by HRANA reporters, on the morning of Friday the twelfth of Shahrivar [6 Sept] a number of hooligans attacked the home of a Baha’i named Yahya Hedayati, then ran away after breaking the windows in his home.

That same evening another group smashed the storefront sign of Akbar Pourhoseini’s store and broke the windows of Peyman Shadman’s car
(two other Baha’is) .

As usual, security officers arrived and, after writing a report, stated that they could not take any steps to identify the perpetrators and arrest them.

—
Translation by Iran Press Watch
Source: http://www.iranpresswatch.org/fa/post/1192 and http://hra-news.org/1389-01-27-05-24-07/3840-1.html

The Editor
Iran Press Watch]

by Hamed Saburi (15 Sep 2010)

The Cult scenario is a new trick by anti-Baha’i theoreticians of the Islamic Republic in Iran, intended to justify the past 32 years of atrocities against Baha’is and to create a legal rationale for future atrocities. For example, in passing 20-year sentences against the seven [former] leaders of the Baha’i community [editor's note: now commuted to 10 years], instead of acknowledging that they were prisoners of faith, they were branded by baseless accusations of “cult” activities against national security, spying and opposition to Islam, in order to justify the regime’s own atrocity.

Sayyed Kazim Moosavi, the expert activist against(!) the Baha’i faith, further revealed this scenario in an interview entitled “Baha’ism was involved in the Ashura 88 events” (1), by repeating his earlier falsehoods and calumnies (2) which had been repeatedly refuted by the Baha’is (3). The goal of this scenario is the justification and legality of the repression of Iranian Baha’is. This is the same scenario presented by Mohammad Javad Larijani in Geneva against the Baha’is (4) [at a February meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, to which Larijani is the Iranian delegate]. Using the space of the Western dialogue about the difference between the concept of official religious “sects” versus unofficial “cults” (5), some of which are despised and considered dangerous and illegal, he declared the past 32 years of repression and deprivation in the Islamic Republic against Baha’is to be a consequence of the “cult-like” activities of the Baha’is, rather than accepting that they were belief-based. (6)

Now, Mr Moosavi, who like Mr Larijani is among the theoreticians attempting to justify repression against Baha’is, says:

“Today, in the political language of the West the word ’sect’ is used for a branch of a religion and ‘cult’ is used for a following. In the Oxford dictionary, the word ‘cult’ is used for those who are enamoured of and are loyal to an individual. This word entered Western literature in the ’60s. At any rate, today we are facing a cult phenomenon in our country… I must say that up until the time of Shoghi [Effendi, the Head of the Baha'i Faith from 1921 to 1957], Bahaism was a ’sect’, but we saw that during Shoghi’s time it gradually changed into a cult. During this time, Baha’ism entered a period of serious administrative circles and set up a destructive organization.” (7)

But this trick and the new approach of the likes of Larijani and Moosavi has not only been unable to justify their systematic oppression of Baha’is over the past 32 years, it has also confronted them with contradictions and admissions that reveal the falsity of their earlier lies and claims about Baha’is, as well as showing the hollowness of their new scenario.

Among the contradictions, one is that for the past 167 years the likes of Mr Moosavi have portrayed the Baha’i faith as a misguided sect of Islam. Yet now, in a complete about-face, in order to prove their new scenario of showing the Baha’i faith as a ‘cult’, they have been forced to say that “the Baha’i sect is also one of the non-Islamic sects because they essentially have no belief in Islam” (8); whereas actually the Baha’i faith is neither a sect nor a cult but a religion. Baha’is, as testified in their holy books, are the only religious group apart from Muslims themselves who accept Islam as a religion (9). The interesting point is that he says “…during Shoghi’s time, we saw Baha’ism gradually changing into a cult”. Even if we were to accept Mr Moosavi’s fantasies, according to the definitions of the political language of the West that he uses, some cults become sects if they prevail, not the reverse. (10)

In another place, based on his assertion about the Baha’i community being a cult because it has an administration, Mr Moosavi makes a strange admission which is of interest to Iranian and international human rights organizations:

“Although there are several centers for dealing with and confronting these phenomena, only the security element has succeeded fairly well. However, confrontation by the security element alone is no longer effective, and unfortunately we have acted very weakly in the cultural arena.” Moosavi called the legal vacuum one of the main reasons for not seriously confronting deviant sects and added: “…apart from clarifying and disseminating information, the only effective approach in dealing with the Baha’i sect is to cut off the connection between the Baha’i administration and the Baha’i community.” (11)

Another admission related to the “legal vacuum”, that reveals the “cult scenario” of his kind and of Mr Larijani as a basis on which to legalize the repression and deprivation heaped upon Iranian Baha’is is his statement in the 29 April 1989 closed session of “Reviewing the issues on Irfan and semi-religious elements”, conducted by the Strategic Research Center of the regime’s Circle for Determining Propriety:

“Bearing in mind that in neighbouring countries like Pakistan and India there are laws against sects/cults which we lack it in our country, and so are deprived of their benefit, we see that in serious cases a judge needs a fatwa [religious ruling] from [religious] authorities.” (12)

His admission means that it has now been 32 years during which Shi’a sources and judges in the Islamic Republic have illegally been heaping all kinds of repression on Baha’is while lacking “anti-sect laws”! Now, in the new scenario, imitating the West and countries like India and Pakistan, they intend to portray the Baha’i religion as a “cult” and “legalize” repression and cruelty against Baha’is. For 32 years they have repressed illegally(!); now that the world has become aware of their cruelty toward Baha’is – as well as the noble people of Iran – they want to legalize the cruelty! Having failed in their plan to eradicate Baha’is by castigating them as “the misguided sect”, they now try to eradicate Baha’is from history by portraying them as a cult.

Please note the following:

“This expert on Baha’ism, highlighting the Baha’i sect’s administration, identifies an effective way of confronting it — a break between the Baha’i community and its administration. At this juncture it is the administration of the Baha’is that threatens the regime; if the administration is removed from the community, the sect will be history.” (13)

The question that needs to be asked is if, as he says, “Baha’ism” (14) developed its administration during Shoghi Effendi’s time, and changed into a “cult”, and the reason for not “becoming history” was the existence of the administration, then why during the preceding seventy-seven years (1844 to 1921) was it that the same community — without an administration and in spite of 20,000 of them being killed, with many thousands in jail and under torture, and facing large amounts of anti-Baha’i propaganda, along with other pressures and deprivations — not only survived, but actually bloomed, thundered on proudly and took on the task of building the administration which still survives in spite of all the repression, but has NOT been removed from the pages of history?!

For Mr Moosavi’s better understanding, we should also add that during the 29 months during which you have cruelly thrown in jail the innocent seven leaders of the Baha’i community and dozens of others, who attended to the affairs of the Iranian Baha’i community in the absence of the usual Baha’i administration of the community, did you not notice the clamor with which leading Iranians arose to defend their Baha’i fellow citizens?! For instance, did you not see the “We are Ashamed” statement?! (15) Are you still not aware that the primary and total reason for the continuation of the lively Baha’i community is not its administration but the penetrative power of the force of the divine Words of His Holiness Bah’u'llah? It is this divine force which flows in the New World Order and in the Baha’i administrative system, which in the fullness of time, and with the cooperation of all world citizens, will establish global peace and the unity of humanity on earth.

Alas! that the likes of Mr Moosavi, motivated by their hate, have forgotten that, contrary to other religious communities, the Baha’i spiritual administrative system did not come from the minds of ulama [Islamic clerics] or outstanding personalities, but emanated from the pen of Baha’u'llah Himself, and are contained in His Writings. They are not the kind of administrative structures that are imagined in Mr Moosavi’s mind (16). This administration and the Baha’i community have for decades been officially recognized — by the United Nations, by Western countries, and even by the India and Pakistan which Mr Moosavi identifies as having anti-cult laws — not only as a religious community, but also praised for its useful and constructive force for morality, cultural and social activities in areas such as human rights, education, equality of rights beween women and men, world peace, unity of the human race and socio-economic development at the national and international level. (17)

The likes of Mr Larijani and Mr. Moosavi, faced with world opinion, are attempting to justify and operationalize the eradication and gradual repression of Iranian Baha’is with the same trickery that the tribe of Qoraish utilized with the king of Ethiopia against Ja’far and the Muslim refugees (18) [editor's note: this is a reference to opponents of Islam in its early days]. In front of the United Nations and world human rights tribunals, they refer to anti-cult laws in the West, in India and Pakistan, yet they deliberately ignore the views, acknowledgements, praise and official recognition [of the Baha'i religion] of these same sources and governments, that see Baha’is as members of a “religion” and not a “cult”.

For instance, the Supreme Court of Germany has decreed: “The nature of the Baha’i cause as a religion, and the Baha’i community as a religious community, is evident and without a doubt — whether in its daily life or in its cultural tradition, in the public perception or in the science of comparative religions.” (19)  With respect to India, it is enough to know that Mahatma Ghandi, in contrast to the political and religious leaders of the Islamic Republic, stated that “Belief in Baha’ism is soothing to the world of humanity” (20); that a group of thinkers in India has recently issued a statement opposing the 20 year sentence of the seven Baha’i leaders who are incarcerated in Raja’i prison (21). For years the government of India has officially recognized the Baha’i religion; Baha’is have innumerable socio-economic projects aimed at the betterment of the material and spiritual conditions of the nation, and that the government of India has praised and thanked them, instead of throwing them in jail for three years, as Iran did to three youth in Shiraz who had undertaken similar projects (22). As for Pakistan, it is enough to know that Professor Mohammad Lahouri, a Muslim, says “All the lines and evolution of diverse thought in Iran is once again seen as a complete compilation in a great religious movement of the new Iran, i.e. the Babi and Baha’i religion.” (23)   It is not necessary to remind the likes of Larijani and Moosavi, who are anti-Baha’i “experts”, of the Baha’i faith’s official recognition by the United Nations as a religious and non-political body since 1949, and of the many declarations of that agency in defense of Baha’is in Iran. (24)

Having said the above, no doubt Mr Larijani and Mr Moosavi and their like — who have seen the uselessness of the results of their plans, scenarios, projects and anti-Baha’i activities of the past during both the Qajar and Pahlavi periods — must know that the “Cult scenario” will also have no lasting effects in eradicating and repressing the Baha’is, and that the Baha’i community of Iran will remain steadfast and erect as it has for the past 167 years (25); that it will serve both beloved Iran and noble lranians who have often been the supporters of their Baha’i fellow citizens, for:

“They have no aim save their Beloved, they seek no perfection save attaining His presence. They soar on the wings of reliance [on God] and fly, remaining confident on Him. The bloodstained sword to them is preferable to heavenly silk, and the piercing dart more pleasant than mother’s milk… Adversity doth not overtake them, and this voyage is not traversed by feet, nor is this Face to be covered as by a veil.” (26) [from the Writings of Baha'u'llah]

Endnotes and References:

(1) http://www.sanayenews.com/content/view/24085/78
(2) http://bahaism-news.blogfa.com/post-41.aspx
http://www.tabnak.ir/fa/pages/?cid=113356
http://www.adyannews.com/114/1848-news.html
http://www.javanonline.ir/Nsite/FullStory/?Id=307004
http://www.adyan.net/114/2063-news.html
http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8702300482
http://www.hawzah.net/Hawzah/Magazines/MagArt.aspx?MagazineNumberID=7151…
http://www.iqna.ir/fa/news_detail.php?ProdID=583438
http://www.javanonline.ir/Nsite/FullStory/?Id=306544
http://www.saharnews.ir/view-12411.html
(3) See answers to his untrue comments: notes 1 and 2 of NoghteNazar site below, also see Negah and Veleveledarshahr in the links below:

http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/114/46/
http://www.ketabhayebahai5.info/kankashi-dar-bahai-setizi
http://www.bahai-projects95.info/taxonomy/t/16
http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/138/37/
http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/138/37/
http://noghtenazar5.info/node/610
http://noghtenazar5.info/node/854
http://noghtenazar5.info/node/746
http://noghtenazar5.info/node/499
http://noghtenazar5.info/node/683

Mr. Musavi’s strange behavour includes his changes to the text of the messages from the Universal House of Justice . To compare his changes with the originals see the links below and his lies will be evident.
http://www.universal-house-of-justice-messages5.info/
http://noghtenazar5.info/taxonomy/term/39
(4) “Bahais have to answer to the courts in Iran because they engaged in cult-type activities contrary to the the most basic human rights of the people,” Mr Larijani told the UN Human Rights Council.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10494631
http://www.human-rights-iran.org/view.php?objnr=1262
(5) for example see:  http://www.adyannews.com/156/1356-news.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cults_and_governments
http://www.skepticfiles.org/xhate/csdm.htm

(6) Regarding The Baha’i Faith being a religion and not a cult or sect, see Mr. Behrooz Sabet’s article in response to Mr. Larijani’s claim: http://www.negah5.info/quotes/quotes/2010-02-21-19-10-59 and also see: http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/109/

(7) http://www.sanayenews.com/content/view/24085/78
(8) http://www.sanayenews.com/content/view/24085/78
(9) http://aeenebahai5.info/node/505
(10) http://www.adyannews.com/156/1356-news.html

(11) http://www.rahva.ir/104/11118-89.html
(12) http://gozashtehalayande.blogfa.com/post-77.aspx
(13) http://gozashtehalayande.blogfa.com/post-77.aspx

The separating the Baha’i Community from its Administration has been in the plan of the anti-Bahai theoreticians of the Islamic Republic of Iran for many years and continues to-date. See the published book, “Dawning of Love” (Tolu-i Ishq): http://www.ketabhayebahai5.info/tolooi-eshgh

Also, the goal of extermination of the Baha’i Community has been around for the last 167 years, see: http://noghtenazar5.info/node/588

(14) The name Baha’u'llah means The Glory of God. The religion established by Baha’u'llah is referred to as the Baha’i Faith, or the Baha’i Cause, or the Baha’i Religion. The use of the term “Baha’ism” is incorrect. http://bahaullah.persian-bahai.org/notes/

(15) http://www.we-are-ashamed.com/pages/languages/fars6cc.php and  http://news.persian-bahai0.info/ and
http://noghtenazar5.info/node/479

(16) For references on “the Bahai Administration” see the following links:
http://noghtenazar5.info/node/443
http://www.aeenebahai95.info/taxonomy/t/169
http://www.ketabhayebahai5.info/negahi-tazeh
http://www.bahai-projects95.info/taxonomy/t/369
http://www.bahai-projects95.info/taxonomy/t/455
http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/156/37/
http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/157/37/
http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/158/37/

And also, see the book “The Baha’i World Order” here:  http://reference.persian-bahai0.info/fa/t/alpha.html

(17) http://www.aeenebahai95.info/node/2073
http://www.aeenebahai95.info/taxonomy/t/17
http://www.ketabhayebahai5.info/negahi-tazeh
http://www.bahai-projects95.info/taxonomy/t/369

(18) http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/138/37/

(19) Statement named “The Century of Light” p. 105 [Editor: this page refers to the Persian publication]. Germany is one of the countries that has laws on cults. http://www.adyannews.com/156/1356-news.html

(20) http://aeenebahai95.info/node/262
(21) http://news.bahai.org/sites/news.bahai.org/files/documentlibrary/iu_indiaOpenLetter.pdf
(22) http://www.bahai.org/persian/persecution/newsreleases/06-02-08
(23) http://aeenebahai95.info/node/60
(24) http://aeenebahai95.info/node/264
http://www.agahee.org/taxonomy/t/39
http://news.persian-bahai.org/yaran-special-report-un-statements

(25) With regards, please read the message of the Universal House of Justice to the Baha’is in Iran regarding Iran and Iranians, dated 26 November 2009: http://www.velvelehdarshahr5.info/content/view/114/46/ [Editor: the message is in Persian].
(26) Baha’u'llah, in one of his Works named Shikar-Shikar Shavand [Editor: the translation of this passage in this article is by Iran Press Watch and provisional for use of this article only].

—
Translation By Iran Press Watch
Source: http://www.iranpresswatch.org/fa/post/1219 and http://noghtenazar5.info/node/948 and http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2010/09/110319.php

The Funk family, Sharaf (left) and Mahnaz, along with their children Jinan, 14, Shahd, 11, and Bahhaj, 8, are concerned about a relative who is in an Iranian prison. She is pictured at the far right in the photo that Bahhaj is holding.

Denial of an education, of jobs, of passports for emigration.

That scenario of religious repression in present-day Iran should sound familiar to the Christian-based West.

And the recent trial and 20-year sentences meted out to seven Baha’is in Iran is just the latest outrage against humanity in a country where the first declaration of human rights was made more than a thousand years ago.

Mahnaz Funk, a member of the Baha’i community in Chilliwack, says she knows “very well how unjust the Iranian government is to Baha’is” as her own aunt was jailed for no reason, he father denied the right to work, and her friends denied the right to go to school because of their faith.

Now she consoles her cousin Hedieh Abbasi, whose aunt [Mrs. Mahvash Sabet – arrested in Mashhad on 5 March 2008] is imprisoned with six other elderly Baha’i.

“She was arrested just because of being Baha’i,” Abbasi said in a telephone interview Thursday from Seattle.

“I’m not sure how we can help her – we’re all the way on the other side of the world,” she said.

“But I think if we talk loud about it, make them more aware that what they do is not how they should deal with human beings,” she added, “maybe it will make them more aware the whole world is not happy with what they do and they might stop.”

Chilliwack, British Columbia

She urged Chilliwack residents to email their local MP – or the Iranian government directly – and make their views known.

They would not be alone.

In June, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called on Iran to “cease persecuting” the Baha’i community. [also see Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6338]

“Iran’s continued, blatant disregard for the rights of its citizens must end,” he said.

The governments of the United States, Australia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have also condemned the harsh 20-year sentences.

But such treatment is “nothing new” to Baha’is living in Iran, Funk said, as the government has tried to “systematically” rid the country of the troublesome faith.

“There is no priest or mullah or head of the (Baha’i) faith who interprets the writings of Baha’u’llah on our behalf,” explains Sharaf, Funk’s California-born husband.

Each Baha’i is expected to search out the Truth for themselves, and to accept all religions, an idea which did not sit well with the revolutionary plans of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 to create an Islamic nation.

Thousands of Baha’i were put to death by the revolution’s leaders “to protect their own power,” Mahnaz said.

“We want the people of the world to know who are Baha’i, to conduct an independent investigation of the Truth for themselves,” she said.

“At least they will know who we are.”

A public prayer meeting is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Chilliwack library.

rfreeman@theprogress.com
—
Source: http://www.bclocalnews.com/fraser_valley/theprogress/news/102627179.html