Baha'is as a Middle East Controversy

[Ahanu]

I know. . .

Cyrus the Great was also "the monarch of Iran, Babylon, and the four continents. . ."

History of Iran: Cyrus Charter of Human Rights

Cyrus would have no problem with Baha'is. He would of not denied their rights, because the cyrus charter says so. I thought it was interesting. I received the information from reading about Shirin Ebadi. . .

[arthra]

It's been a few months since the last information but in this recent Reuters article is a report on conditions in Egypt:



Egypt's Baha'is struggle for ID papers-group

Wed 30 Apr 2008, 11:12 GMT

By Cynthia Johnston

CAIRO, April 30 (Reuters) - Official foot-dragging means Egypt's Baha'i religious minority is still struggling to get identity papers, despite a landmark court ruling seen as a challenge to the Muslim religious establishment, a rights group says.
A January court ruling lets the unrecognised Baha'i minority obtain state documents if they omit their faith. Baha'is regard their faith's 19th-century founder as the latest in a line of prophets including Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said that three months after the court ruling, it was still unable to obtain proper identity documents for the teenage twins of Raouf Hindy, who had brought the legal case, or for any other Baha'is.
The authorities were also refusing to issue identity papers for Christians who converted to Islam and then sought to revert to Christianity, despite a legal ruling in their favour in February.
Both rulings represented a challenge to Egypt's Muslim religious establishment, which rejects conversion away from Islam and has long resisted recognising faiths other than Islam, Christianity or Judaism.
But the government had also not filed an appeal in the Baha'i case during a 60-day appeals period, raising optimism that the ruling would ultimately be put into effect, if slowly.
"We are encouraged by the positive signal that they did not appeal. But we think that all the necessary changes should not take three months," said Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative, which represented the Baha'is in court.
Interior Ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Bahgat said officials had told Baha'is who sought identity papers that they needed more time to implement changes.
The ruling should give members of the tiny Baha'i community access to documents, largely denied them since 2004, needed to marry, enrol in school, drive a car, or open a bank account.
Many Muslims regard Baha'is, who number between 500 and 2,000 in Egypt, as heretics. Rights activists say they face systematic persecution in socially conservative Egypt, the most populous Arab country.
In the Christian reconversion case, the Egyptian Initiative said that none of the 12 Egyptians whose cases were decided in February had been able to obtain new identity cards.
The ruling obliges the Interior Ministry to issue them with birth certificates and papers identifying them as Christians, but their papers would note a previous conversion to Islam -- a caveat rights activists say could lead to discrimination.
Egyptian courts had previously upheld a traditional reading of Islamic law in such cases, blocking conversion from Islam to any other faith, regardless of the convert's original religion.
While Egyptian law is largely secular and modelled on the French legal system, personal status issues such as conversion, marriage and divorce are governed by religious laws of the relevant community. (Editing by Jon Boyle)

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters

[arthra]

SIX BAHA'I LEADERS ARRESTED IN IRAN; PATTERN MATCHES DEADLY SWEEPS OF
1980S

NEW YORK, 15 May 2008 (BWNS) -- Six Baha'i leaders in Iran were
arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison yesterday in a sweep that is
ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Baha'i
leaders were summarily rounded up and killed.

The six men and women, all members of the national-level group that
helped see to the minimum needs of Baha'is in Iran, were in their homes
Wednesday morning when government intelligence agents entered and spent
up to five hours searching each home, before taking them away.

The seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in
early March in Mashhad after being summoned by the Ministry of
Intelligence office there on an ostensibly trivial matter.

"We protest in the strongest terms the arrests of our fellow Baha'is in
Iran," said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i
International Community to the United Nations. "Their only crime is their
practice of the Baha'i Faith."

"Especially disturbing is how this latest sweep recalls the wholesale
arrest or abduction of the members of two national Iranian Baha'i
governing councils in the early 1980s -- which led to the disappearance or
execution of 17 individuals," she said.

"The early morning raids on the homes of these prominent Baha'is were
well coordinated, and it is clear they represent a high-level effort to
strike again at the Baha'is and to intimidate the Iranian Baha'i
community at large," said Ms. Dugal.

Arrested yesterday were: Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin
Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr.Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr.
Vahid Tizfahm. All live in Tehran. Mrs. Kamalabadi, Mr. Khanjani, and Mr.
Tavakkoi have been previously arrested and then released after periods
ranging from five days to four months.

Arrested in Mashhad on 5 March 2008 was Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, who also
resides in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was summoned to Mashhad by the Ministry of
Intelligence, ostensibly on the grounds that she was required to answer
questions related to the burial of an individual in the Baha'i
cemetery in that city.

On 21 August 1980, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Baha'is of Iran were abducted and disappeared without a trace.
It is certain that they were killed.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran was
reconstituted soon after that but was again ravaged by the execution of eight of
its members on 27 December 1981.

A number of members of local Baha'i governing councils, known as local
Spiritual Assemblies, were also arrested and executed in the early
1980s, before an international outcry forced the government to slow its
execution of Baha'is. Since 1979, more than 200 Baha'is have been killed
or executed in Iran, although none have been executed since 1998.

In 1983, the government outlawed all formal Baha'i administrative
institutions and the Iranian Baha'i community responded by disbanding its
National Spiritual Assembly, which is an elected governing council, along
with some 400 local level elected governing councils. Baha'is
throughout Iran also suspended nearly all of their regular organizational
activity.

The informal national-level coordinating group, known as the Friends,
was established with the knowledge of the government to help cope with
the diverse needs of Iran's 300,000-member Baha'i community, which is
the country's largest religious minority.






To view the photos and additional features click here:
http://news.bahai.org

--
8-bp-080515-1-ARRESTOFFRIENDS-632-S

[arthra]

[Dawud]

God bless Iran, including Muslims, Christians, Jews, AND Baha'is
...AND Zoroastrians and any other people who live in Iran.... and the rest of the world...

[arthra]

IRANIAN BAHA'I LEADERS BEING HELD INCOMMUNICADO; GROWING CONCERN FOR
THEIR FATE

NEW YORK, 27 May 2008 (BWNS) -- Six Baha'i leaders who were arrested
nearly two weeks ago are being held incommunicado, without access to
lawyers or relatives, and the Baha'i International Community is
increasingly concerned about their fate.

"Although initial reports indicated they were taken to Evin prison, in
fact we don't know where they are, and we are extremely concerned,"
said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International
Community to the United Nations.

"What is clear is that none of their fundamental rights are being
upheld. They have had no access to family members or counsel. We don't even
know if they have been before a judge or whether they have been
formally charged.

"All we know is what a government spokesperson said last week, which is
that they were arrested for 'security reasons,' a charge that is
utterly baseless.

"We appeal to the international community, human rights groups, and
people of conscience, as well as the news media, to continue their efforts
to press the Iranian government so that the rights of these people as
detainees be upheld and that they be allowed access to counsel and
general communication with the outside -- as a minimum step," said Ms.
Dugal.

The six, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the
minimum needs of Baha'is in Iran, were arrested on 14 May 2008 in an
early morning sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s
when scores of Iranian Baha'i leaders were rounded up and killed.

A seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in
early March in Mashhad after being summoned by the Ministry of
Intelligence office there.

The whereabouts of none of the seven are known, said Ms. Dugal.

"We understood that the six were taken to Evin prison -- the seventh
remaining in Mashhad -- principally because some of the government agents
who arrested the six on the 14th had documents indicating they would
be taken to that notorious place," she said.

"However, in light of the fact that relatives have made repeated
attempts to learn more about the fate of the seven, and in all cases have
been met with evasion and conflicting stories from government officials,
we must now say that we don't know where they are -- and that our level
of concern for their fate is at the highest," Ms. Dugal said.

Arrested on 14 May were: Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin
Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr.
Vahid Tizfahm. All live in Tehran.

Arrested in Mashhad on 5 March was Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, who also resides
in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was summoned to Mashhad by the Ministry of
Intelligence, ostensibly on the grounds that she was required to answer
questions related to the burial of an individual in the Baha'i cemetery in
that city.

Last week, Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham gave a
press conference at which he acknowledged the arrest and imprisonment of
the six. News reports quoted Mr. Elham as saying on 20 May that the six
were arrested for "security issues" and not because of their religious
beliefs.

Those assertions -- the only public statement by the government about
the seven -- were immediately rebutted by Ms. Dugal.

"The group of Baha'is arrested last week, like the thousands of Baha'is
who since 1979 have been killed, imprisoned, or otherwise oppressed,
are being persecuted solely because of their religious beliefs," Ms.
Dugal said on 21 May.





To view the photos and additional features click here:
http://news.bahai.org

[Dawud]

Brighter days are coming soon. Many Iranians are standing up for Baha'is.

[arthra]

Geneva, 2 June 2008

International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has just issued an urgent press
release regarding the detained Baha'i leaders in Iran.
ICJ calls on Iranian authorities to cease harassment of Baha'i faith leaders

http://www.icj.org/news.php3?id_article=4308&lang=en

International Commission of Jurists: Immediate Press Release on Baha'is of
Iran

International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has just issued an urgent press
release regarding the detained Baha'i leaders in Iran.

The ICJ is an international non-governmental organisation comprising sixty of
the world's most eminent jurists and has a worldwide network of national
sections and affiliated organisations. It is "dedicated since 1952 to the
primacy, coherence and implementation of international law and principles that
advance human rights."

The entire ICJ press release is reposted below with permission (may also be
viewed or downloaded at this link):
(PDF download here)

COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE – COMUNICADO DE PRENSA
For immediate release
Geneva, 2 June 2008

ICJ calls on Iranian authorities to cease harassment of Baha’i faith leaders

"The Six leaders of the Baha'i faith in Iran, who were arbitrarily arrested in
Tehran on 14 May 2008 and are being held incommunicado, must be released
immediately or legally charged with a recognisable offence," said the
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) today.

An Iranian official told a local news agency that “the six unofficial leaders
of the Baha'i faith in Iran were working against the national interest." He
added: "They are arrested for security reasons, not for their faith". However,
according to reliable information, the ICJ consider 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.

The detainees, reportedly being held in the offices of the General Intelligence
Service, do not have legal representation and are not allowed to communicate
with their families. "Unless the Iranian authorities charge them with a
recognisable criminal offence and bring them before an independent and impartial
tribunal, they must be released at once," said the ICJ. "The grounds for their
detention must be immediately made public, and they must be allowed to
communicate with their lawyers and their families."

The ICJ calls on the Iranian authorities to conform with its international human
rights obligations and to ensure that these individuals are not detained on the
basis of their faith. Baha’is freedom of conscience and religion are severely
restricted, in clear violation of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), which Iran has ratified and is obliged to uphold. The
ICCPR specifically stipulates in its article 18 that "Everyone shall have the
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include
freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom,
either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to
manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching."

The ICJ urges the Iranian authorities to also respect its Criminal Procedure
Code, which gives the arrested person the right to be promptly notified of the
reasons for their arrest or detention.

The ICJ calls upon the Iranian authorities to ensure that all the detainees are
protected from torture and other ill-treatment, and given regular access to
their families, their lawyers and any medical attention they may require.

[Dawud]

Originally Posted by arthra

This video which is over twenty years old still has a powewrful impact and shows a little of the background of the present persecutions:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...&q=20+20+bahai

I got this message:

"We're sorry, but this video may not be available."

[BruceDLimber]

Baha’is Continue to be Arrested
Following Calls for ‘Revolutionary Execution’ of Detainees

by Manoochehr Ghodsian

2008.06.01

As some religious leaders in Iran have called for “the utmost punishment” for detained ‎Baha’is using state media resources, the confrontation with the followers of this belief has ‎intensified and yesterday such calls went deep into the country. Baha’i leaders in ‎Vilashahr in the province of Isfahan were reported to have been arrested. ‎

The news website “Human Rights Activists in Iran” announced that according to its latest ‎reports, the leaders of the Vilashahr Baha’i community in Isfahan were arrested. Their ‎names were listed as Hushmand Talebi and Mehran Zini, and Farhad Fardossian who is ‎said to be a member of the community. The news site reports that these individuals were ‎arrested by security-law-enforcement agents and transferred to the prison of the town, ‎while their conditions remains unknown.‎

In a related news story, it is reported that three other Baha’is named Ali Ahmadi, Changiz ‎Derakhshan, and Ms Simin too have been arrested in the northern town of Ghaemshahr. ‎Prior to that, six leading members of the Iranian Baha’i community were arrested, and ‎their names are Fariba Kamal Abadi, Jamaledin Khanjani, Afif Naimi, Saeed Rezai, ‎Behrouz Tavakoli and Vahid Tizfahm. Mahvash Sabet, another Baha’i leader was arrested ‎earlier in March in the city of Mashhad. All of these seven last members comprised the ‎leadership of the sect in Iran.‎

These new arrests follow the claims by Iranian authorities that the Baha’is had been ‎arrested because of their anti state activities that threatened national security. Elham the ‎spokesperson for the Iranian government had said in his weekly meetings with the media ‎that “these individuals had been arrested because they had engaged in activities against ‎the security of the state and had been in contact with foreigners, particularly Zionists.”‎

Seyed Ahmadi El Alhodi, the Friday prayer leader of the city of Mashhad had recently ‎publicly called for the “revolutionary execution of the Baha’i-Israeli spies”. According to ‎Shabestan news agency, this cleric said that Baha’ism was not a religion and claimed that ‎‎“Baha’ism was neither a religion nor even an idea” adding how could he accept these ‎‎“Israeli soldiers whose hands were stained with the blood of millions of people be ‎allowed to freely move around the Iran and, by taking advantage of a group of political ‎deviants and loose women and sex-driven boys, engage in collecting signatures to destroy ‎Islamic laws by engaging in any criminal activity.”‎

Elm Al Hodi further said that the harshest revolutionary punishment should be imposed ‎on the members of this Satanic group, calling on the judiciary of Iran to forcefully ‎confront this espionage movement without any heed to the wishes of the US and … , as ‎the group engaged in espionage behind the backs of the intelligence community of the ‎country.

[For background on persecutions, please go to:

http://info.Baha’i.org/article-1-8-3-14.html]

[arthra]

Arrest has impact on local family


Braden Husdal, The Leader-Post

Published: Tuesday, June 03, 2008
A human rights infringement has struck close to home for one Regina resident.
Farzad Mehregani escaped from Iran in 1985 and thought he was free from the many injustices imposed by the Islamic regime there. That changed on May 16, when he learned that his cousin, Afif Naeimi, had been arrested and imprisoned for his religious beliefs.
Mehregani said Naeimi was taken by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence because of his high standing in the administration of the Baha'i Faith in Iran. Baha'i is a religion practised worldwide, but is considered illegal in Iran despite the fact that it teaches non-violence and the unification of humanity.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465...770.jpg?size=l View Larger Image
Farzad Mehregani, along with his wife Lorlin, display a photo of his cousin Afif Naeimi and other Baha'i faith leaders that have been taken into custody in Iran.

Bryan Schlosser, Leader-Post




"I was deeply troubled when I heard that he had been arrested," said Mehregani. "I hadn't spoken to him in a few years but I remember him still from when I was in Iran. He was someone who everyone respected when we were growing up and he was voted into his religious position."
Naeimi was arrested along with five other Baha'i leaders and joined a seventh member already in custody. When word of the arrests filtered out of Iran, the actions were quickly condemned by members of the international community.
Canada's former foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, recently told the United Nations that "Canada is deeply concerned by the arbitrary arrest ... These individuals were detained solely on the basis of their faith. This is unacceptable."
None of the arrested Baha'i leaders has been given access to lawyers and they have been unable to communicate with relatives. It was initially believed that they had been placed in Iran's notorious Evin prison, but now, two weeks later, it is unclear if they are still in that facility.
"The Iranian government is accusing them of being spies but I know that he is innocent," said Mehregani. "There isn't much that anyone in Canada can do except ask that they be given a fair trial and competent lawyers.
"It's not the same system in Iran as it is here. Lawyers aren't immune from persecution and can get in trouble if they defend someone that the government doesn't like."
Mehregani is a practising member of the Baha'i faith, which is part of what prompted him to escape from Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Along with several friends he rode on horseback over the course of three nights to Turkey, hiding during the day in caves along the way.
He eventually made it to Canada and after taking a year of courses in English as a Second Language, he went to the University of Alberta and got a degree in electrical engineering. Four years ago he moved to Regina with his family and he now works for SaskPower.
There is a small Baha'i community in Regina, all of whom have been awaiting news on the fate of the arrested members in Iran. There are more than 300,000 followers of the Baha'i faith in Iran who are forced to follow their faith in a heavily monitored atmosphere.
"A lot of times in Iran, people are just taken away and they disappear," said Mehregani. "I don't want that to happen to him and I hope that international governments can make Iran see that they are responsible for the security of their people and that the Baha'i people pose no risk."



© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2008

[Dawud]

Originally Posted by BruceDLimber

this cleric said that Baha’ism was not a religion and claimed that ‎‎“Baha’ism was neither a religion nor even an idea”

Um, Iran, I'll talk to you like you're a single person.

WAKE UP! The Baha'i Faith is a peaceful religion!!!!!

[Dawud]

I should be talking to the cleric who said that, not to Iran as a whole. There are many many great Iranians, and many Muslims in Iran are standing up for Baha'is. God bless the Muslims who are actually Muslim and treat Baha'is as people.

[BruceDLimber]

Yet another outrage. :-(

(Originally posted to the Ning Baha’i Forum by Kelly Herndon; the original Persian is available as an attachment at that site. I quote Kelly below.)

A children's book called Babak is being distributed free of charge in schools in Iran. This book mocks the life of the Bab.

I translated a German translation of the Persian text into English, so my text below may be inaccurate.

Babak

p. 2 Many years ago there was a very lazy boy. He was rambunctious and was named Babak.

p. 3 He didn't want to go to school because of his laziness.

p.4 Babak wasn't especially intelligent. He was always skipping school.

p.5 With the help of his Uncle Babak played a prank.

p.6 Babak ran away and stole a Mullah's cloak.

p. 7 He called himself Shiekh Babak. With the help of Russians and foreign enemies he claimed to be a messenger of the 12th Imam.

p. 8 He was tried in court, but because he was cowardly, he started to cry.

p.9 Babak fled Shiraz. But he was driven from Isfahan because everyone recognized that he was a liar.

p. 10 The Russians insisted that Babak start disagreements between Iranians and Russians.

p. 11 Babak was killed by a firing squad on the orders of Shah Amir Kabir.

p. 12 Babak was crazy and claimed to be God.

p. 13 He wrote things like: never sit on a cow. Don't drink donkey milk. Animal manure is clean. Anyone who owns more than one book will be punished...

Thus the world was saved from a liar.

[Alex P]

Well Mirza was banished from Iran, because of the feeling of "invasion" and the fear of his religion taking over as far as I understand?... So to keep his banishment up so to speak they are teaching of him in a bad light.... I can see why they are doing it, although yeah harsh lol.