Anyone who reads the newspaper Kayhan knows that Baha\u2019i believers are part of a giant conspiracy against Iran that has, at one time or another, included England, Russia, Israel and the CIA.<\/p>\n\n
Baha\u2019is also embrace alcohol, pork, gambling and adultery.<\/p>\n\n
Human rights activists are studying this new wave of hate for one reason \u2014 the Islamic Republic of Iran runs Kayhan. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei picks the managing editor. So there\u2019s more to these headlines than ink and paper.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhen Iran has a new enemy, it never takes long for them to connect that enemy to us,\u201d said Kit Bigelow, external affairs director for the Baha\u2019i faith in the United States. \u201cIt used to be Russian and Britain, then it was Israel and the Zionists. Now, it\u2019s the United States. \u2026 We can see certain dots being connected right now in Iran, even though we can\u2019t say for sure that we can see cause and effect. It\u2019s foreboding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Here are some of the dots the experts are connecting.<\/p>\n\n
Iranian officials recently arrested 54 Baha\u2019is and their supporters involved in a UNICEF community service project in Shiraz, even though the young people obtained a permission letter for their project from the local Islamic Council. Last week, 51 of them were released on bail, although they have not been formally charged with a crime.<\/p>\n\n
The three young people still in jail \u201cwere not the leaders, in any sense of the word\u201d and no one knows why they have been singled out, said Bigelow. Other arrests during the past year have followed this pattern \u2014 mysterious arrests, demands for bail and no formal charges. Meanwhile, Iranian police also raided six Baha\u2019i homes and collected computers, books, notebooks and other documents.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe think this is part of a strategy to keep the Baha\u2019i community off balance, to keep us on tenterhooks,\u201d said Bigelow.<\/p>\n\n
But nothing alarmed Baha\u2019is more than the disclosure this spring of a confidential 2005 letter sent to the Iranian Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard and police. It said the \u201cSupreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, had instructed the Command headquarters to identify persons who adhere to the Baha\u2019i faith and monitor their activities,\u201d according to a statement by Asma Jahangir of Pakistan, Special Rapporteur on religious liberty for the United Nations. The letter asked the \u201crecipients to, in a highly confidential manner, collect any and all information about members of the Baha\u2019i faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman connected the dots and detected what he believes is a horrifying pattern.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThese actions \u2026 are reminiscent of the steps taken against Jews in Europe and a dangerous step toward the institution of Nuremberg-type laws,\u201d said Foxman, a Holocaust survivor. \u201cThis clear attempt to step-up persecution of the Baha\u2019i community in Iran sets a dangerous precedent\u201d and has raised the historic persecution of Iran\u2019s largest religious minority \u201cto the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
These strong words may provide little comfort, since Iranian leaders already claim the Baha\u2019is are agents for Zionism.<\/p>\n\n
Part of the problem is that the Baha\u2019i faith, which proclaims the unity of all religions, also has unique ties to Islam and Iran. The faith began with a leader known as the Bab, who claimed a direct lineage from Muhammad. He predicted the coming of a new prophet, but was executed in 1850 in Tabriz.<\/p>\n\n
Baha\u2019is believe this new prophet \u2014 the successor to Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and others \u2014 was Baha\u2019ullah, who was born in 1817 in Tehran. He was persecuted and repeatedly banished to Baghdad, Constantinople and, finally, Palestine. He died in 1892 and his tomb, and the Bab\u2019s tomb, is in a shrine near the Baha\u2019i headquarters in Haifa.<\/p>\n\n
Thus, Iran insists that Baha\u2019i believers are both apostates and heretics, Thus, the faith is a sect that does not deserve the recognition and rights that the Islamic republic grants to Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThey believe that the Baha\u2019i faith is not a valid, independent world religion in its own right,\u201d said Bigelow, who is a convert from Christianity. \u201cAnd, of course, our holy shrine is located in what has become the modern state of Israel. So when Baha\u2019is around the world, including thousands of Baha\u2019is in Iran, send money to help support this shrine and our work they are sending money to Israel. You can imagine what the current leaders of Iran think of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anyone who reads the newspaper Kayhan knows that Baha\u2019i believers are part of a giant conspiracy against Iran that has, at one time or another, included England, Russia, Israel and the CIA. Baha\u2019is also embrace alcohol, pork, gambling and adultery. Human rights activists are studying this new wave of hate for one reason \u2014 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[89,362,1537,555,729,891],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bahais","tag-first-amendment","tag-islam","tag-middle-east","tag-religious-liberty","tag-united-nations"],"yoast_head":"\n