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Well-Known Member
growing persecution in Iran
By Clark Morphew
Knight Ridder Newspapers
There is no question now that the Bahais who live in Iran are in for severe persecution by their Muslim-led government.
Between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3, 36 members of the Bahai Institute of Higher Education were arrested without cause. All but seven have been released.
Officers of the government's intelligence agency, the Ministry of Information, carried out the arrests. The government officials seized 70 computers, textbooks, scientific papers, and records and school furniture.
All those arrested were asked to sign a document declaring the Bahai Institute for Higher Education no longer existed as of Sept. 29. All 36 detainees refused to sign the declaration.
Then intelligence officers raided 500 homes of Bahais throughout Iran and confiscated household effects such as television sets and furniture. The officers said they had permission to carry out the raids from the attorney general.
Bahai officials say these arrests and raids are proof of a "centrally orchestrated campaign" to nullify the Bahai community and force its members to convert to Islam. This campaign became widely known in 1993 when a secret document was released from the Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Council, which earlier had adopted a policy on "The Bahai Question." The document contained the following instructions:
--The government must deal with them (Bahais) in such a way that their progress and development are blocked.
--They must be expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, once it becomes known that they are Bahais.
--A plan must be devised to confront and destroy their cultural roots outside of the country.
--Deny them employment if they identify themselves as Bahais.
--Deny them any position of influence, such as in the educational sector.
The government has carried out most of those declarations. Officials have ordered businesses and government offices to fire Bahai employees. They have interrupted the moral education of Bahai children. They have confiscated property, denied pensions and kept youth from entering institutions of higher learning.
But the Bahai Spiritual Assembly believes the situation in Iran will escalate rapidly and will become even worse for the faithful living there.
The irony of this situation is that the Bahai religion is one of the gentlest on the Earth. The faith was founded in Persia, now Iran, during the mid-19th century by a young merchant who called himself the Bab, which means "gate" in Arabic. The Bab called together people to prepare for the arrival of a new messenger from God, but was executed by Iran's Muslim-controlled government in 1850. Among the Bab's followers was a nobleman's son who is known today as Bahaullah, or The Glory of God. The latter part of Bahaullah's life was spent in prison, where he wrote many of the sacred scriptures of the religion.
The Bahai faith stresses the unity of all religion and humankind. They are opposed to any kind of prejudice, and they are pacifists who believe that someday world peace will be achieved. They insist on the equality of the sexes and the sharing of material goods with the poor.
Obviously, this is not a religion that invites hatred.
Yet for the century and a half the religion has existed, the Muslim community in Iran has viciously persecuted Bahais, restricting the practice of the faith and subjecting followers to torture and execution by firing squad. Various legislative bodies around the globe have condemned the Islamic vendetta against Bahais and as a result the persecution was reduced for a time.
But now Bahais fear they will be subjected to a far worse round of torture and persecution than ever. And the only defense is prayer. So all over the world, Bahais are praying for their brothers and sisters in Iran. Many younger people have escaped from Iran secretly but the process is arduous and expensive.
Therefore, if you are a praying person, I beg you to ask the Almighty to intervene in Iran. The Bahais believe that God will come to their aid in Iran, that freedom to worship will someday be theirs, and that all humankind will live together in harmony.
X X X
(Clark Morphew is an ordained clergyman and is religion writer for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Write to him at the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 345 Cedar St., St. Paul MN 55101.)
X X X
(c) 1998, Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.).
Visit PioneerPlanet, the World Wide Web site of the Pioneer Press, at http://www.pioneerplanet.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
--------------------------------------------
Despite Persecution, Bahai Keeps the Faith[size=-1]
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By CANDY HATCHER
May 17, 2002
SAMMAMISH -- It's hard to understand, in this country founded on religious freedom, what it means to be persecuted because of religious beliefs.
It's hard to imagine, in this place where Christians and Jews, Buddhists and Hindus worship without criticism, that a woman could lose her house, her business, her identity with a country for simply standing up for her faith.
I'm not referring to Germany, Russia or Afghanistan, where we are agonizingly familiar with the stories of persecution and death.
Shidmehr Amirkia is a Bahai from Iran. That she is here now -- talking freely about her faith, holding her grandchild, smiling and cooing at him in a language I don't understand -- is a wondrous blessing and lesson for all of us.
More than 20 years have passed since Shidmehr, known as Sherri, fled Iran. She had a good life there before the turmoil, before the government began persecuting those who weren't Muslims.
She was a jewelry maker and floral designer, a wife, a mother of three daughters. Most important, at least to the government, she was a member of the Bahai community, which believes in working toward universal peace, elimination of prejudice, harmony between religion and science, equality of the sexes.
The government didn't approve of the religion. In 1979, Iranian authorities came to her house to see if her family was "doing business with satanic America," Sherri said. She was home with her husband, a mining engineer; her father; and her three girls, ages 17, 16 and 11.
The girls were told to sit in a corner. A teenager pointed a machine gun at them.
The search lasted seven hours. The guards looked in the fireplace, opened the piano and knocked on all the walls. They said they were looking for drugs, alcohol, gold, cash and guns. The family said they had none of that there. "We are Bahais; we don't drink or possess weapons."
They determined Sherri's husband had "done business with Satan America" by importing and exporting, and that they would come for him the next day.
He fled Iran that night with one suitcase. The daughters flew back to school in Italy.
Sherri stayed behind, with her father and sister, to help other Bahais who were being persecuted.
She was sharing food and medicine rations, doing her husband's job, taking care of the house and her businesses. And then the borders closed, and she was locked in.
She watched Iranian soldiers stand people against a wall and shoot them, then throw the bodies in a truck and hose blood off the pavement.
She was forced to wear a veil.
The only way out? If she promised to bring her youngest daughter back to serve in the Iranian army.
When she left, in January, it was bitter cold. She carried a suitcase and wore her warmest coat, a fur.
"You are not allowed to take worthwhile things out of the country," she said she was told.
"I left the coat and took the plane."
Her sister never got out. Shidroukh, a pianist and floral designer, was hosting a Bahai assembly meeting when authorities burst into her house in October 1981. Shidroukh and the others were arrested, taken to prison, tortured for several months and ordered to renounce their faith.
In January 1982, after Shidroukh refused to give up her beliefs, she was killed.
Sherri learned this later, after she had flown to Rome to be reunited with her family.
They moved to Vancouver, B.C., where they lived for 18 years. "I had no job; I couldn't speak English," Sherri said. She recalled being depressed for a long time -- until she realized: "If I stop everything and cry, they win."
She started a new life there with a catering and flower-arrangement business. She opened a rug store. She worked every day of the week, and began learning English.
And now she is a Washingtonian, here because her youngest daughter, Mona, married and settled here. She arranges flowers and, with Mona, sells Persian rugs and carpet.
She keeps a book with a drawing of her sister and 214 other Bahais who were killed between 1979 and 1992.
"They killed more than 200 of my friends."
The lesson, she said, isn't vengeance or war. It's about the need for peace.
"People should appreciate life and strive for peace and unity," she said. "Try to know everybody and love each other. Life is short."
And if Sherri can say that, after losing her sister and her livelihood, who are we to disagree?
----------------------------------------[/size]
By Clark Morphew
Knight Ridder Newspapers
There is no question now that the Bahais who live in Iran are in for severe persecution by their Muslim-led government.
Between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3, 36 members of the Bahai Institute of Higher Education were arrested without cause. All but seven have been released.
Officers of the government's intelligence agency, the Ministry of Information, carried out the arrests. The government officials seized 70 computers, textbooks, scientific papers, and records and school furniture.
All those arrested were asked to sign a document declaring the Bahai Institute for Higher Education no longer existed as of Sept. 29. All 36 detainees refused to sign the declaration.
Then intelligence officers raided 500 homes of Bahais throughout Iran and confiscated household effects such as television sets and furniture. The officers said they had permission to carry out the raids from the attorney general.
Bahai officials say these arrests and raids are proof of a "centrally orchestrated campaign" to nullify the Bahai community and force its members to convert to Islam. This campaign became widely known in 1993 when a secret document was released from the Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Council, which earlier had adopted a policy on "The Bahai Question." The document contained the following instructions:
--The government must deal with them (Bahais) in such a way that their progress and development are blocked.
--They must be expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, once it becomes known that they are Bahais.
--A plan must be devised to confront and destroy their cultural roots outside of the country.
--Deny them employment if they identify themselves as Bahais.
--Deny them any position of influence, such as in the educational sector.
The government has carried out most of those declarations. Officials have ordered businesses and government offices to fire Bahai employees. They have interrupted the moral education of Bahai children. They have confiscated property, denied pensions and kept youth from entering institutions of higher learning.
But the Bahai Spiritual Assembly believes the situation in Iran will escalate rapidly and will become even worse for the faithful living there.
The irony of this situation is that the Bahai religion is one of the gentlest on the Earth. The faith was founded in Persia, now Iran, during the mid-19th century by a young merchant who called himself the Bab, which means "gate" in Arabic. The Bab called together people to prepare for the arrival of a new messenger from God, but was executed by Iran's Muslim-controlled government in 1850. Among the Bab's followers was a nobleman's son who is known today as Bahaullah, or The Glory of God. The latter part of Bahaullah's life was spent in prison, where he wrote many of the sacred scriptures of the religion.
The Bahai faith stresses the unity of all religion and humankind. They are opposed to any kind of prejudice, and they are pacifists who believe that someday world peace will be achieved. They insist on the equality of the sexes and the sharing of material goods with the poor.
Obviously, this is not a religion that invites hatred.
Yet for the century and a half the religion has existed, the Muslim community in Iran has viciously persecuted Bahais, restricting the practice of the faith and subjecting followers to torture and execution by firing squad. Various legislative bodies around the globe have condemned the Islamic vendetta against Bahais and as a result the persecution was reduced for a time.
But now Bahais fear they will be subjected to a far worse round of torture and persecution than ever. And the only defense is prayer. So all over the world, Bahais are praying for their brothers and sisters in Iran. Many younger people have escaped from Iran secretly but the process is arduous and expensive.
Therefore, if you are a praying person, I beg you to ask the Almighty to intervene in Iran. The Bahais believe that God will come to their aid in Iran, that freedom to worship will someday be theirs, and that all humankind will live together in harmony.
X X X
(Clark Morphew is an ordained clergyman and is religion writer for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Write to him at the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 345 Cedar St., St. Paul MN 55101.)
X X X
(c) 1998, Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.).
Visit PioneerPlanet, the World Wide Web site of the Pioneer Press, at http://www.pioneerplanet.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
--------------------------------------------
Despite Persecution, Bahai Keeps the Faith[size=-1]
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By CANDY HATCHER
May 17, 2002
SAMMAMISH -- It's hard to understand, in this country founded on religious freedom, what it means to be persecuted because of religious beliefs.
It's hard to imagine, in this place where Christians and Jews, Buddhists and Hindus worship without criticism, that a woman could lose her house, her business, her identity with a country for simply standing up for her faith.
I'm not referring to Germany, Russia or Afghanistan, where we are agonizingly familiar with the stories of persecution and death.
Shidmehr Amirkia is a Bahai from Iran. That she is here now -- talking freely about her faith, holding her grandchild, smiling and cooing at him in a language I don't understand -- is a wondrous blessing and lesson for all of us.
More than 20 years have passed since Shidmehr, known as Sherri, fled Iran. She had a good life there before the turmoil, before the government began persecuting those who weren't Muslims.
She was a jewelry maker and floral designer, a wife, a mother of three daughters. Most important, at least to the government, she was a member of the Bahai community, which believes in working toward universal peace, elimination of prejudice, harmony between religion and science, equality of the sexes.
The government didn't approve of the religion. In 1979, Iranian authorities came to her house to see if her family was "doing business with satanic America," Sherri said. She was home with her husband, a mining engineer; her father; and her three girls, ages 17, 16 and 11.
The girls were told to sit in a corner. A teenager pointed a machine gun at them.
The search lasted seven hours. The guards looked in the fireplace, opened the piano and knocked on all the walls. They said they were looking for drugs, alcohol, gold, cash and guns. The family said they had none of that there. "We are Bahais; we don't drink or possess weapons."
They determined Sherri's husband had "done business with Satan America" by importing and exporting, and that they would come for him the next day.
He fled Iran that night with one suitcase. The daughters flew back to school in Italy.
Sherri stayed behind, with her father and sister, to help other Bahais who were being persecuted.
She was sharing food and medicine rations, doing her husband's job, taking care of the house and her businesses. And then the borders closed, and she was locked in.
She watched Iranian soldiers stand people against a wall and shoot them, then throw the bodies in a truck and hose blood off the pavement.
She was forced to wear a veil.
The only way out? If she promised to bring her youngest daughter back to serve in the Iranian army.
When she left, in January, it was bitter cold. She carried a suitcase and wore her warmest coat, a fur.
"You are not allowed to take worthwhile things out of the country," she said she was told.
"I left the coat and took the plane."
Her sister never got out. Shidroukh, a pianist and floral designer, was hosting a Bahai assembly meeting when authorities burst into her house in October 1981. Shidroukh and the others were arrested, taken to prison, tortured for several months and ordered to renounce their faith.
In January 1982, after Shidroukh refused to give up her beliefs, she was killed.
Sherri learned this later, after she had flown to Rome to be reunited with her family.
They moved to Vancouver, B.C., where they lived for 18 years. "I had no job; I couldn't speak English," Sherri said. She recalled being depressed for a long time -- until she realized: "If I stop everything and cry, they win."
She started a new life there with a catering and flower-arrangement business. She opened a rug store. She worked every day of the week, and began learning English.
And now she is a Washingtonian, here because her youngest daughter, Mona, married and settled here. She arranges flowers and, with Mona, sells Persian rugs and carpet.
She keeps a book with a drawing of her sister and 214 other Bahais who were killed between 1979 and 1992.
"They killed more than 200 of my friends."
The lesson, she said, isn't vengeance or war. It's about the need for peace.
"People should appreciate life and strive for peace and unity," she said. "Try to know everybody and love each other. Life is short."
And if Sherri can say that, after losing her sister and her livelihood, who are we to disagree?
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