Mihran Shakir and his family are Baha’is and live in Kerman. For some time, Mrs. Shakir had been receiving threatening phone calls (presumably for being members of the Baha’i community). When the family attended the commemorative meeting on the night of Baha’u'llah’s Ascension, their car parked on the street was firebombed. Fortunately, the friends at the gathering had noticed the fire and quickly put it out by a fire extinguisher. The car was not damaged very much.

But during the early hours of Friday, July 18, the Shakir’s home was burned completely and arson is suspected. It so happened that the Shakirs had left for the weekend and no one was home or injured by this incident. The report notes that at 4 in the morning, one of the neighbors was disturbed by smoke and had immediately telephoned the fire department. By 5 am the fire engines arrived, had extinguished the fire and began an investigation. Soon it was learned that one of the neighbors had heard a soft expulsion about 3:30 am, but had not thought much about it. Someone else had also noticed suspicious activities on the roof. The investigators believe the fire started in the living room and initially thought it occurred because of problems with the electrical wiring. However, that appears unlikely since the fire had generated a heat so intense that it had bent thick iron bars used in the ceilings. All the furniture and interior of the house were either completely destroyed or seriously damaged.

Pictures of this horrific incident:

Despite the January 29 ruling, the Department of Civil Status has shown signs of willingness to alter its position, justifying it by resorting to fatwas (religious edicts) that claim there are only three divine religions.

We at the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights share Dr. Moussa’s amazement and confusion at the Department’s rationale, and strongly condemn this injustice.

This publication has not strayed from its predecessors, with its reiteration of baseless claims of Zionist support and covert attempts at weakening Muslims.

The book further went on stress the importance of meeting the Baha’i faith and all similar “intellectual epidemics” that diverge from Islam with firmness, and called on the state to invest all its efforts in combatting and uprooting them from society.

We at the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights fervently condemn the publication of this book, that would lead to further violence and hatred against the innocent Baha’i minority in Egypt. It is incumbent on Muslims not only in Egypt, but across the globe to rise and say enough! Enough to all the hatred, enough to all the violence, enough to all the injustice.

Reach out and make an effort to educate yourself on the Baha’is and their faith, and most importantly, respect their humanity.

Inspired by these human rights abuses we have created a comic to raise awareness on the absurdity of this crisis. Why do I call it a crisis? Because this is intellectual abuse. Baha’i youth are being victims of intellectual starvation, they are unable to acquire an education which is their given right as citizens. They are being isolated and humiliated on a daily basis. These governments, instead of protecting them, are denying them the chance to learn, which means that they are robbing them of their dreams, of having a career, a future, a life.

Don’t all children deserve an education no matter who they are? The Egyptian and Iranian authorities have no right to treat the Baha’is so differently.

This comic should make you laugh first. And then it should make you think. It’s available in four languages so far: Arabic, Farsi (below), French, and English (below).

In Farsi:

Parents have filed a complaint with the Ministry of Education, but have yet to receive a response from any relevant officials. The deadline for school admissions was yesterday. Parents do not know the fate of their Baha’i children, who are being refused their education (despite them being citizens) simply because of their faith.

Yousef Labib, the child’s parent, said in a statement to al Masry Al Youm: “I went to admit my daughter to a school, but its administration refused to accept students who do not state their religion in their birth certificates.” Only Islam and Christianity are accepted as religions, without allowing Baha’i parents to discuss the matter further.

According to Labib, other Baha’i parents have already filed complains for the same purpose, but no action has been taken and these children do not know whether or not they will be able to receive a formal education during the next school year.

Iranian Baha’is have a similar problem, with citizens being deprived of their education due to their religion. We hope that Egypt will not be comparable with such extreme mistreatment, and that Baha’is will soon be treated as citizens with rights that the government is required to respect.

Why are Baha’is being the denied the right to education? For many years people have been asking this question, and yet still, not a single government official from either Iran or Egypt has offered a legitimate response.

Please leave a comment on this article and express your outrage on the absurdity of children being refused their education simply because of their faith. This is a clear abuse of the most basic human rights!

For further information you may also read this article by the Daily News Egypt. Quoting the source:

The Interior Ministry, however, has been slow in implementing the court decision and producing identity cards with a blank religious affiliation field.

We issued a comic inspired by this issue. You may view it again here.

Mr. Aqdasi appealed this verdict to a higher court, but on 21 April the ruling of the previous court was upheld. The verdict was then appealed to Iran’s Supreme Court and the case was fast-tracked. However later the file was put on back-logs and will not come up for a minimum of six months. He began serving his sentence on June 19.

You may read the documents in Persian here.

Although a landmark ruling in January decreed that Baha’is can obtain identification papers, the government has yet to implement the ruling, and recently, a lawyer for Egypt’s Islamic Research Council filed a challenge intended to stall the process.

…and in the meantime, thousands of Baha’is are left waiting.

The news was met with much enthusiasm by Baha’is not only in Iran - the land where the faith was born - but throughout the world.

A comment posted in the Radio Zamaneh website (Persian) attributed a further clarification to the Ayatollah.

‘Right of Citizenship’ is a general term, and its limits should be defined according to public customs and the constitution of which the majority are approving. However, if any person is trying to be the enemy of country’s people, or cooperate with external enemies [of the nation] and their cooperation is proved in a credible court, they must be punished. And their citizenship is not a barrier to the law being enforced. And attention should be paid so as the youth do not get trapped by their malicious propaganda; and if doing business or having companionship with them works as a mean strengthening their position, it should be avoided.

The full text of the translated response can be read here.

We have a dream that one day in Shiraz, a city with a black history of persecution, little Baha’i boys and Baha’i girls will be able to join hands with little Muslim boys and Muslim girls as sisters and brothers.

Driven by that dream, our media team has created an ingenious satirical video, imagining a world where Ahmedinejad announces a dramatic shift in Iran’s oppressive policies.

Tahzib’s family finds itself once again reliving the horror, as her uncle Jamaloddin Khanjani was arrested along with six other leaders of the community, with no access to lawyers or due process.

The tragedy of Iran’s obsessive witch-hunt against its largest non-Muslim religious minority is that the Baha’is cherish an abiding love for their country and have remained there – despite intense persecution – because they wish to contribute to its progress and prosperity. Iran is their homeland, and as the cradle of their faith and others, they extol it as a sacred land. Their steadfastness in the face of oppression, and the evidence of their goodwill towards their countrymen is gaining increasing recognition amongst ever greater numbers of Iranians at home and abroad. Muslim campaigners are openly calling for the Iranian government to respect the human rights of its Baha’i population

Read more here