He kindly agreed to share his story with us.

How were you treated by Muslims around you? Were they tolerant and accepting?
They were very kind to us. I was one of them; I was born there, I studied there, and I grew up with Omanis. They never treated us according to what we believe…they treated us like human beings.

Were there any cases of Baha’is being arrested in Oman? Did you reiceve any threats?
No. But between 2002 and 2006, the government asked some families to leave Oman…and we obeyed.

How did the Omani government ask you to leave and why? Were you sent a document, a phone call? How did you react to the news?
Well, they asked our sponsor to tell us to leave Oman. We don’t know what they told them, but we had the same sponsor for more than 15 years and we did not have any problem with him. Just one day he came and informed us that the government asked him to tell us to leave the country. When we asked the government, they denied it claiming it’s the sponsor who wants us to leave. Our sponsor was very sad about it, and he kept telling us how sorry he is, but that he was forced to do it.

Recently, concern is going for the Iranian Baha’is who were arrested in Yemen as they might be deported to Iran. Upon your return to Iran, were you detained by the authorities?
After my arrival to Iran, I was asked to talk to their secret services. They had some questions about the Baha’is of Oman, and in the end the interrogator told me, “We asked the Omani government to kick you out of there”.

Muslim clerics often repeat the claim that Baha’is collaborate with foreign powers to undermine the Muslim world. How would you respond to that?
We have never done so! They think so because our Holy Land is in Israel, but it has been there since before its creation.

Besides, we are forbidden to interfere in politics. How can we make relations against anyone? Another point is that we believe in Islam and all the past religions. We never say that we are apart from them. As an example, in school, when you go to fifth grade do you deny you were in 4th grade? So we are now in fifth grade, but we never say that we don’t believe in our 4th, 3rd, 2nd teachers and books.

I hope I made myself clear.

How does it feel to be back in Iran?
Hard and strange. But now we have to stay here and help our brothers and sisters build a better Iran far from prejudice and hate and not leave the battle field. Now the Iranian government is spreading many lies about us and the Baha’i faith. If we do not stay and answer people’s questions, it would be wrong