Baha'is in Iran: Facing Death
05/13/09 13:51
Since the Baha’i Faith started in Iran on May 23, 1844 thousands of followers of this newest world religion have been tortured and put to death, mainly at the instigation of religious leaders. For the past few decades the charge has commonly been “spreading corruption on earth.” That accusation has been leveled against the seven Baha’i leaders who have been held in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran for a year, one woman for three months longer.
The names of the seven leaders: Fariba Kamalabadi Taefi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Vahid Tizfahm and Mahvash Sabet. There are numerous other Baha’is in Iranian prisons now; harassment of Iran’s peaceful, non-political religious minority has stepped up considerably under the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to levels not seen since the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s.
What are the beliefs of Baha’is which some Iranian religious authorities claim are “corruption”?
That all religions come from one God, that all humans are kin, that men and women are created equal, that education is vital, that each individual has the right to investigate truth for him/herself, that science and religion are in harmony, that Baha’is must obey their governments, that Baha’is will not engage in politics.
For believing in these things, for scrupulously following the laws of their own country, and for declining to convert to Islam, the seven Baha’i leaders and others face death, or have already been executed. Young Baha’is are forbidden to attend schools and colleges, Baha’i business owners are harassed, Baha’is are arrested and their property seized with no warning -- usually in the middle of the night. Yet it is clear to observers that the majority of Iranians do not support the extremity of their leaders in these matters. Certainly there has been a sustained outcry from governments, civil and religious groups around the world since the arrest of the seven leaders last year, but still they have faced grueling interrogations and now the likelihood of the charge that carries the death penalty.
Despite the ceaseless efforts to extinguish it in its homeland, the Baha’i Faith has spread rapidly around the earth in the past century and a half. There are communities around the Arctic Circle, in equatorial jungles, African savannahs, Chinese villages, Australian bush, industrialized cities everywhere. Every continent but Antarctica has large and vibrant Baha’i communities whose members work to develop these Baha’i principles, while living harmoniously within their cultures.
A sustained, substantial public outcry is needed here... For regular updates of the situation, please see the Baha'i World News Service.
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Calligraphy by Randall Dighton
