Iran Update

Last updated: 28 August 2008

Note: This report, updated regularly, is provided as a service to news media and others desiring details of the situation of the Baha'is in Iran. All information has been verified by the Baha'i International Community.

Words in italics have been altered or added since the previous update.

Fears grow for jailed Baha’is; Nobel prize winner maligned when she announced she was prepared to defend them.

The seven members of a Baha’i coordinating committee remain in Evin Prison in Tehran. Fears are growing for their safety, especially since a government prosecutor was quoted in the press as saying the individuals had “confessed” to operating an “illegal” organization with ties to Israel and other countries – charges that are denied by the Baha’i International Community in the strongest possible terms. (See BWNS article.)

Further, the Baha’i International Community believes that Iranian authorities are trying to prevent the seven Baha’is from obtaining legal counsel by maligning Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, a prominent human-rights attorney and Nobel laureate who announced that she and her colleagues at the Defenders of Human Rights Centre in Iran were prepared to help defend the Baha’is. (See official Baha’i statement dated 12 August 2008.)

Accusations began circulating in the government-backed news media that Mrs. Ebadi or her daughter had converted to the Baha’i Faith, despite the fact that Mrs. Ebadi has stated clearly that she and her daughter are Muslims. The Baha’i International Community confirms that neither of them are members of any Baha’i group.

The seven members of the Baha’i coordinating committee that are imprisoned are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, Mr. Vahid Tizfahm, and Mrs. Mahvash Sabet. The first six have been detained since May, and Mrs. Sabet since March.

None have been allowed access to an attorney, and – despite what has been reported in the media – their families have not received notice of any formal charges against any of them.

On 19 August, Mr. Tavakkoli’s wife was detained for four days after she visited the prosecutor’s office and pressed for clarification of her husband’s situation.

More Baha’is arrested; at least 25 currently in jail.

Three Baha’is in Tehran were arrested and jailed on 19 August for no known reason. All three, Mr. Touraj Amini, Mr. Iraj Amini, and Mr. Payman Amoui, were first detained in March but had been released until this re-arrest.

Their detention brings to at least 25 the number of Baha’is known to be held by authorities in Iran.

Attacks, threats, detentions, expulsions – persecution against Baha’is continues:

Reports coming out of Iran indicate that the broad-based, government-backed campaign to stamp out the Baha’i community continues unabated.

Some examples of recent attacks and other harassment:

• Two Baha’is in Mashhad were killed and one seriously injured when they were run over by a car, apparently on purpose. All three had earlier received threatening telephone calls.

• After authorities first suggested that the fire that destroyed the home of the Shaaker family in Kerman had been caused by an electrical problem, the fire department of that city has now confirmed that arson was the cause. The fire was reported last month by the Baha’i World News Service as one of a string of apparent arson attacks against Baha’is. (See BWNS article.)

• Another arson attempt occurred in Rafsanjan in Kerman province when a burning tire was wedged in the door of a home, blocking the exit for the Baha’i family living there. Neighbors ran to their rescue, thus averting injury or serious damage.

• The official Islamic Republic News Agency published a special report on 13 August claiming that Bahá’ís were planning to plant a bomb at the Tehran International Exhibition a few months ago. Seyyed Kazem Mousavi, a historian on modern Iran, claimed to have uncovered and put a stop to a criminal plot that may have resulted in a great human catastrophe. The Baha’i International Community categorically denies that Baha’is planned any such attack.

• More cemetery desecrations have been reported, and, in addition, three Baha’is who participated in a burial in a Baha’i cemetery that has been in use for 15 years were arrested and convicted of “taking part in the illegal occupation and use of government property.” The three were fined and ordered to “cease their occupation of the said property” (the cemetery) and to “return it to its prior condition” (that is, exhume the interred Baha’i).

• Baha’i students continue to be barred from university, and new evidence indicates that they are being identified as Baha’is early in the application process and are being blocked even from going online to check their test scores.

• E-mails from an anonymous sender containing unfounded allegations of immoral behavior at Bahá’í gatherings have circulated within Iran. The e-mails contained obscene images along with Bahá’í holy symbols.

• A Baha’i in Rafsanjan, in Kerman province, received a threatening phone call when hosting non-Baha’i guests in his home. The caller demanded details about the visitors and when he did not get a response from the Baha’i, the caller issued threats and cited specific previous attacks against other Baha’is.

• Two Iranian Baha’is living in Europe have received a letter with detailed threats and ending with the words “Death to Baha’is.”

Anti-Baha’i articles continue in national daily newspaper:

Kayhan, the government-backed national daily newspaper, in late July launched a news series of anti-Baha’i articles. They consist of excerpts from a newly published book that purports to be the memoirs of a man who recounts immoral and unethical behavior of family members and others that he says are Baha’is.

At the beginning of this year, the same newspaper published a separate series of 40 articles critical of the Baha’is, and Iranian television has also broadcast programs attempting to create ill will against the Baha’i Faith and the Baha’is.

U.S. House of Representatives passes resolution:

On 30 July, the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington passed a resolution condemning the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran. The vote was 408-3.

This followed the statement a month earlier by six Nobel Peace Prize laureates – organized as the Nobel Women’s Initiative, with an office in Ottawa, Canada – calling for the unconditional release of the seven Iranian Baha’is who are members of the coordinating committee. Founders of the Nobel Women’s Initiative are Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Betty Williams, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Jody Williams, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, and Wangari Muta Maathai.

Since the arrests of the prominent Baha’is in mid-May, many governments and organizations around the world have expressed concern, including the European Union, the White House, the Iranian Researchers’ Association, the International Commission of Jurists, the Federation for Human Rights, the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Examples of the statements:

• The European Union, in its statement of 21 May, first expressed concern about the arrests, then said: “The EU reiterates its serious concern about the continuing systematic discrimination and harassment of the Iranian Baha'is on the grounds of their religion.”

• The White House, in a statement issued on 14 June by National Security Counsel spokesman Gordeon Johndroe: “The Iranian regime’s human rights record is shameful. A month ago today, the regime arrested six Baha’i leaders solely on the grounds of their religion. They should be released immediately. Iran should uphold the basic human right to practice religion and should end its persecution of the Baha’i community.”

• The International Commission of Jurists said in a press release that the six Baha’is were “arbitrarily arrested” and should be “released immediately or charged with a recognizable offense.” Despite reports that the Baha’is were supposedly arrested “for security reasons, not for their faith,” the ICJ said it considers there to be “sufficient evidence to show that they may have been arrested in relation to their peaceful activities as members of the national coordinating group of Baha’is in Iran.”

• Two prominent attorneys in India and a lawyers’ group in Bangladesh have written to the Iranian government asking that the human rights of the detainees be honored, and that at a minimum they are allowed counsel, visits from relatives, and information about the exact charges to be brought against them.

• The government of Australia addressed the following statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva: “Australia is deeply concerned by news that several Bahá'í leaders were arrested in Iran on 14 May. It is not clear if they have been charged with any specific crime, and it appears the accused have not had access to legal counsel or family members. Australia considers that the Council needs to play an active role in ensuring the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief.”

• Five Canadian academics, all natives of Iran but not members of the Baha’i Faith, have written to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling the arrest of the Baha’is the “latest affront to universally accepted human rights” that “joins a growing list of violations the Iranian government has committed against a wide range of those who wish merely to have the opportunity to contribute the the well-bing of Iran. …”

• Scottish religious leaders, including the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the cardinal who heads the Roman Catholic Church there, have called on the Iranian authorities “to fulfil their obligations under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights with regards to religious freedom and ensure the immediate and safe release of these prisoners.”

Among others who have issued statements are:

• Federation Internationale des Droits de l’Homme and Human Rights Watch
• Amnesty International
• U.S. Department of State
• Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry
• International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
• Anti-Defamation League
• Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
• U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
• Various Iranian organizations. (See the Persian-language Iran Update.)

Summary:

Harassment of Baha’is is pervasive and includes many incidents of all of the following:

• Arrests and detention, with imprisonment lasting for days, months, or years. In cases where the Baha’i is released, substantial bail is often required.
• Direct intimidation and questioning by authorities, sometimes with the use of high-intensity lights and physical mistreatment.
• Searches of homes and business, usually with Baha’i books and other items confiscated.
• School expulsions and harassment of schoolchildren.
• Prohibition on Baha’is attending universities.
• Court proceedings where Baha’is are accused of promoting propaganda against the government “for the benefit of the Bahaist sect.”
• Monitoring of the bank accounts, movement, and activities of Baha’is, including official questioning of Baha’is requiring them to give information about their lives, actions, neighbors, etc.
• Denial or confiscation of business licenses.
• Denial of work opportunities in general.
• Denial of rightful inheritances to Baha’is.
• Physical assaults, and efforts to drive Baha’is out of towns and villages.
• Desecration and destruction of Baha’i cemeteries, and harassment over burial rights.
• Dissemination, including in official news media, of misinformation about Baha’is, and incitement of hatred against Baha’is.
• Evictions from places of business, including Baha’i doctors from their offices and clinics.
• Intimidation of Muslims who associate with Baha’is.
• Attempts by authorities to get Baha’is to spy on other Baha’is.
• Threatening phone calls and letters to Baha’is.
• Denial of pension benefits.
• Denial of access to publishing or copying facilities for Baha’i literature.
• Confiscation of property.

Voices of Reason Continue to Emerge in Egypt

Posted: 27 Aug 2008 01:11 PM CDT

An article in Egypt's popular newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm, reported in its 15 August 2008 edition on a human rights training course for the youth that was recently held at the famous Library of Alexandria. Of great interest are the words of one of the speakers, Dr. Ali Eddin Hilal, who is a member of the policies committee of Egypt's ruling party. The article, in its original language, is attached here and a full English translation is posted below.

[TRANSLATION FROM ARABIC]

[Translator’s notes appear in square brackets [ ].]

Al-Masry Al-Youm [independent Egyptian daily newspaper], 15 August 2008

[Headline:]

Ali Eddin Hilal demands granting Bahá’ís full rights to practice their religion

By Huda As-Sa’ati, Alexandria

“What’s wrong with the presence of Bahá’ís in Egypt and giving them full rights to practice their religion?”… With these words, Dr. Ali Eddin Hilal, member of the policies committee of the Watani [National] Party [ruling Party in Egypt], began his address, yesterday, to the youth participating in a training course in the area of promoting the culture of human rights, organised by the Association for Building Human Rights and held at the Alexandria Library. He said, “Bahá’ís have been here in the country for the past thirty (30) years and no one paid them any attention.” He then asked, “If the one thousand (1000) Bahá’ís living in Egypt expressed their religion, in a peaceful manner and without proselytising, would this ruffle public serenity? And would this impinge on the strength of Islám?”

Hilal cited the Masonic religions that existed and were practiced in Alexandria and Cairo in the thirties. He maintained that in 1930 Ismail Adham published a book entitled Why I am an Atheist, yet no one demanded its confiscation and the author was not hanged—one of the Azhar sheikhs responded with a book entitled Why I am a Muslim. Hilal pointed out that this environment does not exist nowadays; if this book was published now it would be confiscated immediately. Hilal further asserted that a Christian becoming a Muslim, or vice versa, is not a problem—as the Islamic thinker, Mohamed Selim El-Awwa, has said: “If a Muslim converts to Christianity, to hell with him!” Likewise, building a church in a country which has a Muslim majority, and vice versa, is also not a problem, because the foundation of every society is “citizenship”.

This is yet another example of the many voices of moderation that are abundant in Egypt. It take a great degree of courage, independence and determination, however, for such prominent figures to publicly express these opinions in a charged environment that may not be as accepting of such enlightened views.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/perry-yeatman/bahai-the-ultimate-global_b_116892.html
Huffington Post * Posted August 6, 2008 |

Baha'i : The Ultimate Global Religion ?
by Perry Yeatman

For years I've pondered the area of religion.
My father's family is old Pennsylvania Quaker.
My mother is Episcopalian.
I went to Episcopal boarding school and Episcopal church.
But in college I dated many Catholics.
In my thirties, it was atheists and Jews.
When I married, it was to someone who rarely thinks about religion of any type whatsoever.

But it is still of interest to me -- and more not less than it was say 15 years ago.
Just yesterday I was at a friend's house for dinner.
She is a Conservative Jew married to a non-practicing Christian.
We talked about the differences between being spiritual and being religious.
We talked about the differences within religions -- between Catholics and Episcopalians and between Orthodox and Conservative Jews, etc.
It was really interesting.
She is so clear and grounded in her faith.
I am so conflicted.
My views and values are clear.
But, I find the practice of organized religion -- virtually any of them -- confusing.
Each of the major faiths in the world has something I value and respect and am moved by.
But each also seems to have something I find disturbing or jarring with who I am and what I stand for.
Perhaps that's why I have most recently gravitated more toward the Quaker faith as it feels to me to involve a basic and fundamental spiritual sense, with limited ritual and ceremony but a lot of substance.

That was until a few weeks ago when I learned about a whole new faith -- one I knew virtually nothing about until then.

Having lived literally all over the world, it was pretty surprising to me to find what I think is perhaps the ultimate in global religion right here, down the street, in Wilmette Illinois.
At the Baha'i Temple.
I am certainly no expert -- having only spent a few hours studying it thus far -- but its core principles are why I say it may be the ultimate global religion.
According to the brochure I picked up at the temple, the core principles of the Baha'i faith are as follows:

* Elimination of all forms of prejudice
* Equality between men and women
* Harmony of science and religion
* World peace upheld by a world government
* Spiritual solutions to economic problems
* Universal education

I know there are many in the world that would not choose to live with these principles but for me I thought, wow!
This is the closest I've come to finding a group where -- on the surface at least -- there was nothing for me to disagree with.
I'm not fully sure I understand what "spiritual solutions for economic problems" means, but I kinda like the sound of it if it means we'll have to use more than a calculator to solve the economic inequalities in the world between the "haves" and "have nots".
So, I for one found this religion an intriguing discovery.
(For those who've known about it forever, pardon my ignorance.
I am not nor have ever been anything like a religious expert or scholar and so it's not surprising I guess that my religious education was clearly incomplete.)

Anyway, I am not trying to convert anyone here.
I'm not even sure what I myself will actually do with this learning.
But in times like these where religion is at the heart of so many problems in the world, I think it is worth reflecting on how and whether it is possible for us all to move to a more global approach, one based on faith and spirituality more than dogma.
And whether we could, without losing our own identities, opt for a broader, more inclusive approach to the questions we face as global citizens in order to perhaps find some lasting solutions to long term disputes.
Naïve perhaps but perhaps that's just what we need.
To look beyond the experts and the entrenched and move toward a more pragmatic and inclusive solution.
Perhaps less is more when it comes to a global approach to these types of questions and perhaps the Baha'i Faith has something to teach us all...
Just a thought... from someone still searching for her own answer...

Perry Yeatman is an SVP at Kraft Foods and co-author of the award-winning book, Get Ahead by Going Abroad.

UK Baha’i carried the Olympic torch in China

Posted: 19 Aug 2008 12:21 PM CDT

Wilma O’Sullivan, a UK Bahá’í who lives in China, had the honour of carrying the Olympic torch when it passed through the Chinese province of Hebel, where she currently lives.

This story has just been published by The Wirral Globe, the local paper of the part of England Wilma comes from.

Wilma O’Sullivan, 52, was asked to carry the torch as she was one of a number of foreign workers to be acknowledged nationally for her contribution to education in China.

She was given the National Friendship award in 2006 and was invited by the government for a week’s holiday along with 49 other recipients that year.

Following that she appeared on television for a month filming her work for the city and provincial TV.

Wilma, a member of the Baha i Faith which believes in the unity of mankind, left Wirral for China in 1995 to become a teacher of English and has now been living there for thirteen years.

“It was a great and fantastic honour to carry the torch,” said Wilma, “and best of all I get to keep it.

“All bearers pass the flame and keep the torch,” said Wilma.

Well done Wilma!

Incidentally, my mother’s family comes from the Wirral.

Barnabas quotidianus

Shirin Ebadi complains about IRNA’s Baha’i claim

Posted: 18 Aug 2008 08:25 AM CDT

Is Shirin Ebadi’s daughter a member of the Bahá’í Faith? This was the claim made by IRNA, the Iranian news agency, recently, But the claim is completely untrue.

According to Africasia.com (which has published a story from AFP), Iranian Nobel peace laureate has lodged a complaint with the court about IRNA’s false claim:

Ebadi accused the state news agency of “spreading lies, insults and defamation.”

She said the allegation against her daughter was connected to her decision to defend seven Bahais arrested on charges of having contact with Iran’s arch-foe Israel.

An outspoken critic of the human rights situation in Iran, Ebadi said in April that she had received death threats pinned to her office door — one of which was signed “The Association of anti-Bahais”.

“Looking at the news which has come out, we know who feeds ideas to those who threaten to kill me,” she said on Monday.

Who’s defaming whom?

I find it outrageous that calling someone a Bahá’í can be used as an insult in Iran. In fact, worse than an insult, it’s a threat to the person’s safety, since the authorities in Iran are intensifying their persecutory activities against the Bahá’ís there.

Compare this with the success of moves by Islamic countries to get the UN Human Rights Council to pass a resolution condemning defamation of religion in March 2007 (read the Reuters story here), and I have to wonder at the rank hypocrisy of those who voted for the UNHRC resolution and then use the name of a religious minority persecuted by an Islamic state as a smear against an excellent human rights defender.

Dr Ebadi has made it very clear that she and her daughter are Shi’i Muslims. And for this reason - amongst others - I admire her courage in defending the seven detained members of the Iranian Bahá’í leadership group even more. (Read my post about how she spoke up for the Bahá’ís in Iran when answering questions I put to her at Chatham House.)

Not blame, but praise

We’ll know things have changed in Iran when the word “Bahá’í” is no longer a term of abuse but becomes a word of praise.

=================================================

Shirin Ebadi speaks up for Baha’is

by Barney

Shirin Ebadi is an impressive woman. Nobel Peace Prize winner, practising lawyer in Iran’s courts, and tireless defender of democracy and human rights for the people of Iran, she puts her own safety and security at huge risk and has received not a few death threats in her time.

On Friday I had the great pleasure of attending the launch at Chatham House of the English translation of Dr Ebadi’s latest book (on refugee rights in Iran).

Middle East instability

Most of her speech was about the causes and consequences of instability in the Middle East. Most of the government’s in the region are undemocratic and have bad human rights records. Because of this, the people of these countries feel distant from their governments and generally disenchanted. America, she said, supports these governments and so the younger people in the region see Iran as heroic for its anti-American stance.

Iran - not a good model of a state

In fact, they see Iran as a model Islamic state. But Iran, said Dr Ebadi, is no such thing. It, too, is undemocratic. It denies rights to many groups in its population, including women. Iran has a high proportion of highly educated women. 65 per cent of university professors are women. And yet women’s rights are very limited. Women activists are accused of threatening the national security of Iran.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are severely curtailed.

The Iranian government is heavily criticized for human rights violations against its own people as well as by other governments and international human rights NGOs.

To stop young Arabs’ infatuation with Iran, said Dr Ebadi, America must stop supporting undemocratic regimes. And the reality of Iran must be revealed.

Shirin Ebadi also spoke about Iraq and about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians - the latter, in Dr Ebadi’s view, is key to resolving Middle East instability.

Barnabas’ question

I drew on Dr Ebadi’s comment that women activists are accused of threatening Iran’s security to point out that members of religious minorities such as the Bahá’ís are also subject to the same accusation and to ask her to comment on freedom of religion or belief in Iran.

Ebadi’s answer – Bahá’ís denied access to education

Shirin Ebadi, who was clearly well briefed about the situation of the Bahá’ís, spoke about the way in which young Bahá’ís in Iran are denied access to education and condemned this as a human rights abuse. This was one of the most supportive speeches I have heard from the lips of an Iranian who isn’t a Bahá’í.

A year or two ago, the then Iranian Ambassador spoke at Chatham House. He was a smooth speaker and was trying to persuade the audience that Iran was a good place to do business. I asked him about the human rights of the Bahá’ís in his country and he turned white and stuttered and did his best to avoid answering the question. The word “Bahá’í” is something some Iranians can hardly bring themselves to utter - and the Ambassador was clearly in this category.

But not Shirin Ebadi!

I was happy to be able to shake hands with her after her speech and to thank her for all her work.

[Original photo © Shahram Sharif]

The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights".
http://www.mideastyouth.com/2007/07/01/the-muslim-network-for-bahai-rights/

Author: Mr. D. L. Drong
Comment:
How can I say thank you? From around and amidst our persecutors arise noble
souls who recognize injustice and are willing to put themselves at risk to
stand up for the Baha'is. How can I say thank you?

How can I say thank you that brethren who are Moslem give voice to
compassion and understanding toward Baha'is in the face of the determination
of many who would crush us down? How can I say thank you?

How can I say thank you when disciples of Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him)
inspired by the Koran speak up in the principles of justice that holy book
expounds directly in the face of injustice incarnate? How can I say thank
you?

How can I say thank you for a candle lit by Moslem hands placed beside a
long burning candle of Baha'i to push against the darkness and illumine our
age? How can I say thank you?

How can I say thank you that regardless of our independent paths unto God,
you rise to stand beside your Baha'i brethren in spirit, God's most holy
spirit, that draws each of us ever closer to God Almighty and to each other.
How can I thank you?

I only can submit my petition unto God, for such thanks are beyond me, and
only He can convey gratitude so profoundly, so perfectly. Please, God,
convey to these noble faithful the thanks I am too impotent to say.

Ll.

See all comments on this post here:
http://www.mideastyouth.com/2007/07/01/the-muslim-network-for-bahai-rights/#

==========================================================

.

We Are All Iranian Baha’is!
By Ali Keshtgar

[On Friday, 15 August 2008, the online journal Gooya News published the following analysis by
the Iranian journalist, Ali Keshtgar. The original Persian text may be accessed at:
http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2008/08/075377.php.1 Ahang Rabbani, translator.]

The violent scheme of Baha’i-killing, of which the Hojjatieh Society was the
standard-bearer and promulgator before the [1979] revolution – a scheme whose
promoters came to power with the emergence of the Islamic Republic – is at its
foundation a felonious concept intended to bring about religious cleansing
through the murder of all Baha’is.
During the past 30 years under the Islamic Republic, our Baha’i
countrymen have persistently been the subject of dual discrimination – threat
and repression. Their only offense has been that they believe in the Baha’i
teachings. In their own native land, they are barred from many occupations, nor
are they allowed to openly worship in accordance with their religious percepts –
and indeed the government has treated these Iranian brothers and sisters as
criminals.
From the very beginning this perilous idea existed among some leaders of
the Islamic Republic: that the Baha’is were mahduru’d-dam – meaning, that their
blood could be shed with impunity. Indeed, the same leaders considered that the
killing of Baha’is was a necessity and would win Divine Rewards. Until the
present time this felonious idea, which in its essence encompasses the most
abject criminal intentions and has such figures as Ali Khamenei and his cohorts
as its supporters, has resulted in the savage murder of many of our Baha’i
countrymen.
Periodically during the past thirty years, in such towns as Shiraz, Kerman,
Mashhad, Tehran, Karaj and other locations throughout the country, a number
of our Baha’i fellow-citizens have been murdered by the most brutal means. In
none of these heinous events were the murderers – who were always agents and
authorities of the security agencies of the Islamic Republic – prosecuted, and no
1 Also available at: http://www.paivand.ca/pdf/852_PAYVAND_August_15_2008WEB.pdf
governmental agency heeded the complaints of the families of those thus
exterminated.
The criminal scheme of Baha’i-killing, of which the Hojjatieh Society was
the standard-bearer and promulgator before the [1979] revolution – a scheme
whose promoters came to power with the emergence of the Islamic Republic –
is at its foundation a felonious concept intended to bring about religious
cleansing through the murder of all Baha’is. If there had been no barriers to this
planned genocide, such as international laws or global reaction, then no doubt
by now the leaders of the Islamic Republic would have fully implemented their
atrocious scheme.
At different periods during the past 30 years, we have witnessed the
mobilization of certain pressure groups associated with the [Islamic] regime for
the implementation of this plan. We must, however, remind the leaders of the
Islamic Republic that their plan is indeed the same fascist scheme which has led
to racial and religious genocides, for which some instigators have been tried in
international courts on the charge of “crimes against humanity.”
The policy of the leaders of the Islamic Republic towards suppression of
religious minorities in general, and of Baha’is in particular, has always been to
advance their intentions [for genocide] through agents and officers of the
Security and Basij agencies, so that they can claim that their crimes had been
committed by people [not by the government] and had come about as a result of
public religious biases.
However, during these three decades:
• Never has anyone been brought up on charges of murder, persecution
or threat against the Baha’is.
• Never have the leaders of the Islamic Republic condemned these
crimes.
• Unceasingly, the policy of discrimination and suppression of Baha’is
has been followed.
• Great threats have been instantly leveled against every lawyer and
human rights organization which has spoken in defense of the civil
rights of Baha’is.
Because of the intense sensitivity of this regime towards the Baha’is in
Iran, when it comes to defending the civil rights of Baha’is, human rights
activists and organizations have either remained silent or have not engaged the
issue to any notable measure. In truth, the intensity of the government’s
discrimination against the Baha’is has been to such an extent that human rights
activists have also come to accept it, and have routinely conducted themselves in
accordance with the same discrimination.
In the course of the recent waves of suppression of the Baha’is, Mrs.
Shirin Ebadi [Iran’s only Nobel Prize laureate] has agreed to defend the
imprisoned Baha’is. After she announced her readiness to provide legal defense
to these Baha’is, the official news organs of the Islamic Republic, including the
newspaper that speaks for the Islamic Republic, claimed that this undertaking by
Mrs. Ebadi is due to the fact that her daughter had accepted the Baha’i religion.
It should be clear that the claim of official news organs of the Islamic Republic
is intended to instill fear in Mrs. Ebadi and to discourage her and her colleagues
from defending the imprisoned Baha’is.
Unfortunately, the reaction of Mrs. Ebadi to this allegation was as if she
considered being a Baha’i or becoming a Baha’i a shameful act and equated this
accusation against her daughter as a “curse.” In a radio interview with the
Persian segment of Radio France Internationale on the last Thursday, 17 Murdad [7
August 2008], three times Mrs. Ebadi referred to the allegations of the Islamic
Republic against her family as a “curse.” In fact, she could have dismissed these
baseless accusations – which no one believes anyway – without disrespect
towards the Baha’is.
Considerable evidence proves that we have not come to view religious
freedom and equity to such a degree that we would respect the religious beliefs
of others to the same extent as our own beliefs. Until it remains so,
governments can continue with their policy of discrimination and suppression
of religious minorities.
In view of the government’s antagonistic policy toward Baha’is, the
protection of the civil rights of Baha’is and opposition to official or extralegal
discrimination against this segment of Iranian society has gained a particular
significance in the arena of human rights. The most effective way to break
religious discrimination against the Baha’is would be for all human rights
activists and organizations to adopt the defense of complete religious rights and
equality, and opposition to all forms of religious bias, as their foremost
principle. Moreover, this message should not be limited to ad hoc measures of
human rights defenders.
When the regime attacks the Baha’is, we must all write and say, “We are
all Iranian Baha’is!”
جمعه 25 مرداد 1387
"ما همه بهائی ايرانی هستيم"!
علی کشتگر
فکر جنايتکارانه "بهائی کشی" که انجمن حجتيه از دوره پيش از انقلاب حامل و
مبلغ آن بود و با روی کار آمدن جمهوری اسلامی حاملان آن به قدرت رسيدند،
تفکری است مجرمانه که خواستار پاکسازی مذهبی، يعنی کشتار بهائيان است
هم ميهنان بهائی ما در ٣٠ سال گذشته همواره در جمهوری اسلامی با تبعيض،
تهديد و سرکوب دوگانه روبه رو بوده اند. جرم آنها اين بوده و هست که به آئين
بهائيت باور دارند. آنها در سرزمين خود نه فقط از انتخاب بسياری از مشاغل محروم
اند، نه فقط از برگزاری آزادانه مراسم عبادی خود محروم اند، بلکه حکومت در همه
سالهای گذشته دربسا موارد با اين خواهران و برادران ايرانی ما هم چون مجرمان
رفتار کرده است.
در ميان برخی از سران جمهوری اسلامی از آغاز اين فکر خطرناک وجود داشته و
دارد که بهائيان "مهدورالدم" هستند.قتل آنان واجب و مستوجب پاداش الهی
است. اين فکر مجرمانه که در بطن آن نطفه بدترين جنايات بسته شده و کسانی
هم چون علی خامنه ای و ايادی او حاملان آن هستند تا به امروز قربانيان زيادی از
ميان هم ميهنان بهائی ما گرفته است. در اين سی ساله گذشته در برش های
زمانی مختلف در شهرهای شيراز، کرمان، مشهد، تهران، کرج و برخی از شهرهای
ديگر کشور تعدادی از هم ميهنان بهائی ما در کمال شقاوت به قتل رسيده اند. در
هيچ يک از اين جنايات قاتلان که از عوامل و ماموران دستگاههای امنيتی و نظامی
جمهوری اسلامی هستند مورد تعقيب قرار نگرفته اند و هيچ مرجع حکومتی به
شکايات بستگان قربانيان رسيدگی نکرده است.
فکر جنايتکارانه "بهائی کشی" که انجمن حجتيه از دوره پيش از انقلاب حامل و
مبلغ آن بود و با روی کار آمدن جمهوری اسلامی حاملان آن به قدرت رسيدند،
تفکری است مجرمانه که خواستار پاکسازی مذهبی، يعنی کشتار همه بهائيان
است. اگر موانعی هم چون قوانين بين المللی و واکنش های جهانی در کار نبود،
چه بسا تا به امروز سران جمهوری اسلامی اين اعتقاد جنايتکارانه را بطور کامل
عملی کرده بودند. در اين سی سال گذشته در مقاطع مختلفی شاهد حرکت
برخی از گروههای فشار وابسته به رژيم برای عملی کردن اين تفکر بوده ايم . همه
ما بايد به سران جمهوری اسلامی يادآور شويم که اين عقيده در زمره همان تفکر
فاشيستی پاکسازی قومی و مذهبی خطرناکی است که برخی از مجريان آن به
اتهام جنايت عليه بشريت در سالهای گذشته در دادگاههای بين المللی محاکمه
شده اند.
سياست سران جمهوری اسلامی در سرکوب اقليت های دينی بويژه بهائيان
همواره اين بوده است که از طريق عوامل و ماموران خود در دستگاههای امنيتی و
انتظامی و بسيج مقاصد خود را به پيش برند و مدعی شوند که اين جنايات توسط
مردم و تحت تاثير تعصبات مذهبی آنها صورت گرفته است.
در اين سه دهه اما:
- هرگز کسی به دليل ارتکاب قتل و آزار و تهديد بهائيان مورد تعقيب قرار نگرفته
است.
- هرگز سران جمهوری اسلامي اين جنايات را محکوم نکرده اند!
- سياست تبعيض و سرکوب عليه بهائيان مدام دنبال شده است.
- وکلا و انجمن های مدافع حقوق بشر به محض تلاش برای دفاع از حقوق
شهروندی بهائيان تهديد شده اند.
فعالان و نهادهای مدنی مدافع حقوق بشر در ايران وقتی نوبت به دفاع از حقوق
شهروندی بهائيان می رسد، بخاطر حساسيت فوق العاده رژيم نسبت به بهائيان
سکوت می کنند و يا آن چنان که بايد خود را درگير نم یکنند. در واقع شدت تبعيض
دولتی نسبت به بهائيان به حدی است که فعالان حقوق بشر نيز به نوعی اين
تبعيض را می پذيرند و به آن عمل می کنند.
در جريان موج اخير سرکوب بهائيان، خانم شيرين عبادی دفاع از بهائيان زندانی را
قبول کرد. رسانه های رسمی جمهوری اسلامی از جمله خبرگزاری جمهوری
اسلامی پس از اعلام آمادگی خانم عبادی در دفاع از بهائيان زندانی مدعی شدند
که اين اقدام خانم عبادی بخاطر آن است که دختر ايشان به آئين بهائيت گرويده
است. روشن است که ادعای رسانه های رسمی جمهوری اسلامی برای مرعوب
کردن خانم عبادی و منصرف کردن وی و همکارانش از تصميم در دفاع از بهائيان
زندانی بود. متاسفانه واکنش خانم عبادی به اين خبر چنان بود که گوئی ايشان
بهائی بودن و يا بهائی شدن را ننگ تلقی می کند و اين نسبت را به دختر خود با
"فحش" برابر می داند.
خانم عبادی در گفتگوی راديوئی با بخش فارسی راديو بين المللی فرانسه که روز
پنج شنبه گذشته ١٧ مرداد پخش شد سه بار ادعای خبرگزاری جمهوری اسلامی
را "فحش" به خانواده خود تلقی کرد. در حالی که ايشان می توانست بدون واکنش
اهانت آميز به بهائيت اين گونه ادعاهای بی اساس که کسی هم آن را باور نمی
کند تکذيب نمايد.
شواهد زيادی نشان می دهند که ما هنوز به آزادی و برابری اديان در آن حد باور
نداريم که دين و عقيده ديگران را به اندازه اعتقادات خود محق احترام بدانيم. و تا
زمانی که چنين است حکومت ها می توانند سياستهای تبعيض آميز و سرکوب
اقليت های دينی را دنبال کنند. با توجه به سياست حکومت نسبت به بهائيان دفاع
از حقوق شهروندی بهائيان و مخالفت با تبعيض های رسمی و غيررسمی عليه اين
گروه از ايرانيان اهميت ويژه ای در حوزه دفاع از حقوق بشر پيدا کرده
است.موثرترين راه شکستن تبعيض عليه بهائيان آن است که دفاع از حق برابری
کامل اديان و مخالفت با تبعيض مذهبی در سرلوحه کار همه فعالان حقوق بشر و
نهادهای مدنی مدافع حقوق شهروندی قرار گيرد. و صرفا به اقدامات مقطعی
وکلای مدافع حقوق بشر محدود نشود. وقتی بهائيان مورد هجوم رژيم قرار می
گيرند همه بايد بگوئيم و بنويسيم که ما "همه بهائی ايرانی هستيم."

Persecution of Baha'is in Iran "Crime of the Century"

Nobel Peace Laureate Will Defend Baha'is of Iran

Posted: 07 Aug 2008 10:31 PM CDT

Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian (Muslim) Nobel peace laureate announced that she will defend the seven detained Baha'i leaders who have just been wrongly accused of "setting up an illegal organization in Iran that took orders from Israel and others to undermine the Islamic system."

In an article published in Agence France Presse (AFP), Ms. Ebadi announced:

"In court I will defend the Bahais. Two colleagues of mine and I have accepted their case, although they were not able to see their families."

In retaliation, harsh accusations were made by Iranian state media against her daughter. The following news release in AFP reports on her plans and and her response to these accusations:

Iran's Ebadi denies state media report on daughter
16 hours ago

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi has denied a state media report that her daughter had converted from Islam to the outlawed Bahai faith and suggested it was prompted by her legal defence work.

Ebadi told the reformist Kargozaran newspaper that she believed the allegation against her daughter had to do with her decision to defend seven Bahais arrested on charges of having contact with Iran's arch foe Israel.

"I am proud to say that my family and I are Shiites," she said in the comments published by the paper on Thursday.

"In court I will defend the Bahais. Two colleagues of mine and I have accepted their case, although they were not able to see their families."

On Wednesday, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported that Ebadi's daughter had converted to the Bahai religion nearly a year ago, citing what it called "an informed source."

The allegation is a serious one in Iran. Not only is the Bahai faith outlawed but any conversion away from Islam is regarded as apostasy, an offence punishable by death.

On Saturday, Tehran deputy prosecutor Hassan Hadad announced that seven Bahais had been arrested.

"They had formed a group and were having contacts with Israel and were getting orders from them to act against our interest," he charged.

In May, the European Union expressed "serious concern about the continuing systematic discrimination and harassment of the Iranian Bahais on the grounds of their religion."

The EU presidency said it was "deeply concerned" by reports that ministry of intelligence officers had arrested six members of the Bahai faith and were holding them in jail.

Iran said in January it had sentenced 54 Bahais for anti-regime propaganda, three of them to four years in jail while the rest received suspended one-year terms.

The Bahai faith originally developed in Iran in 1863 but is not recognised by the government. Its followers are regarded as infidels and have suffered persecution both before and since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Bahais consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, the last prophet sent to Earth by God. He was banished and spent 40 years in exile before dying in the Holy Land in 1892. His tomb lies just outside the Israeli port city of Haifa.

Baha'i International Community Categorically Rejects Statements By An Iranian Prosecutor

Posted: 03 Aug 2008 11:36 AM CDT

Immediately following a report in today's Iranian Resalat newspaper that "the seven detained Baha'i believers have confessed to setting up an illegal organization in Iran that took orders from Israel and others to undermine the Islamic system," the Baha'i International Community responded:

"we deny in the strongest possible terms the suggestion that Baha'is in Iran have engaged in any subversive activity," said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations. "The Baha'i community is not involved in political affairs. Their only 'crime' is the practice of their religion."

"The seriousness of the allegations makes us fear for the lives of these seven individuals," she said.

Click on the Reuters article for the story. The full text of the response of the Baha'i International Community is posted below:

Baha’is reject allegations of subversive activity in Iran
3 August 2008

NEW YORK — The Baha’i International Community categorically rejects statements by an Iranian prosecutor that seven Baha’is detained in Tehran have “confessed” to operating an “illegal” organization with ties to Israel and other countries.

“We deny in the strongest possible terms the suggestion that Baha’is in Iran have engaged in any subversive activity,” said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations. “The Baha’i community is not involved in political affairs. Their only ‘crime’ is the practice of their religion.”

“The seriousness of the allegations makes us fear for the lives of these seven individuals,” she said.

She was responding to Iranian newspaper reports of statements by Hasan Haddad, deputy prosecutor general for security at the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

Ms. Dugal said that seven Baha’is arrested earlier this year were members of a committee that helped attend to the needs of the 300,000 Baha’is in Iran.

“That is no secret – the government knew perfectly well about the existence of this committee long before its members were arrested, just as the government knows perfectly well that these people are not involved in any underhanded activity,” she said.

Ms. Dugal said the detentions are part of a well-documented, decades-long campaign to stamp out the Baha’i community in Iran, and that the latest accusations follow the same pattern as previous unfounded charges.

“Suggestions of collusion with the state of Israel are categorically false and misleading. The Iranian authorities are playing on the fact that the Baha’i world administrative center is located in northern Israel,” she said.

“The Iranian government completely ignores the well-known historical fact that the Baha’i Faith was centered in Iran until 1853 when the authorities there banished the Baha’i prophet-founder, who was forced into exile and eventually imprisoned in Acre on the Mediterranean coast under the Ottoman Turkish regime. That area happens to be in what is now Israel.”

Ms. Dugal said many Baha’is in Iran – including members of the coordinating committee before their imprisonment – are frequently detained for questioning about their activities. The Baha’is, she said, have nothing to hide and try to answer truthfully whenever they are interrogated.

Report says Iran accuses arrested Baha'is of Israel links

Sun Aug 3, 2008 8:24am BST

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Seven detained Baha'i believers have confessed to setting up an illegal organisation in Iran that took orders from Israel and others to undermine the Islamic system, an Iranian newspaper reported on Sunday.

The report in Resalat daily comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and Israel over Tehran's disputed nuclear plans. Israel accuses Iran of seeking atomic bombs and has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails. Iran denies the charge.

The Resalat report appeared to refer to a group of Baha'is, most of whom were detained in May, but it did not spell this out. Judiciary officials had no immediate comment.

Baha'is regard their faith's 19th-century founder as the latest in a line of prophets including Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammad. Iran's Shi'ite religious establishment considers the faith a heretical offshoot of Islam.

"Seven Baha'i individuals have set up an illegal organisation with connections to a number of countries including Israel and they have received orders from them to undertake measures against the Islamic system," Resalat reported.

Resalat quoted an official in charge of security affairs of Tehran's revolutionary court, named only as Mr Haddad, as saying that the seven latest arrests had confessed. Revolutionary courts handle matters of national security.

"This fact led to the arrest of seven individuals. They have all confessed to the formation of an illegal organisation, including (having ties) with Israel," Resalat added.

Iran said in May it had detained six members of the Baha'i faith on security-related charges.

The Baha'i International Community had said they were members of a committee that tends to the needs of Baha'is in Iran. It said the group of six were detained in May and a seventh member was detained in March.

The Baha'i International Community represents the faith worldwide, operating under a governing council which is based in Israel, according to its website www.bahai.org.

Baha'is say hundreds of their faith have been jailed and executed since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. The government denies it has detained or executed people for their religion.

The Baha'i faith originated in Iran 150 years ago and Baha'is say the faith has 5 million adherents worldwide, including an estimated 300,000 or more in Iran.

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.

BAHA'IS REJECT ALLEGATIONS OF SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITY IN IRAN

NEW YORK, 3 August 2008 (BWNS) -- The Baha'i International Community categorically rejects statements by an Iranian prosecutor that seven Baha'is detained in Tehran have "confessed" to operating an "illegal" organization with ties to Israel and other countries.

"We deny in the strongest possible terms the suggestion that Baha'is in Iran have engaged in any subversive activity," said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations. "The Baha'i community is not involved in political affairs. Their only 'crime' is the practice of their religion."

"The seriousness of the allegations makes us fear for the lives of these seven individuals," she said.

She was responding to Iranian newspaper reports of statements by Hasan Haddad, deputy prosecutor general for security at the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

Ms. Dugal said that seven Baha'is arrested earlier this year were members of a committee that helped attend to the needs of the 300,000 Baha'is in Iran.

"That is no secret - the government knew perfectly well about the existence of this committee long before its members were arrested, just as the government knows perfectly well that these people are not involved in any underhanded activity," Ms. Dugal said.

Ms. Dugal said the detentions are part of a well-documented, decades-long campaign to stamp out the Baha'i community in Iran, and that the latest accusations follow the same pattern as previous unfounded charges.

"Suggestions of collusion with the state of Israel are categorically false and misleading. The Iranian authorities are playing on the fact that the Baha'i world administrative center is located in northern Israel," she said.

"The Iranian government completely ignores the well-known historical fact that the Baha'i Faith was centered in Iran until 1853 when the authorities there banished the Baha'i prophet-founder, who was forced into exile and eventually imprisoned in Acre on the Mediterranean coast under the Ottoman Turkish regime. That area happens to be in what is now Israel."

Ms. Dugal said many Baha'is in Iran -- including members of the coordinating committee before their imprisonment -- are frequently detained for questioning about their activities. The Baha'is, she said, have nothing to hide and try to answer truthfully whenever they are interrogated.

From BAHAI NEWS SERVICE www.bahai.org

Baha'i Faith in Egypt

Egypt's Islamic Leader Desperately Attempts to Discredit Baha'i Religion

Posted: 02 Aug 2008 09:01 PM CDT

In yesterday's edition of Egypt's, official, Al-Akhbar newspaper, Sheikh Al-Azhar, Muhammad Sayyed El-Tantawi was quoted to repeat his recent assertion that "the recognition of the Baha'i community in Egypt would be regarded as a departure from Islam and the teachings of divine religions...and that no one can be allowed to recognize it as a religion...."

It also referred to a 1986 Fatwa by former Sheikh Al-Azhar, the late Gad El-Haq Ali Gad El-Haq, which claimed that "the Baha'i Faith has no relation to divine religions, but that it is a newly invented religion that appeared in the late 19th century under the protection and blessings of English occupation with the aim of disintegrating Muslim unity and denying Islamic principles...."

Beside the total lack of validity to any of the statements made in this article, it goes further in claiming that the Baha'is do not believe that Muhammad (PBUH) was a messenger of God. In reality, however, the Baha'i religion is the only one, other than Islam itself, known to recognize the divinity of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and that He is indeed a messenger of God.

We may never find out what is exactly behind this recent desperate escalation of rhetoric, intended to discredit the Baha'i religion, by top Egyptian Islamic leaders. But in making such false claims and repeating these uncalled-for statements, it appears that His Eminence Sheikh Tantawi was made to stir a process, intended to deceive the masses in believing that the Baha'i Faith is out there to devour Islam--a scheme that has the potential of fomenting, uninformed, Islamic public fury towards the Baha'is.

Conveniently, these statements made no mention of the fact that Egypt's highest ecclesiastical court in Cairo, in the 1920s, was the first to ever recognize the independence of the Baha'i religion. As was previously posted regarding Egypt's role in the emancipation of the Baha'i religion, one can find the court's most emphatic statement that reads: "The Baha'i Faith is a new religion, entirely independent, with beliefs, principles and laws of its own, which differ from, and are utterly in conflict with, the beliefs, principles and laws of Islam. No Baha'i, therefore, can be regarded a Muslim or vice-versa, even as no Buddhist, Brahmin, or Christian can be regarded as Muslim or vice-versa."

This early decision, in Egypt, asserted the independence of the Baha'i Faith in the heart of the Islamic world, and led to its acceptance as an independent religion, and the official recognition of its elected Institutions initially in Egypt, Palestine, Persia, and the United States of America. Currently there are several millions

A Campaign of Persecution

Against a Faith of Tolerance

By BENJAMIN BALINT
August 1, 2008; Page W11

Haifa, Israel

Earlier this summer, Unesco added the Bahai holy places here to its list of World Heritage sites. Bahai officials greeted the announcement with enthusiasm. "[It] highlights the importance of the holy places of a religion that in 150 years has gone from a small group found only in the Middle East to a worldwide community with followers in virtually every country," said Albert Lincoln, secretary-general of the Haifa-based Bahai International Community. The Bahais, dedicated to the idea that all great religions teach the same fundamental truths about an unknowable God, now number more than five million. Mr. Lincoln added that the group is "particularly grateful to the government of Israel for putting forward this nomination."

Impressive Bahai houses of worship stand in dozens of cities, from New Delhi, India, to the American headquarters in Wilmette, Ill. But each faces the steep slope of Mount Carmel on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, a 100-acre site that contains the Bahai archives and the Universal House of Justice, a neoclassical building that houses the faith's elected nine-member international governing body and a staff of more than 600. At the literal and spiritual center of the site stands the shrine of Mirza Ali Muhammad, known as the Bab ("Gate"), the forerunner who in 1844 heralded this youngest monotheistic faith, and who is buried here in a golden-domed mausoleum.

Though the Bab was executed for insurrection and heresy in 1850 in Tabriz, Iran, his followers brought his remains to the Holy Land in the 1880s, and buried them here in 1909, at the instruction of the faith's founder, Mirza Hussein Ali. The Bahá'u'lláh ("Glory of God"), as the founder is known, himself arrived in the area in 1868 as a prisoner of the Ottomans after he had been banished from Persia, charged with revolutionary activities and of conspiring to assassinate the shah.

These days, the complex attracts over half a million visitors a year, including Bahai pilgrims who come for nine-day visits, and tourists who come to stroll the immaculate curving terraced gardens that set off the shrine -- nine above it, and nine below. The terraces, designed by Fariburz Sahba, and completed in 2001, correspond to the 18 original Bahai disciples. They require some 80 gardeners and an annual cost of about $4 million to maintain.

Yet not all goes placidly for Bahaism. For all the benevolence its members enjoy from their Israeli hosts (following an instruction of Bahá'u'lláh issued shortly after his arrival here, the religion neither seeks nor accepts converts in Israel), they suffer miserable persecution in Islamic countries. Nowhere more so than in Iran, the cradle of the faith.

In May, six leaders of the Bahai community were arrested in Tehran; they remain incommunicado. The arrests are but the latest ripple in an undercurrent of decades-old hatred directed at a faith regarded as a Muslim heresy. During the Pahlavi regime (1927-79), the Bahais' schools were forced to close, and their literature was banned. The shah's army disfigured the Bahai National Center in Tehran in 1955.

After the ayatollahs' revolution of 1979, things got even worse for Bahais. Revolutionary Guardsmen destroyed the Bab's house in Shiraz and erected a mosque over the rubble. Later, they razed the mansion that had belonged to the Bahá'u'lláh's father. Iranian officials bulldozed Bahai cemeteries in Najafabad and Yazd, and desecrated the grave in Babol of Quddus, an early disciple of the Bab.

Those incidents began a systematic, government-sponsored purge. Bahais were banned from universities, subject to intimidation and arbitrary arrest, and denied the freedom to worship. All Bahai civil servants were dismissed. In 1991, the secretary of Iran's Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council, Seyyed Mohammad Golpaygani, issued a directive, personally approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declaring that "employment shall be refused to persons identifying themselves as Bahais." Some of the faithful were denounced as Zionist agents and tortured. In all, the Bahais say, more than 200 of their own have been executed in Iran since the revolution, including 10 Bahai women hanged for teaching religious classes to children.

It is difficult to imagine a purer strain of religious intolerance than the fanaticism that pervades Iran's leadership class. It is just as difficult to conjure a purer essence of tolerance than that which distinguishes the Bahais, who recognize Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad as divine messengers; who preach pluralism, equality between the sexes, universal education and the harmonization of secular and religious knowledge; and who stress the oneness of humanity, to the point of explicitly encouraging interracial marriage.

Intolerance hates tolerance most of all. At the very moment Unesco has chosen to recognize what it calls the "outstanding universal value" of the Carmel shrines and what they stand for, the mullahs are moved to persecute these believers who emerged from the very heart of Islam -- and who represent a future that fanatical Islam has so disastrously chosen to reject.

Mr. Balint, a writer living in Jerusalem, is an editorialist for the Jerusalem Post.

Barnabas quotidianus

Unbiased article about Baha’i Faith in Egyptian newspaper

Posted: 01 Aug 2008 05:38 AM CDT

Bahá’í Faith in Egypt and Iran, that the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm, had interviewed representatives of the US Bahá’í Office of External Affairs about the Bahá’í Faith and about the situation of the Bahá’ís in Egypt.

Bilo explains:

The paper reports that it interviewed Ms. Kit Bigelow and Mr. Aaron Emmel at their offices in Washington, DC. The reporter was quite impressed with the design of their offices, being walled with glass as a symbol and a representation of the transparency of that office’s work.

The article is quite extensive, objective and accurate as to the facts presented regarding the history, teachings, laws, principles and the administrative structure of the Baha’i religion.

But:

The comment section in the online version is another story! It contains a flood of comments (54 as of the writing of this post), presumably by extremist elements, attacking the Baha’i religion and the newspaper for its objective reporting. Some of these comments have been responded to by others but, in brief, these ferocious attacks betray how deep rooted is the hatred expressed by these extremists.

Here’s an English translation of the article (but not of the online comments):

Leaders of US Baha’is Demand the Government to Implement Verdict of Administrative Court; Estimate the number of Baha’is at about 2000

By Washington: Ahmed Ezziddin 31/7/2008

Controversy erupted again about Baha’is, especially following the verdict issued by administrative court last June, which ruled the Baha’i’s right not be registered as a Muslim in ID card.

Egypt was not the source of that controversy this time. The problem of this sect, which does not exceed 2000 citizens, springs frequently, when the time of litigation is tried or an appeal note is adjudicated, from abroad particularly in USA which has almost 160,000 Baha’is.

Al-Masry al-Youm met with a number of Baha’i leaders in their glass-walled office, which they consider a symbol of transparency, in the 7th floor, the 19th street, Washington.

Leaders of American Baha’is complained that the Egyptian government has not implemented to date the verdict issued by administrative court which ruled the Bahai’s right to get an ID with no reference to his faith.

Kit Bigelow, director of external affairs, National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, said that Baha’is only demand the government to allow them to have ID’s as other Egyptian citizens. She hoped that the government will execute the verdict so that they can practice their life affairs normally.

She added that no Baha’i so far was able to get an ID, unless he pretends to embrace either Islam or Christianity. She stressed that Baha’is will be grateful if the government would strikethrough the field of religion, leave it vacant, register their real faith, or write ‘others’ in that field.

Bigelow estimated the number of Baha’is in Egypt at 2000 persons, and 160,000 in USA. She indicated that, according to the Baha’i teachings, it is not allowed for Baha’is to join political parties, but rather to vote in elections.

She said that the ambition of Baha’is is to unify the international family to eliminate wars, referring to the Baha’is’ keen interest in avoiding involvement in any political or military clashes.

She hoped that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will be settled to eliminate bloodshed and sufferings of human beings. She stressed that the Baha’is are impartial in such conflict.

Baha’is denied that they split up from Islam, but that they rather believe that their ideology is a natural progress of faiths.

In this concern, Aaron Emmel, in-charge of human rights in National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, said that as law of Jesus Christ is a progress to the message of Moses, the message of Baha’i is a progression and confirmation of the Sharia of Mohammed, PBUH, as each messenger has a pledge that should be fulfilled.

He added that the pledge of Islam Prophet is to unify the world and the Baha’i will act to achieve it.

The founder of this faith, Merza Hussein Ali al-Nouri, nicknamed as Baha’ullah, lived in the 19th century in the period from 1817-1892. According to the Baha’is’ narrations, Baha’ullah received inspiration from God while he was imprisoned in Iran.

He was then exiled to Baghdad, Constantinople, and then to Adrana. Later on the Ottoman Sultan exiled him to the Levant, where he settled in Akka which is now part of the occupying Israeli state.

Merza Hussein was entombed north of Haifa, which became the seat of Baha’is and their qibla (direction) of prayers.

Baha’is believe that Baha’ullah is not the last prophet, but the next prophet will be sent after 850 years, in compliance with the statement of their alleged prophet that the world has to expect a new prophet every one thousand years, and that whoever proclaims prophethood before the end of this period is imposter and liar.

Baha’i faith chooses and modifies religions in a manner that suits their faith, and as long as other faiths’ teachings go along with its supreme objective, namely to unify the world in a peaceful society.

The Baha’is adapts themselves to the laws and prevalent customs and cultures of the community they live in with no deviation. Thus, in spite of the intervention of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is to determine the issues of marriage and divorce among Baha’is, yet it frames its decision by dedicating the authority of the American laws which do not allow the Assembly to be the final arbitrator in approving divorce among believers of this faith.

The Baha’is does not set terms for the divorced woman or the widow who has to wait without marriage after iddat (the period following the annulment of marriage by divorce or husband’s death).

There is no religious authority in Baha’I faith, but the Universal House of Justice in Haifa is considered the supreme religious reference to the Baha’is world wide. The House of Justice forbids the Baha’i to conceal his faith, except in cases of repression and persecution, adopting the principle of Shiite dissimulation.

As for the laws of inheritance in Baha’i faith, Kit Bigelow, who is the spokeswoman of Baha’is in international assemblies especially in the UN and Congress sessions, said that the Baha’i should write down his will before his death, so that he can distribute his estate in the manner he likes without any binding shares.

In the time being, the Baha’i faith does not impose on its followers to adhere to that command. The Baha’is believe that in the foreseen future there will be a civilization that sticks to these principles, but currently the Baha’is have to acclimatize themselves to the prevalent man-made laws.

Kitáb-i-Aqdas ‘Most Holy Book’ which is a central book of the Bahá’í Faith is an assortment of laws and divine guidance. Bigelow estimated the number of Baha’is at six million persons. She indicated that the Baha’is apply all issues of marriage, fasting and divorce except for inheritance laws which include certain shares for sons, daughters and relative teachers with higher categories obtaining a larger share.

There are a very limited number of Baha’i’s temples, which are characterized with architectural symbolic designs with nine sides - the number refers to the unity of God and humanity, according to their beliefs. The Baha’i temple in USA is north of Chicago, but there are other local areas of worship that assemble Baha’is from different outskirts.

The Baha’is fast one month which is the month of ‘Ala’ lasting from 2 to 21 March, the last month in the Baha’i year, which are named after God’s most beautiful names like Ala, Jalal and Rahamat.

Jihad is forbidden in Baha’i faith as well as carrying arms.

Bigelow stressed that Baha’is do not have any political aspirations, as their ideology forbids them to participate in political practices, except to give votes in elections. She stressed that Baha’is deny that Mohammed is the last seal of prophets.

Baha’is assembles in their communities at the beginning of each month to study their affairs and situations. They do not accept donations except from believers of this faith. Funds are used, according to Bigelow, for humanitarian purposes. She stressed that the Baha’i has to pay what they call ‘God’s rights’, which are calculated by 19% of annual net income, after deducting all basic fees.

Translated from the Arabic by Eltorjoman International

Bilo’s closing comment on this is a telling one:

In conducting this interview and publishing this very well-written article, Al-Masry Al-Youm is to be commended on its courageous, objective and intellectually honest show of journalism.

It is not easy for journalists and news media in Egypt to take write and publish such an unbiased piece on the subject of the Bahá’í Faith and it is to Al-Masry Al-Youm’s credit that they’ve done so. Now, perhaps we can see more such articles.

And what about some unbiased journalism in Iran about the Bahá’ís?