The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights » Video

Wave of Arson Attacks against Baha’i Businesses in Rafsanjan, Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 17:58:12 +0000

In the last two months there have been nine reported cases of arson targeting Baha’i businesses in Rafsanjan, Iran.

Reports coming from human rights activists in Iran indicate that during November and December 2010 nine arson attacks were carried out targeting Baha’i-owned business. One of the victims was a Muslim owner of a coffee shop who was mistakenly identified as a Baha’i in a newsletter of Mahdi Ma`ud Cultural Foundation, which made him a target. The names of the Baha’is targeted are Siavoch Rushangir (two attacks), Ali Shakir (two attacks), Mahbub Bandi, Mas`ud Mibadi, Iraj Payandeh, Mujid Payandeh and Ali `Amadi. After the previous arson, Ali Shakir took measures to prevent future arson, including renting properties near his electronics store. The assailants managed to set the store on fire again on December 19th by pouring flammable substance through a hole in the ceiling of the store.

Following complaints from Baha’is about this recent string of attacks the leader of Friday prayer in Rafsanjan said: “What right do these Bahais have to complain? They are not even entitled to live.”

Below is a video from the most recent attack filmed by HRANA showing the fire and enormous destruction caused by the attack.

Supreme Leader’s adviser Larijani: Iranian regime protects people against the Baha’i “cult”

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:09:51 +0000

Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior adviser to the Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenai and head of the human rights council in the judiciary recently sat down for an interview with Iran Press TV, an English-language network of the Iranian regime that has previously carried anti-Baha’i propaganda. In the interview, Larijani addressed the issue of the Baha’i community in Iran (full transcript of the section below).

Larijani claimed in his November 22nd interview Baha’ism is a “closed-door cult” that prevents people from leaving it, and therefore the Iranian regime needs to protect people against this “exclusive” and “dominating” cult. Larijani stated that the treatment of the Baha’i “cult” is similar to the treatment of any other closed-door cult, whether it’s Sunni or Shia. According to him, members of the Baha’i “cult” are affluent people and “there are more than 300 Baha’i students in universities”. This means that according to Larijani’s own admission, Baha’is are discriminated against since only 0.1% of Baha’is (300 out of 300,000) attend Iranian universities and 4.8% of the general Iranian population do (3.5 million students out of a population of 72 million). This is assuming Larijani doesn’t think that Baha’is are inherently intellectually inferior compared to Muslims.

Full transcript:

Baha’ism is not a religion in Iran. The Jews are minority and they even have members in the parliament. The Christians are minority; they have members in the parliament. Zoroastrian’s are minorities.

Bahia’s are a cult and they are governed by the law which deals with different cults and as far as this cult is not preventing its follower from going out of the cult they are tolerated.

So you can find Bahai’s in universities as students as teachers. There are more than 300 Baha’i students in universities. They are professors. They are very affluent people; they have big factories and companies so they are protected by law according to the law which we call Citizenship Contract.

Regardless of their religion as far as it is within the law, they get all the protections. But the trouble starts when they start to act as a cult which is a closed door cult. It means that people can get in but cannot get out.

And we had numerous cases, some young Baha’is, they wanted to leave this cult; they said it doesn’t make sense to us. So they had been summand in meetings and they had been warned that if you leave this cult you will be punished and deprived from all the ancestral will, you will be put under pressure.

So here the law will come in and the law will prevent the use of this much exclusive or kind of dominating called procedure; any cult, being Baha’i or being Shia doesn’t matter, it will be prevented by law.

We had numerous cases of cults’ practices even with Shia groups. People have been jailed because they were putting people in some farms and not letting them to go out so we will fight with any cult activity which prevents its followers from the freedom of living the cult, being Shia or being Baha’i doesn’t matter.

50 Houses of Baha’is Destroyed in Northern Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:33:30 +0000

Fifty Baha’i families in the village of Eival could do nothing but watch their houses being demolished this week, RAHNA reported.

On June 22, the Baha’is of Eival learned that non-Baha’is in their village are collecting signatures to destroy, level and clear the houses of the Baha’is living in the villages. Some of the Baha’is approached the local administration office but were turned away as Iranian officials stated that the reports are unfounded. On the next day, the Baha’is again approached the local office, a police station in Telmadareh and also went governor’s office in the Mazandaran province capital in Sari. All authorities stated that the reports were false and accused the Baha’is of breaking the law by approaching them.

Eival village entered a state of quarantine for 48 hours and Baha’i families were violently barred from their homes. Following this the demolition of the Baha’i houses began. According to an eyewitness, a few men with trucks demolished and leveled around fifty houses of Baha’is in the village.

The following footage of the aftermath of the destruction was obtained by HRA-IRAN:

Indian News Channel Focuses on Persecution of Baha’is in Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:07:22 +0000

The Indian news channel NewsX recently aired an extensive report about the Baha’is of Iran. The program discusses the trial of the Baha’i 7 (Yaran), the systematic incitement against Baha’is in children’s books , the denial of education of Baha’is, the scapegoating of Baha’is after the post-election turmoil and the history of persecution of Baha’is in Iran. The program also includes an interview with Shirin Ebadi about the Yaran trial and the situation of Baha’is in Iran since the Islamic Revolution.

Part 1:

Part 2: (Note that it overlaps partially with part 1)

Part 3:

Part 4:

Powerful Narrated Video of a Letter from a Baha’i Prisoner in Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:26:58 +0000

A couple of young Baha’is from Los Angeles recently created this video which includes a reading of Haleh Rouhi’s letter from prison. Rouhi was arrested in May 2006 in Shiraz along with other 53 Baha’is and charged with offenses relating to state security. These young people, along with Iranian Muslims, were engaged in a teaching project benefiting underprivileged children in Shiraz. In August 2007 three of the group, Raha Sabet, Haleh Rouhi and Sasan Taqva, were sentenced to four years in prison for “organizing illegal groups” and “propaganda on behalf of groups that are opposed to the Islamic regime”.

In her letter from prison, dated 21 May 2009, Rouhi shared the story of her arrest and imprisonment. The video-slideshow below includes a reading of the English translation of that letter.

RFE/RL story about our new animated campaign

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:29:58 +0000

Following is a story Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty carried about The Muslim Network For Baha’i Rights:

Animation In Support Of Iran’s Baha’is
October 08, 2009

A new animated campaign aims to raise awareness about rights abuses against those following the Baha’i faith in Iran.

The campaign, run by the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights, was the brainchild of Esra’a al-Shafei, a 22-year-old woman from Bahrain who won a prestigious award for her Internet projects from Harvard University last year.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda she said, “I created the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights because I knew that I wasn’t going to be the only Muslim who believes in this. Soon we started gathering Muslims from all over the world who are speaking up for Baha’i human rights, in the name of Islam.”

“If even more Muslims committed to this, Baha’is will no longer be discriminated against this widely and violence against them will cease to be justified by either governments or our societies at large,” she said.

Al-Shafei said that she used animation for her campaign because “it’s attention grabbing and interesting, and helps us reach our target audience better.

“We live in an age today where people are bored with content. There is a massive war of information online, and everyone is struggling to be heard and noticed, so we have to resort to creative ideas in order to ensure that some people are still listening to us.”

– Arash Alborzi

Al-Qaradawi: Muslim-Baha’i Marriage is Wrong

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:02:26 +0000

Below is a translation of a recently published report on the Egyptian news portal Bab.com

Al-Qaradawi: the marriage of a Muslim man to a Baha’i woman is wrong

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, President of the World Federation of Muslim Scholars, issued a formal legal opinion (fatwa) that it is illegal for a Muslim man to marry a Baha’i woman. He requested all those who marry abroad to provide written documents as proof of marriage to a Christian or Jewish [Kitabi] woman because some women do not follow any religion at all despite the fact that their official religion is Christianity, for example. He assured that the Baha’i religion is not recognized in the Qur’an. He also assured the right of some Muftis (those who provide formal legal opinions) to forbid the marriage of a Muslim man to a Kitabi woman in countries where Muslims are a minority, where a Muslim girl can only marry a Muslim man, and whereby the marriage of a Muslim man to a Kitabi woman would take away the chance of a Muslim woman to get a husband in that country, and this is what Omar Ibn Al-Khattab did. This fatwa was issued on the TV program “understanding life” presented by Akram Kassab on “ANA” channel during an episode about Muslim minorities.

Here is a video from that appearance (Arabic):

In the interview, Al-Qardawi described the story of a man who sought his advice: the man married a woman abroad, thinking that she was a Christian, only later to discover that she was Baha’i. Sheikh al-Qardawi said that it is against Islam to marry a Baha’i because the religion isn’t recognized by the Qur’an, unlike Judaism and Christianity, and therefore it is not a valid religion.

Foad turns “United for Baha’i Human Rights” into rap song

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:43:45 +0000

Some of our frequent readers may remember Foad from the interview we conducted with him a few months ago. To quote a piece of that interview:

My name is Foad. I was born in one of the little towns of the Mazandaran province, which is located in Northern Iran in June 1987 (month of Khordad, year 1366 according to the Iranian calendar), but I was brought up in Tehran. Due to the numerous problems Baha’is face in furthering their education in Iran, I took refuge in Turkey when I was 16, and at the moment I am a student of electrical engineering in the USA. From the early years of my childhood, I have adored Iranian traditional music, and I play Persian musical instruments. However, at the moment I find that the Rap genre is best suited for me to express my inner feelings. My efforts are mostly focused on addressing the problems of religious and ethnic minorities – especially the Baha’is – through my songs.

We are extremely flattered to say that Foad has liked our latest video so much that he turned it into a rap song of its own, keeping the scenes, remixing the music, and adding relevant vocals to the background. The result is amazing and you may listen to it here:

You may download the audio here.

If you would like to find out more about him, please read this interview.

Latest Video: United for Baha’i Human Rights

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:13:26 +0000

We are extremely excited to release our latest video, which has been in the works for quite some time now. As we noted on our timeline, abuses against the innocent Baha’i minority in Iran have been committed for over 30 years. Inspired by the reactions of Iran’s latest election, where many Iranians took to the streets to demand change and respect for their human rights, we felt that a new video was in order, especially after this powerful video (whose chants we used in the background to one of this video’s scenes.)

To truly explore the amount of abuse the Iranian regime has been committing against the Baha’i minority in Iran, please explore this extensive timeline.

For the past 30 years, followers of the Baha’i Faith in Iran have been lynched, falsely imprisoned, vilified and driven out of their homes. Baha’i children have been deprived of their right to an education, adults have been prevented from earning a livelihood and thousands of families had their properties illegally confiscated by the government.

But the Iranian regime would have us believe that its the innocent party in these circumstances. It continues to deny that it harbors any intentions to eradicate the Baha’i community, while employing all possible means to slander and denigrate the memories of its victims. We need to fight for their human rights.

3 Baha’i Rights videos nominated for an award at the Bitfilm Festival: Please vote!

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:09:41 +0000

A few months ago at Mideast Youth, we wrote about the Bitfilm Festival, whom we are a partner with, to give attention to some digital mash-ups that we have done in the past few years. All but one of these videos have to do with Baha’i human rights abuses in Iran and Egypt.

This morning, the Bitfilm Festival’s website just started accepting votes. Four of our videos are currently competing for an award for the “Politicool” category.

We hope you will register and vote for us! We worked very hard on our videos and hope you can take the time to appreciate them, as it really helped spread the message about Baha’i human rights abuses in a creative, sometimes satirical way.

Our videos are the following:

Iran’s New Voice

Persepolis 2 (Trailer) – Safeguard the Innocent

Egypt Tourism Ad

We have nothing else to count on but your vote! Please register and vote for us, and help spread the word by requesting that others do so via Twitter, Facebook or your own blog! The deadline for voting is the 24th of September.