arthra
Baha'i
The boy’s letter to the Iranian court last February was less than 500 words long and nearly two centuries old. Writing on behalf of his mother, 12 year-old Farid Kashani sent a letter to Judge Ghanbari in Gorgan, a city of around 300,000 located 250 miles northeast of Tehran, the capital of Iran.
His mother, Parisa, had been tried and convicted of illegal assembly for the purpose of teaching the Baha’i Faith, spreading teachings against the Islamic government and collaborating with the enemy. She and a group of other convicted members of the Baha’i Faith, the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran, had all been arrested at the same time and were now awaiting sentence because, in essence, they belong to the wrong religion. Anticipating a long prison term for his mother, Farid’s letter to the court pointed out that his father, Kamal, has already been imprisoned twice (also because of his religion) and now his mother awaits the same punishment.
In a larger sense, the son’s plea for justice dates back to the very beginning of the Baha’i Faith in mid-19th century Persia (modern-day Iran) when its followers were first persecuted as apostates for their belief in a religion revealed after the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam and designated in the Qur’an as “the Seal of the Prophets.”
The judge allowed the boy to read his letter out loud in court which begins in the effusively respectful Islamic fashion, “In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, Salaam.” The 12-year old then highlights the lessons he has learned so far in his young life: “I must always be truthful, always be kind to everyone, always be compassionate to all – even to people who wrong me or wish me ill. I must not wrongly accuse anyone of wrongdoing, I should not backbite or gossip.”
Read more at:
http://iranpresswatch.org/post/12813/
His mother, Parisa, had been tried and convicted of illegal assembly for the purpose of teaching the Baha’i Faith, spreading teachings against the Islamic government and collaborating with the enemy. She and a group of other convicted members of the Baha’i Faith, the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran, had all been arrested at the same time and were now awaiting sentence because, in essence, they belong to the wrong religion. Anticipating a long prison term for his mother, Farid’s letter to the court pointed out that his father, Kamal, has already been imprisoned twice (also because of his religion) and now his mother awaits the same punishment.
In a larger sense, the son’s plea for justice dates back to the very beginning of the Baha’i Faith in mid-19th century Persia (modern-day Iran) when its followers were first persecuted as apostates for their belief in a religion revealed after the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam and designated in the Qur’an as “the Seal of the Prophets.”
The judge allowed the boy to read his letter out loud in court which begins in the effusively respectful Islamic fashion, “In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, Salaam.” The 12-year old then highlights the lessons he has learned so far in his young life: “I must always be truthful, always be kind to everyone, always be compassionate to all – even to people who wrong me or wish me ill. I must not wrongly accuse anyone of wrongdoing, I should not backbite or gossip.”
Read more at:
http://iranpresswatch.org/post/12813/