The world, unfortunately, is awash in cases of state-supported religious persecution.
Among the better known examples are China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim and Tibetan Buddhist minorities. Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and Russia’s Jehovah’s Witnesses have also drawn international attention.
Perhaps less well known is the case of Iran’s Baha’is, who have long been persecuted for their beliefs in the land where their faith first emerged in the 19th century. Since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, however, government-instituted oppression has increased substantially.
Late last month, Teheran’s rulers moved to prevent Baha’is from obtaining national identity cards. Without such cards they cannot participate in Iran’s banking system — which means they cannot cash a check, apply for a loan, or purchase property — adding to their impoverishment.
“The exclusion of the Iranian Baha’i community from national identification cards is unconscionable, and we are disturbed to see how this action against the Baha’is fits into a broader pattern of heightened persecution over the past few months,” Anthony Vance, an American Baha’i spokesman, told The National an English-language publication based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
(Other than the The National, as of this writing my quick web search turned up little other international coverage of this latest Iranian Baha’i twist. Great Britain’s The Telegraph was the best that I found. Also, Germany’s Deutsche Welle carried a piece on its English web site, as did the U.S.-financed Radio Free Europe (Radio Liberty), and Israel’s English-language daily The Jerusalem Post. I suspect other outlets will sooner or later follow suit.)
The faith’s official international website says that Baha’is, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, “are routinely arrested, detained, and imprisoned. They are barred from holding government jobs, and their shops and other enterprises are routinely closed or discriminated against by officials at all levels. Young Baha’is are prevented from attending university, and those volunteer Baha’i educators who have sought to fill that gap have been arrested and imprisoned.”
The latest affront to Baha’i freedoms resulted from Teheran’s decision to eliminate the “other religions” category from government-mandated personal identity cards. Other than Islam, Iran recognizes only Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism as acceptable religious identities. Previously, Baha’is registered under “other religions.”
Baha’i religious principles preclude adherents from denying their faith, keeping them from saying they follow one of the accepted religions solely to obtain an identity card. In 1983, Iranian authorities hanged ten Baha’i women and teenage girls for refusing to deny their religion.
Baha’is — there are an estimated 300,000-plus in Iran, out of a global population of some 5 million — have been heavily persecuted in Iran (and elsewhere in the Muslim world) because its founding prophet proclaimed his message following that of the Prophet Mohammad, Islam’s founder, who died in the 7th century.
Islamic tradition holds that Mohammad was the “seal,” or final, prophet in a lineage stretching back to Adam and the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, and that any such claims that post-date him amount to apostasy and a rejection of true Abrahamic monotheism.
The Bahá’í Faith, as it’s formally referred to, was first proclaimed in Ottoman-controlled Iraq and neighboring Persia, today’s Iran, before spreading across the Middle East (today it is practiced globally). It grew out of Shiite Islam, which is dominant in the Iraq-Iran border region, and the prophecy of Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri, known by followers as Bahá’u’lláh, who advocated universal peace, monotheism and global unity.
His teachings immediately drew the wrath of Muslim leaders. He spent more than a decade in exile imprisoned in Ottoman Palestine, in what is now northern Israel. Today, Baha’i world headquarters are in Haifa, Israel, not far from Acre, where he was imprisoned.
The Baha’i emphasis on “the oneness of humanity” — which includes gender equality (despite that, to this day women are unable to serve on the religion’s highest international governing body), plus racial and ethic equality — gained the faith a surge of converts in the United States during the 1960s civil rights era. American Baha’is number some 200,000. Jazz great Dizzy Gillespie was one such convert.
Baha’is are spread across the U.S., with a large concentration in South Carolina. It’s national headquarters is in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, with a majestic Baha’i House of Worship (temple) next door in Wilmette.
Religious freedom issues play into the American political scene as well this election year. And let’s not overlook the Trump administration’s conflict with Iran. Both angles make this a ripe moment for reporters to contact Baha’is in their area for a story.
Here’s a link to the faith’s national office, which can put you in touch with your local Baha’is.
Over the years, a variety of international human rights organizations have condemned Iran’s treatment of its Baha’is. They include the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Human Rights Watch, and United Nations committees and individual officials.
In 2016, the General Assembly passed a resolution condemning Iran’s mistreatment of its religious minorities, and women, that included Baha’is among the persecuted.
All of this has been to no avail. Just as the U.N. resolution was non-binding and therefore toothless, the international community seems powerless to alleviate the plight of Iran’s Baha’is. Compounding the problem is that Baha’is are, globally, relatively few in number, rendering them politically weak.
Uighurs, Tibetan Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Rohingya Muslims and Iranian Baha’is. Since 1948, all these groups are theoretically protected by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which calls for full religious freedom. But for these groups, and others around the globe, religious freedom remains cruelly unattainable.
Given Iran’s theocratic and authoritarian government, and it’s antipathy toward Western-style democratic freedoms, the conditions faced by its Baha’is are likely only to worsen. Why not get ahead of this ongoing story?
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