Iran, with its history rife with incidents of abuse against the Baha’i minority, is known to target leaders of the faith. In August 1980, all members of the National Spiritual Assembly were abducted and are believed to have been killed. A year later, the Baha’i community was gripped again as members of their newly elected National Spiritual Assembly were executed. Soon after, the government banned all Baha’i institutions, thus leaving the Baha’i community with no other choice but to suspend all organizational and administrative activities.
Now a troubling development has ensued, with Resalat – a conservative newspaper in Iran – publishing a report that claims “7 Israeli spies were arrested”.
Speaking to ISNA (Iranian Students’ News Agency), Deputy of Tehran’s General and Revolutionary Dadsara mentioned the case of illegal Bahai establishment and said: 7 Bahais made an illegal group and had some sort of relations with few countries including Israel, taking directives from them to commit acts against IRI. This led to their arrest and they have admitted their charges including making an illegal group and having relations with Israel. This case is being investigated in First Branch of Security Dadsara.
Allegations that the Baha’i community works hand-in-hand with foreign powers are not new; they have been surfacing since the earliest days of the faith, with the supposed foreign power changing (from Russia, to Britain, Freemasons and now Israel) with every new turn in events.
We at the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights cannot comprehend the Iranian authority’s ceaseless efforts to persecute a small, peaceful minority, and only shudder when we try to imagine what the motives behind the supposed confessions might be.
We will continue to pray and hope for our brothers and sisters in Iran and elsewhere. This unjustifiable madness must come to an end!
Loading...
Khalil A. Khavari
5 August, 2008
What is happening to these completely innocent Baha’is in the dreadful prison of the bloodthirsty mullahs? Haven’t these mullahs and their gangs persecuted, tormented and killed Baha’is enough ever since the inception of the Faith? Do these men of the cloth do anything but to dishonor Islam by destroying the lives of peaceful Baha’is?
Please people and governments of the world recall what the late Dr. Martin Luther King proclaimed: Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere. Please heed Dr. King’s advice and do all you can to stay the vicious hand of injustice, working in Iran against the Baha’is or anywhere else in the world against any group.
dan
6 August, 2008
The Iranian governments seems to rather forget that the founder of the Baha’i faith – Baha’u'llah – was exiled to Haifa when it was a territory of the Ottoman Empire almost a century before the state of Israel was created in 1948. And this was a result of pressure from the Iranian Shah on the Ottoman authorities…
henry
6 August, 2008
Our consolation is that justice is independant of any human agency… whether or not we want it, justice happens, perhaps not the way we imagine it, but it does happen. We pray for those oppressors that they may save their souls from the tyrany of their own injustice. Moreover, I like to believe that the majority of the Iranian muslim community are good and just people, part of a great nation that upholds justice, unity and peace. We appeal to those good Iranians to save their great nation from the tyrany of rulers who pretend to be religious.
As for our Baha’i friends, the power of heaven and earth is with them.
Peter Deer
13 August, 2008
My prayers are with the innocent Muslims who are having their faith associated with this insanity.
The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights » Blog Archive » Update on the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders
5 January, 2009
[...] against them as of yet, but a report published last August by a conservative Iranian newspaper quoted an official who stated that “7 Israeli spies were arrested”. Mahvash Sabet, Fariba [...]